1

Key Issues in Listening Pedagogy in

the Second Language Classroom

Introduction

In this chapter our aim is to introduce some of the important questions

underpinning listening in a second language, what we have called Key
Issues. These also include a consideration of the role of listening in L2
learning more broadly. When presenting these key issues we outline what
we might call models of second language listening, in other words, how
researchers have tried to explain some of the process it involves. We also
discuss the views of some authors regarding what contributes to effective
listening more broadly, which are not so much models as approaches
to listening. In both cases we discuss what issues these raise for pedagogy.
The chapter also presents important findings from research about certain
aspects of learners difficulties in, and beliefs about, listening, and their
implications for pedagogy. The chapter ends by underlining the impor-
tance of all the key issues discussed for preparing learners to listen beyond
the classroom.
In our key issues we refer to skills, processes and strategies, terms that
are notoriously difficult to define and to differentiate from one another,
and for which we would need more space than is possible in this chapter.
While Chapter 2 gives a full definition of strategy, here it is also worth
pointing out that broadly speaking we follow Field (1998) in seeing listen-
ing skills (or sub-skills) as competencies possessed by native speakers that
non-natives need to acquire, such as a command of phonetics. For pro-
cesses, Macaros (2006) discussion is a useful starting point, where, citing
McDonough (1995), he presents them as cognitive mechanisms through
which a set of information is transformed (p. 324). We admit, however,
that such definitions are not universally accepted, as well as very difficult
to apply consistently and accurately, and we readily acknowledge our
limitations in doing so totally in this chapter and elsewhere in the book.