Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom

Practical guidance on how to teach real-life listening

Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom identifies what the theory behind authentic listening is, and then outlines key strategies backed up with anecdotes and evidence from the field, before moving on to show the practical application of these strategies with concrete and down-to-earth examples and activities from the field of ELT.

Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom looks at the theory around the need to use authentic listening. It then covers the practical ways teachers can use authentic listening in their classes.
Historically, English language teachers have not been trained in how to effectively teach authentic listening. Consequently, they avoid using authentic recordings with their students. In addition, the scripted and graded recordings used to model new language (lexis and grammar) in coursebooks are very different from the spontaneous spoken English students encounter beyond the ELT classroom. We are currently doing our students a huge disservice in not training them to cope with authentic speech. This is what the author seeks to remedy in Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom.

Creating a methodology book like this, which leads the field in terms of providing the theory behind listening to spoken English in addition to practical guidance and useful examples, means readers will benefit from learning the theory behind using authentic listening and then understand the need to integrate authentic listening in their classrooms. It will equip readers with the knowledge and skills to use authentic recordings in the classroom. This will enable new and experienced teachers to give excellent foolproof listening lessons using authentic recordings. They can motivate their students, equipping them to cope with listening to spontaneous spoken English beyond the classroom.

The book contains 18 easy-to-digest chapters and aims to be accessible for both new and experienced teachers. It contains tried-and-tested decoding and comprehension activities that work in the ELT classroom. The examples and anecdotes given make the activities relatable to a wide range of teaching contexts. It also contains additional transcripts referred to in the main body of the book, a glossary of key terms, references and an index.