Effectiveness in teaching and learning depends primarily on listening. Curriculum studies reveal that inclusion of listening as a subject to be taught is rare. While listening may be included as a unit within elementary or secondary classrooms, no specific instruction can be confirmed. The vast majority of America's college students can and do…

A French listening comprehension test administered to all grade 8 students taking core French in Ottawa schools is described. The test consists of 55 multiple choice questions which are heard along with preliminary descriptive material on a cassette recording. Part one requires students to hear a sentence and then decide which of four drawings…

There are two possible explanations about why listening is such an overlooked skill. First, as a skill, listening suffers from automaticity, the operational nature of skills that are used without conscious thought to achieve a goal. Second, there is no word which specifically identifies an inability to listen. "Illistenacy" is a term that can…

Successful interpersonal skills depend largely on skill in communication. The principal concern in the process of transmission, attending to, understanding, and accepting is attending--listening effectively and positively. Listening is a difficult skill and, for a variety of reasons, is not a natural state for most people. Self-awareness is the…

Four activities are suggested to develop student appreciation for the relationships between listening and the other language arts. The activities are designed to improve on present classroom instruction, which usually provides little time for formal oral language instruction. Each activity begins with some aspect of oral language training and…

This experiment was designed to test the influence of selected variables characteristic of both normal listening and listening under test conditions to determine whether test incentives negate or interact with the normal listening process. Public speaking classes at the University of Montana were asked as part of their regular classwork to rate…

Research indicates that listening skills can be improved through direct and indirect instruction in listening; that reading and listening comprehension skills are closely related; that they both involve the same mental processes; and that instruction in either skill affects the other favorably. Little emphasis is placed on teaching listening…

It is accepted that a secondary school graduate should be able to communicate, i.e. to be competent in the language skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. However, most state departments of elementary and secondary education fail to identify the skill of listening. Although federal recognition of listening as a language skill came in…

This research report demonstrates strategies aimed to improve active listening skills in students, which proposed to increase students' academic achievement. The targeted population being studied consisted of first and third grade students from growing low to middle income communities located in a major metropolitan area in central Illinois. Data…

A large number of non native speakers (NNS) of English from around the globe attend summer English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in host countries before going on to further study. Such learners have expectations regarding the improvements that they will make in their speaking skills, not just in an academic context, but also in social…

This article problematizes conventional school-family partnerships, as geared toward narrow school agendas or mandates for collaboration, and documents efforts to lead more authentic partnerships as part of socially just urban schools. Just as meaningful parent involvement needs to go "beyond the bake sale," so, too, must leadership for…

Gardner's (1983) Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT) has been found to have profound implications in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) in that it provides a way for teachers to recognize learners' individual cognitive and affective differences by providing favorable motivational conditions for learning. However, little investigation…

Three general purposes of research in human development are to explain, predict, and modify behavior. Studies of listening during early childhood (birth through age eight) are of particular significance to the field because they enable researchers to describe listening processes from their very origins (explain), they demonstrate the effects of…

There is mounting evidence that phonological memory (PM), a sub-component of working memory, is closely related to various aspects of second language (L2) learning in a variety of populations, suggesting that PM may be an essential cognitive mechanism underlying successful L2 acquisition. This article provides a brief critical review of the role…

This review of the research on listening offers general guidelines to help teachers be more effective listeners and to help them teach their students more effective listening skills. The process of listening is discussed according to three components, attentiveness, understanding, and evaluation, which are viewed as occurring sequentially,…