DEVELOPMENT OF PEDAGOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES IN
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International scientific-online conference
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DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS IN AN EFL CLASSROOM:
METHODS AND STRATEGIES
Ergashboeva Gulchiroy Qudrat qizi
ergashboevagulchiroy@gmail.com
Faculty of English Language and Literature,
Uzbekistan State World Languages University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Sobir Khamzaev
Scientific advisor:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15688195
Annotation:
Language is an important tool for communication and has proven as a
mutual connection of individuals. Nevertheless, communication does not mean
only speaking, but also listening which is the most exact way of feeling the
current conversations and relationships. More than a billion people, based on
some statistics, use English as a communicative language and it has been an
Internationally widespread language in all age groups of today`s society.
Therefore, modern pedagogy has faced various challenges in adapting to new
educational needs including developing language skills, especially listening.
Information about contemporary methods and strategies for teaching listening
to non-native English learners, and certain ways of implementing the suggested
methods and strategies into practice are given in the article. It explains different
methods and strategies for developing listening including some disadvantages
and advantages of the proposed solutions.
Keywords:
Listening, receptive, comprehension, teaching, EFL learners,
methods, strategies.
I.introduction.
Language serves as a means of daily communication and is crucial for
expressing one`s ideas, thoughts, and feelings to others. One must study
receptive (listening, reading) and productive (writing, speaking) skills for
learning a certain language. Learning any language, such as English, involves
developing all four skills to interact effectively. Compared to these four skills,
listening is the first skill that non-native learners build initially. The process of
Listening means ‘To pay attention to somediv/something that you can hear’
according to Hornby (2005). Although both hearing and listening are often used
interchangeably, they depict fundamentally different processes. Therefore,
David Nunan explains the main difference between listening and hearing:
‘Listening involves not just hearing words, but also processing and
understanding the meaning behind them’. Hearing occurs when sounds are
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simply heard and it is the ability to perceive sounds. Listening, unlike hearing,
requires understanding the message, analyzing its meaning, and responding
appropriately. Listening is a key skill that helps students understand spoken
language and process the information in real-time. Fully comprehending or
responding to what is being said is extremely difficult without active listening.
For that reason, hearing is a necessary feature of listening that allows for
effective communication and language acquisition. Realizing this distinction is
vital for language learners as it empowers them to develop better language
comprehension and communicate meaningfully.
Ii.Literature Review And Methodology
Language teaching aims to bring up multilateral perfect language users for
future life. As language classes involve teachers and students, it is somehow
challenging to develop listening skills in students compared to gaining this skill
in real-life situations. Modern pedagogy assists students in developing a set of
listening strategies that can be adjustable in many real-life situations. Proficient
scholars, nowadays, suggest that listening sequences should usually be divided
into three parts: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening. These steps
are designed to prepare students for listening, guide them during the listening
process, and help them reflect and integrate what they have learned afterward.
1. Pre-listening activities:
Pre-listening activities are crucial in preparing students for listening tasks
as they encourage students to anticipate what they are going to hear.
Brainstorming, prediction, and discussion activities are frequently used as pre-
listening tasks. ‘Effective listening tasks often involve an explicit ‘pre-listening’
step, some activity that the learner does before listening to the main input to
increase readiness’ [1]. Pre-listening activities are crucial in preparing students
for listening For instance, brainstorming and prediction help learners recall
relevant information they already know about the topic.
2. While-listening activities:
Listening activities are essential for engaging students actively during the
listening process and it improves the effectiveness of learning. While-listening
tasks can be divided as follows: gap-filling exercises, multiple-choice questions,
labeling a diagram or maps, sequencing events, and so forth…Field (2008)
suggests that while-listening tasks should mimic real-life listening contexts,
helping students focus on the communicative purpose. For example, gap-filling
exercises help students focus on understanding the main ideas and specific
details of the text or multiple-choice questions challenge students to evaluate
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and interpret the information in real time. Labeling questions make students
break down the task into manageable steps as they ask students to label a
diagram, map, or image based on the information provided in the listening task.
3. Post-listening activities
‘Post-listening tasks help students reflect on the content, discuss
interpretations, and connect the listening material to their own experiences.’ [2]
Post-listening tasks are also frequently useful in strengthening listening skills as
they reinforce comprehension and encourage students to integrate listening
with other language skills. Discussion, summarizing, and mind-mapping
activities are often considered the most effective post-listening skills. Teachers
can ensure that learners process the material deeply, integrate it into their prior
knowledge, and use it in real practice.
The division of listening activities into pre-, while-, and post-listening stages
addresses different skills (prediction, comprehension, reflection) and learning
styles. By integrating these stages, teachers could provide a comprehensive
framework that supports students in becoming confident and skilled listeners.
Once teachers have established the basic importance of the listening stages,
it is equally important to learn specific techniques that will further enhance
learner`s listening skills. Some of the most effective techniques include
summarizing, repeating, paraphrasing, and predicting, each of which has its
benefits for students.
1. Repeated listening allows students to review the same audio multiple
times. This technique is invaluable for noticing different pronunciation units,
unfamiliar words, or words that may have been overlooked during the first
listening. This ensures that students understand the material more fully.
2. Paraphrasing is another valuable technique that helps students engage
with the material. ‘Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because… it shows you
understand the source well enough to write it in your words’ [3]. By restating
the content in their own words, students can develop flexibility in vocabulary
and sentence structure, ensuring that they fully understand the message. For
example, after listening to a description of a historical event, a student might
paraphrase it as “This happened in the 1800s when people were fighting for
their independence.” This not only increases comprehension but also increases
confidence in expressing ideas.
3. Predicting is an active listening strategy that encourages students to
predict what might happen next in the audio based on contextual clues, prior
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knowledge, or visual cues. This technique sharpens attention and makes
listening purposeful because students confirm or modify their predictions as
they listen. For example, if the topic is about shopping, students might hear
words like “price,” “discount,” or “checkout,” which prepares them to listen
carefully.
4. Summarizing, on the other hand, encourages students to focus on the
main points of the material. ‘Effective summarizing requires capturing the
essence of a message without distorting its meaning’ [4]. By expressing the main
ideas in their own words, they increase their ability to critically process
information and retain important details. This technique also helps to bridge the
gap between passive listening and active comprehension, making it a very
effective learning tool.
Although these methods are different, they complement each other to
provide a comprehensive approach to developing listening skills. By engaging
students in active, critical, and repetitive listening tasks, these methods upskill
learner`s knowledge they need to be effective listeners in any context.
III.RESULTS
Several studies were reviewed to understand the effectiveness of different
listening strategies, including predicting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. These
studies often examine how these strategies, often included in pre-listening,
during-listening, and post-listening activities, contribute to the development of
students’ listening and comprehension skills. The results of each study are
presented below.
Study 1: University of Computer Science, Mandalay
The study, conducted at the University of Computer Science, Mandalay,
involved 30 computer science students and examined the effects of different
listening activities on comprehension. Among these activities, content prediction
and introduction to basic vocabulary were central to the pre-listening activities.
The study found that:
Pre-listening activities such as content prediction made up a
comprehension score of 8.2. This suggests that prediction mentally prepares
learners for the listening task, enhancing their ability to engage with the content.
Listening activities that included summarizing while listening resulted in a
9.2 increase in comprehension scores. This implies that summarizing during
listening allows students to effectively grasp the main ideas.
Post-listening activities, such as answering comprehension questions or
summarizing content after listening, were slightly lower, with an average of 7.8.
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This suggests that while summarizing after listening helps reinforce
comprehension, it is not as effective as active listening.
These results suggest that repetition and prediction are particularly
effective during the listening task whereas summarizing is less effective after
listening (Academia.edu, 2023).
Study 2: EFL Students
A study of 60 female EFL students examined how pre-listening content
prediction and summarizing affected their listening comprehension. The study
found that:
Pre-listening prediction activities helped students better prepare for
listening by activating their prior knowledge.
Post-listening summarization allowed students to enhance their
understanding by reflecting on the content of what they heard. Although the
study did not provide specific numerical scores, both activities significantly
improved students’ overall listening skills.
This indicates that prediction helps students better guess the content they
will hear and summarizing ensures that they understand the main points of the
listening task. (pls. academy publication.com,2023).
Study 3: Faculty at Hanoi University of Industry
A survey of faculty at Hanoi University of Industry revealed their progress
in the use of prediction and summarization in listening teaching:
Pre-listening prediction activities were used by 100% of the faculty,
indicating the importance of prediction in preparing students for the listening
task.
During the listening process, 100% of teachers used paraphrasing and
summarizing, indicating the importance of active engagement with the material
during the listening process.
Post-listening summarizing was used by only 65% of teachers, not all
teachers can use it consistently due to time limits or lack of student interest.
These findings illustrate that predicting and paraphrasing are integral parts
of pre-listening and during-listening activities respectively, while summarizing
remains an important but less universally implemented activity
(SlideShare.net,2023).
Table: Survey results on Predicting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing in
Listening activities:
Study
Pre-
While-listening
Post-
DEVELOPMENT OF PEDAGOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES IN
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International scientific-online conference
123
Listening
Listening
University of
Computer
Studies,
Mandalay
Predicting:8.
2/10
Paraphrasing:9.
2/10
Summarizin
g: 7.8/10
EFL
Students (60
female learners)
Predicting:
Improves
comprehension
Paraphrasing:
Improves
comprehension
Summarizin
g:
Improves
comprehension 1
Teachers at
Hanoi University
of Industry
100% of
teachers use
prediction
100% of
teachers use
paraphrasing
65% of
teachers use
summarizing
IV.DISCUSSION.
Research findings show that prediction, paraphrasing, and summarizing are
effective strategies for improving listening comprehension, each with specific
benefits at different stages of the listening process.
Prediction, which is mainly used in the pre-listening stage, is an important
strategy for activating students’ prior knowledge. This method mentally
prepares students for listening as it increases their engagement and
comprehension. By predicting content in advance, students are more motivated
to listen actively, which eventually leads to improved performance. However,
prediction is most effective when students have background knowledge of the
topic. If the topic is unfamiliar, students may struggle to make accurate
predictions, and this could cause some misunderstandings and confusion during
the listening task.
Paraphrasing during the listening process has proven to be a valuable way
to enhance comprehension. This encourages students to actively engage with
the material as they restate key ideas in their own words. Paraphrasing not only
develops comprehension but also develops students’ language skills by
strengthening their vocabulary and sentence structures. The downside is that
paraphrasing can be time-consuming once it limits the amount of content
students can listen to. It can also be challenging for less proficient students, as
they may not have the language skills necessary to express themselves
effectively.
By summarizing key ideas after listening, students can reflect on what they
have learned, which can enhance retention. This reflective activity improves
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their understanding and helps them remember the content over time. However,
summarizing is a more passive activity compared to predicting and
paraphrasing. Because it occurs after the listening task, it may not be as
engaging and may not be as useful if some students have already grasped the
main ideas during the listening process.
V.CONCLUSION
This article highlights the effectiveness of some methods and strategies for
listening comprehension. Predicting activates prior knowledge and prepares
students for listening, while paraphrasing helps them to guess the content
beforehand. Summarizing reinforces understanding and helps learners for
better language usage. As Rod Ellis (2003) has noted, “The more the learner is
involved in the process of using language, the more likely it is that learning will
occur.” While each method has its advantages, they are most effective when used
at the right stages of the listening process. Post-listening activities, particularly
summarizing, play a key role in strengthening knowledge even when used less
frequently. In conclusion, using these strategies in a balanced combination can
significantly improve students’ listening skills.
References:
1. Rost, M. (1994). Introducing listening. Longman.
2. Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching (4th ed.). Pearson
Longman.
3. University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center. (n.d.). Paraphrasing: A
valuable skill. University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://writing.wisc.edu/
4. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in
personal change. Free Press.
5. Hornby, A. S. (2005). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English
(7th ed.). Oxford University Press.
6. Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom. Cambridge University
Press.
7. Ellis, R. (2003). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford
University Press.
8.Academia.edu. (2023). Study on listening comprehension activities at the
University of Computer Studies, Mandalay. Retrieved from Academia.edu
9.tpls.academypublication.com. (2023). EFL Students’ comprehension
improvement
through
listening
activities.
Retrieved
from
tpls.academypublication.com
10.SlideShare.net. (2023). Survey on teaching methods for listening
comprehension at Hanoi University of Industry. Retrieved from SlideShare.net
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11.https://www.theclassroom.com/modern-methods-teaching-listening-skills-
2458.html
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