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8 Listening as process: Learning

activities for self-appraisal
and self-regulation
Christine Goh

Summary

The strategy approach is by now familiar to many teachers. While it empha-

sizes the use of various techniques to facilitate comprehension, strategy
training alone does not go far enough in addressing learners’ cognitive,
affective, and social needs that can influence second language listening
development. The aim of this chapter is to provide a theoretical framework
that takes account of these needs and to suggest practical ideas for devel-
oping learners’ ability to facilitate and improve their own listening devel-
opment. Grounded in the concept of metacognition, which encompasses
both knowledge about and control over learning processes, the activities
and materials I am proposing can help learners become more aware about
themselves as L2 listeners, as well as better understand the cognitive, lin-
guistic, and social demands of L2 listening. The first kind of activities –
integrated experiential learning tasks – can be used with existing listen-
ing tasks in a language course, while the second – guided reflections on
listening – can be carried out before or after listening tasks to help direct
learners’ efforts at planning, monitoring, and evaluating their listening and
learning experiences. By using materials based on a principled and sys-
tematic metacognitive approach, we teach learners to comprehend listening
texts better while at the same time guiding them in taking greater control
of their listening development.

Introduction

Picture this scene during a listening lesson: A teacher introduces the topic
of a listening text and invites students to say what they know about it. She
writes their ideas and unfamiliar words on the board. Next, she tells the
students to read the instructions for the listening activity carefully to find
out what information in the listening text to pay attention to. After this,
181
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182 Christine Goh

the teacher plays the recording and the students listen attentively. They
complete the activity by giving appropriate written responses (for example,
choosing the correct options, filling in the blanks, sequencing information,
drawing a diagram, jotting down notes). The teacher plays the recording
again and instructs the students to confirm or change their responses. After
that, she tells the class what the correct responses are and the students find
out “where they have gone wrong.” Does this sound familiar to you? Well,
that was what I used to do when delivering listening lessons. My emphasis
was on the product or the outcome of my students’ listening. What mattered
most was how accurate or complete their responses were. In retrospect, even
though I did many listening exercises. I was not teaching my students how to
listen effectively. I was merely testing their comprehension without showing
them how they could improve their listening.
I found out from my conversations with many language teachers that their
listening lessons had the same features as the product-based lesson I have
just described. Moreover, listening instruction in many language courses
tends to focus almost exclusively on understanding the content of spoken
texts, with little time given to teaching about the process of listening and
how to listen. While many published materials provide support for listening,
this is typically in the form of prelistening activities to generate factual or
linguistic knowledge related to the listening texts. Postlistening activities
also tend to focus on the product of listening; learners use what they have
comprehended to complete another language activity (for example, using
the notes they make to write a report or give a talk). Conspicuously absent
in the key stages of a listening lesson are learning activities that directly
develop learners’ capacity to listen beyond the topic. I have argued else-
where that we should help learners develop metacognitive knowledge and
strategies because they need to learn how to listen and not just what to
listen for (Goh 1997, 2005, 2008). In other words, listening lessons should
include activities that teach learners explicitly how to listen effectively as
part of their ongoing language development. Every lesson can be an oppor-
tunity for them to develop greater awareness about themselves as second
language listeners, the nature and demands of listening, and strategies for
facilitating comprehension and progress in listening.
I will refer to this type of process-based listening instruction as meta-
cognitive instruction in listening, based on the theory of metacognition
that is now widely acknowledged to be an indispensable part of human
learning. “Metacognition” is often defined as awareness about one’s pro-
cesses in learning, and the appraisal and regulation of these processes. By
“metacognitive instruction in listening” I refer to pedagogical procedures
that enable learners to increase their awareness about the listening process
while at the same time developing effective skills for self-appraising and
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self-regulating listening comprehension and the progress of their overall

listening development.

Theoretical principles

The principles of metacognitive instruction and the design of process-based

instruction materials I propose are situated within a broad cognitive frame-
work of learning. This framework has four key characteristics: (1) learning
is an active, strategic, and constructive process; (2) it follows develop-
mental trajectories in subject-matter domains; (3) it is guided by learners’
introspective awareness and control of their mental processes; and (4) it is
facilitated by social, collaborative settings that value self-directed student
dialogue (Bruer 1998: 681). Metacognitive instruction in listening is based
on the premise that learning to listen requires learners to be actively engaged
in cognitive, affective, and social domains. Such an involvement will pre-
pare learners to act strategically during listening as well as manage their
overall listening development. In addition, by actively engaging in thinking
and talking about their own listening, learners construct their understand-
ing of what it takes to succeed as a second language listener. Metacognitive
instruction also takes into account the trajectories or the developmental
paths that language learners follow when learning to listen. Broadly speak-
ing, listeners develop from controlled to automatized processing of spoken
information while they build increasingly sophisticated neural networks for
faster parallel processing of text and meaning (Hulstijn 2003; Segalowitz
2003). Although the degree of control and automaticity may vary according
to different texts and tasks, it is reasonable to say that for unskilled listeners,
even low-level processes such as perception and recognition of spoken input
are still very much controlled or “effortful.” Whereas perception of spoken
input is largely automatized for competent listeners, weaker listeners have
to consciously attend to aural signals before interpreting the meaning of the
message effectively (Buck 2001; Goh 2000; Rost 2002).
Learners’ introspective awareness and control of mental processes are
central to metacognitive instruction. An individual’s metacognition involves
an awareness about mental processes when participating in a learning task
and the self-regulation of such processes in order to achieve the goal of the
task.

‘Metacognition’ refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive pro-

cesses and products or anything related to them . . . Metacognition refers, among
other things, to active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of
these processes in relation to the cognitive objects or data on which they bear,
usually in the service of some concrete goal or objective. (Flavell 1976: 232)
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184 Christine Goh

Table 8.1: Types of metacognitive knowledge about listening

Person knowledge
Self-concepts and self-efficacy about listening
Specific listening problems, causes, and possible solutions
Task knowledge
Mental, affective, and social processes involved in listening
Skills (e.g., listening for details, gist) needed for completing listening tasks
Factors that influence listening (e.g., text, speaker)
Ways of improving listening outside class
Strategy knowledge about listening, for example, types of cognitive and metacognitive
strategies
General and specific strategies to facilitate comprehension and cope with difficulties
Strategies appropriate for specific types of listening task
Ineffective strategies

With respect to awareness, Flavell made a distinction between metacogni-

tive experience and metacognitive knowledge. Metacognitive experience is
a feeling we have about our thinking, such as when we know we do not
understand what we are listening to; metacognitive knowledge consists of
our beliefs and knowledge about learning. Some metacognitive experiences
are fleeting and do not invoke any particular knowledge pertaining to learn-
ing. For example, when we hear something we may feel a momentary sense
of puzzlement that we subsequently ignore.
Flavell distinguished three dimensions of this knowledge: person, task,
and strategy. Person knowledge is knowledge about ourselves as learners,
and includes our perceptions of our abilities and factors that affect the
success or failure in our learning (for example age, aptitude, personality,
gender, and learning style). Person knowledge also includes beliefs about
oneself as a learner. Task knowledge is knowledge about the purpose, the
demands, and the nature of learning tasks. It includes knowledge of the
procedures involved in accomplishing these tasks. Strategy knowledge is
knowledge about which strategies are useful for achieving learning goals. It
also includes knowing which strategies that are currently being used should
be avoided and eventually abandoned. Table 8.1 gives examples of how the
three dimensions of metacognitive knowledge are applied to listening.
Metacognitive knowledge can lead an individual to select, evaluate,
revise, or even abandon tasks, goals, and strategies, in other words, to
self-regulate their learning and thinking. This executive aspect of cogni-
tion was elaborated upon by Brown (1978) who further distinguished three
processes: planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s thinking. Table 8.2
shows how this is applied to learner listening at the levels of general listen-
ing development and specific listening tasks.
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Table 8.2: Metacognitive strategies for self-regulation in learner listening

Planning A strategy for determining learning objectives and deciding the

means by which the objectives can be achieved
General listening Identify learning objectives for listening development
development Determine ways to achieve these objectives
Set realistic short-term and long-term goals
Seek opportunities for listening practice
Specific listening task Preview main ideas before listening
Rehearse language (e.g., pronunciation) necessary for the task
Decide in advance which aspects of the text to concentrate on

Monitoring A strategy for checking the progress in the course of learning

or carrying out a learning task
General listening Consider progress against a set of predetermined criteria
development Determine how close it is to achieving short-term or long-term
goals
Check and see if the same mistakes are still being made
Specific listening task Check understanding during listening
Check the appropriateness and the accuracy of what is
understood and compare it with new information
Identify the source of difficulty

Evaluating A strategy for determining the success of the outcome of an

attempt to learn or complete a learning task
General listening Assess listening progress against a set of predetermined criteria
development Assess the effectiveness of learning and practice strategies
Assess the appropriateness of learning goals and objectives set
Specific listening task Check the appropriateness and the accuracy of what has been
understood
Determine the effectiveness of strategies used the task
Assess overall comprehension of the text

Most researchers have adopted these twin concepts of metacognition to

emphasise “(a) knowledge about cognitive states and processes and (b) con-
trol or executive aspects of metacognition” (Paris & Winograd 1990: 17).
To use terms that many readers may now be familiar with, I will refer to the
former as metacognitive knowledge and to the latter as metacognitive strat-
egy. The emphasis on knowledge and strategies remains the cornerstone of
a unified understanding of metacognition (Veenman, Van Hout-Wolters, &
Afflerbach 2006). Wenden (1998) noted that language learners’ metacog-
nitive knowledge can influence their plan and objectives for learning as
well as how they choose to evaluate their learning outcomes. With respect
to listening, we may say that learners who understand the processes of
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186 Christine Goh

listening and believe they have the ability to reach their goals will be more
ready to handle challenging listening tasks and set demanding goals for
their listening development.
The fourth principle underpinning metacognitive instruction is the value
of social and collaborative settings for learning. Although some metacogni-
tive tasks require learners to work individually, there are many opportunities
for them to cooperate with one another to share their knowledge, beliefs,
and skills in learning to listen. Metacognitive instruction places a high pre-
mium on the importance of talk among learners and their co-construction of
knowledge as they work together evaluating and applying their knowledge
and experiences. The tasks also create positive interdependence among
learners, leading each learner to play an active role not only in their own
learning but also in the learning of their peers (Jacobs, Power, & Loh 2002).
To sum up, the purpose of metacognitive instruction in listening is to
help learners develop greater awareness about factors that influence their
own listening and learning processes and learn strategies from their teachers
and fellow-learners for self-directing these processes. (For a more in-depth
discussion of the theoretical basis for metacognitive instruction see Goh
2008.)

Evidence from research

Metacognitive instruction in listening has been shown to have several

achievable goals, and is particularly beneficial to the weaker learners. Firstly,
it improves learner affect (confidence, motivation, and interest) in listening.
Secondly, it increases learners’ knowledge about the listening process and
about themselves as second language listeners. Thirdly, it improves listen-
ing performance and strategy use for facilitating comprehension. Vander-
grift (2003a) provided empirical evidence of the benefits in his study on a
group of French as second language learners. The research made use of a
lesson sequence that combined metacognitive awareness-raising activities
with normal listening activities. The participants were guided in the use
of listening strategies through a number of activities that included individ-
ual planning, pair-discussions, and postlistening reflections. The learners
reported that they were highly motivated by the approach and further exam-
ination showed an increase in the learners’ metacognitive knowledge and
engagement with learning to listen. Vandergrift (2003b) found that skilled
listeners were “able to systematically orchestrate a cycle of cognitive and
metacognitive strategies to arrive at a coherent mental representation of the
text in memory” (p. 490).
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The use of such closely guided tasks which Vandergrift referred to as

the “metacognitive cycle” (2004), was partially replicated by Liu and Goh
(2006) among a group of Chinese tertiary-level ESL students. In addi-
tion to experiencing the metacognitive cycle in the main listening activi-
ties, the learners also participated in teacher-led process-based discussions
(Goh 1997) and self-directed listening tasks (Goh 2002). The participants
reported that pair and group discussions had helped them to understand the
content better and that they also learnt more strategies for tackling listening
problems from working collaboratively with other students. Interestingly,
positive written comments doubled after they experienced the integrated
lesson sequence a second time, strongly suggesting that when the partici-
pants became more familiar with the new way of doing listening activities,
they also became more convinced of its benefits.
Mareschal (2007) collected self-report data from a group of adult French
learners who experienced a similar process-based, self-regulatory approach
to listening instruction over nine weeks. The learners participated in a ped-
agogical cycle that involved writing down their responses and discussing
them with one another. All sources of data concurred in indicating that
students of different proficiency levels were positive about the instructional
approach and at the same time experienced an increase in their metacogni-
tive awareness, strategy use, confidence, and interest in listening. The learn-
ers who benefited most from such an approach were the low-proficiency
students. In an in-depth study on joint listening activities among Japanese
EFL learners, Cross (2009) provided empirical evidence on the positive
effects of collaborative dialogue on heightening learners’ metacognitive
awareness about L2 listening, and specifically in the learners’ awareness
about features of strategy, comprehension, and text.
Metacognitive instruction can also benefit young learners. As children
approach middle childhood and adolescence, they become increasingly
adept at monitoring and evaluating their thinking, and acting strategically
(Flavell, Miller, & Miller 1993). Vandergrift (2002) showed that when Grade
4 to 6 students completed reflection exercises, they became sensitized to
listening processes and developed their metacognitive knowledge. Goh and
Taib (2006) also found similar positive results among a group of 11- and
12-year-old ESL learners who experienced listening lessons that combined
guided reflection and teacher-led process-based discussions. At the end
of the period of metacognitive instruction, the children reported in their
diaries a deeper understanding of the nature and the demands of listening,
increased confidence in completing listening tasks, and better strategic
knowledge for coping with comprehension difficulties. There was also an
increase in the scores in the listening examinations of the majority of the
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188 Christine Goh

students, particularly the weaker listeners, suggesting that metacognitive

instruction may have had an impact on listening performance. In another
study among 10- and 11-year-olds, Nathan (2008) reported the positive
effects of collaborative learning during process-based listening activities.
The learners showed an increase in their strategy knowledge with respect
to planning and evaluation, and problem solving.
The above studies showed the positive impact metacognitive instruc-
tion can have on learners’ knowledge and affect. But can metacognitive
instruction also lead to better listening performance? Two recent studies
investigated whether there was a causal relationship between metacognitive
instruction and actual listening performance, and the results are encouraging
for anyone considering metacognitive instruction. Zeng (2007) conducted a
randomized intervention study among 60 Chinese college-level EFL learn-
ers majoriting in a subject otherthan English. Thirty students in the exper-
imental group received training in the use of selected listening strategies
and process-based listening activities (discussions and listening diaries).
The instruction was incorporated into normal listening practice activities
that the Chinese college students used when preparing for their national-
level college listening examinations. At the end of seven weeks, this group
of students showed a statistically significant improvement in their listen-
ing examination scores compared with the control group, which received
the traditional, teacher-centered mode of listening instruction. Vandergrift
(2007a) investigated the effects of using a lesson sequence that incorporated
a “metacognitive cycle” on the listening performance of a group of French
learners. The experimental group, which consisted of 60 learners, not only
reported a higher degree of metacognitive awareness than the control group,
they also achieved significantly better results in their listening test.

Activities for metacognitive instruction

In this section I present two types of activities to help learners engage with
the process of listening. The first enables learners to experience cognitive
and social-affective processes of listening comprehension while working
on a listening-related task. I refer to this as integrated experiential listening
tasks. In these tasks, metacognitive activities are integrated with normal
listening activities in coursebooks or prepared by their teachers. The sec-
ond type directs learners’ attention to specific aspects of their learning
when they reflect on their listening performance and overall progress, and
is referred to as guided reflections on listening. Figure 8.1 shows the dif-
ferent activities belonging to these two types of metacognitive instruction.
Although there are some minor overlaps in some activities, the activities
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Listening as process: Learning activities 189

Activities for
metacognitive instruction
in listening

Integrated experiential Guided reflections on

listening tasks listening

Metacognitive Listening
listening diaries
sequence

Anxiety and
Self-directed motivation charts
listening

Listening Process-based
buddies discussions

Peer-designed Self-report
listening checklists
programmes

Postlistening
perception
activities

Figure 8.1: Activities for metacognitive instruction in listening

have been differentiated according to their primary instructional objectives

and mode of delivery.
These metacognitive instructional activities can be woven into a lesson
sequence during formal instruction time. Many of these can be adapted
for use with prescribed published materials, to be included at key stages
of a listening lesson sequence, i.e., prelistening, postlistening, and during
listening. Others can be carried out as separate reflection or enrichment
activities when learners do extensive listening with recorded or downloaded
materials on their own.

Integrated experiential listening tasks

It is true that we cannot manipulate learners’ mental processes while they

are listening, but there are activities that develop and strengthen their
ability to control these processes for themselves. The purpose of integrated
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190 Christine Goh

experiential tasks is to help learners bring to their conscious attention what

these processes are and show them how they can regulate and manage the
processes better in order to meet comprehension goals. As the name sug-
gests, the activities are integrated with actual listening input and experience.
This is done by weaving awareness-raising and strategy-training tasks into
listening lessons, listening practice, and enrichment activities. As learners
carry out these activities, they share their observations and comments with
one another. Some activities also require learners to cooperate on small
listening projects to produce tangible outcomes. The key characteristic of
integrated experiential tasks is that they combine the teaching of listening as
product approach with the metacognitive approach of teaching listening as
process. In other words, learners are encouraged to arrive at an understand-
ing of what they hear but are at the same time supported by activities that
enable them to discover and use listening strategies as well as understand
the nature of second language listening. Learners not only become more
aware of themselves, the nature and demands of various listening tasks, and
effective strategy use, they are also explicitly socialized into the effective
mental and social behaviors of skilled listeners. Research has shown that
successful listeners use appropriate cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-
affective strategies. In particular, skilled listeners use comparatively more
metacognitive strategies for monitoring and evaluating their comprehension
and they adopt an approach that orchestrates these processes effectively to
achieve comprehension goals.

Metacognitive listening sequence

The metacognitive listening sequence creates a lesson where learners are
guided at specific stages to orchestrate metacognitive processes underlying
successful listening. It integrates awareness-raising activities with normal
listening input and comprehension activities that learners do in class. Each
sequence of lessons is aimed at teaching learners how to use listening
strategies through teacher scaffolding and modeling, peer collaboration,
and individual practice. This procedure is based on the integrated pedagog-
ical model for teaching listening proposed by Vandergrift (2004, 2007b).
The model provides opportunities for learners to experience three verifi-
cation phases of a text. In so doing, learners deepen their understanding
of the content and become more familiar with the metacognitive processes
involved. The model focuses on the use of the following metacognitive
strategies: planning, predicting, monitoring, evaluation, directed attention,
selective attention, and problem solving. A key feature of Vandergrift’s
model is the structure it offers for guiding learners through collaborative
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Listening as process: Learning activities 191

learning activities. Learners who experience these activities may gradually

increase their autonomy and control over their listening processes.
Vandergrift’s model was adapted by Mareschal (2007) to include the use
of specially designed listening notebooks to support the learners’ listen-
ing process during various listening stages. The purpose of the listening
notebooks is to offer learners visual support (in the form of notes) to aid
their listening and memory during the listening exercises, and to provide a
written record of some of the processes they engage in during listening. As
a result, the learners will have tangible evidence of their listening process,
which can allow them to further reflect on and review the strategies they
have used. Liu and Goh (2006) also adapted Vandergrift’s (2004) model to
include peer-dialogue in process-based discussions and personal evaluation
at the reflection stage. Instead of writing goals for the next listening activity
as proposed in the model (thus creating the beginning of a new cycle),
students ended the sequence by evaluating the listening lesson and wrote
about their perceptions of the task and views on insights gained from the
discussions. They also evaluated the strategies they had used to understand
the text.
Based on Vandergrift’s model and its variations, I describe here a set
of integrated sequence-of-lesson procedures that includes further planning
activities and active modeling by teachers of some processes:

1. Planning: In pairs, students state what their goal is. They discuss what
they know about the topic and predict the information and words /
phrases that they might hear. They write these down in the target lan-
guage as well as their first language. They also predict the difficulties
they might encounter and select appropriate strategies for coping with
these problems.
2. Listening 1: As they are listening to the text, students underline or
circle words or phrases (including first language equivalents) that they
have predicted correctly. They also write down new information they
hear.
3. Pair process-based discussion: In pairs, students compare what they
have understood so far and explain the strategies used for arriving at
their understanding. They identify the parts that cause confusion and
disagreement and make a note of the parts of the text that require
special attention in the second listen. At the same time, the teacher
models thinking-aloud of how he / she would listen selectively to
problematic parts of the text.
4. Listening 2: Students listen to those parts that have caused confusion
or disagreement and make notes on any new information they hear.
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192 Christine Goh

5. Whole-class process-based discussion: The teacher leads a discus-

sion to confirm comprehension before discussing with students the
strategies that they reported using. Based on what is discussed, he /
she models the use of a selected strategy or strategies for achieving
comprehension goals.
6. Listening 3: Students who have not used strategies successfully in
steps 2 and 4 can now practise the use of a strategy or a combination
of strategies (modeled by the teacher) with the same input.
7. Script-sound recognition: Students are provided with a transcript of
the recording so that they can match sounds to print and vice versa for
difficult words or phrases. The teacher elicits these lexical items and
demonstrates the pronunciation or phonological modifications found
in the listening text.
8. Personal reflection: Students make short entries into their listening
diaries about the lesson. They note down what they have learnt and
understood from the listening text. They also reflect on the guided
listening process, insights gained from the various discussions, as well
as evaluating the effectiveness of strategies they used to understand
the listening text.

A distinguishing feature of this set of procedures is the availability of

just-in-time input from teachers on strategy use and the opportunity to
practise the use of all three types of strategies – cognitive, metacognitive,
and social-affective –after the learners have attempted to process the input
on their own. It addresses a limitation noted by Chamot (1995) of strategy
training programs that do not take into consideration learners’ existing
strategy knowledge. As some listening strategies are transferable from first
language to second language use (Mendelsohn 1995), learners may not see
the need to undergo strategy training. However, when learners are actually
listening to different kinds of input, they may experience difficulties in
employing strategies, or may fail to achieve their comprehension goals in
spite of using certain familiar strategies. The just-in-time strategies modeled
by teachers will help learners to explore strategy use in a contextualized
manner. Learners who fail to use appropriate strategies in earlier attempts,
will get another opportunity to practise using these strategies.

Self-directed listening
This technique can be used to help learners use listening strategies when
they are practising listening on their own. Students respond to a set of
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Listening as process: Learning activities 193

A. Setting my listening goal

Why am I listening to / viewing this recording?

What do I hope to achieve?

How many times should I listen to / watch this recording? Why?

B. Preparing to listen

What do I know about this topic?

What type of information can I expect to hear (and view)?

What words can I expect to hear? (Use a dictionary, if necessary.)

What difficulties can I expect?

What strategies should I use when I encounter these difficulties?

C. Evaluating my listening

Am I satisfied with what I have understood? Why?

Was I able to make use of my prior knowledge about the topic?

What difficulties did I face? Were my strategies useful?

Figure 8.2: A self-directed listening / viewing guide

prompts before and after a listening task to guide them in their prelistening
preparation, evaluating their performance and planning their strategy use
for future listening (see Figure 8.2). The self-directed listening / viewing
guide is based on the three key components of self-regulation: planning,
monitoring, and evaluation. An appropriate time to carry out self-directed
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194 Christine Goh

listening is after the students have received some prior instruction on lis-
tening strategies through one of the techniques suggested in this chapter.
Liu and Goh (2006) found that when students were asked to direct their
own listening after they knew something about strategy use, their inde-
pendent use of cognitive strategies, particularly inferencing strategies and
contextualization strategies, increased substantially. Learners also reported
using confidence-building strategies to overcome anxiety, think positively,
and motivate themselves to persist with their listening tasks even though
the tasks were challenging. To help learners experience the full benefits of
the directed-listening / viewing guide, it may be necessary for the teacher
to first model how to use the list of prompts, as Tan (2007) did with her
Vietnamese EFL learners, to show them how to self-regulate their listening
practice when using Web-based resources. She also found that the students
demonstrated a significantly higher degree of metacognitive awareness in
planning / evaluation and problem solving.

Listening buddies
This activity has some similarities with self-directed listening / viewing
in that it encourages learners to carry out guided listening practice. The
difference is that learners now work in pairs or with a “buddy” to plan their
own listening practice by selecting from their choice of resources: radio /
TV broadcasts, videos and movies, podcasts and “live” talks. They are
advised to spend 45–60 minutes each time for each session. Here is a
simple procedure they follow:

1. Discuss and submit a listening plan outlining schedules, selected

listening / viewing programs, equipment (e.g., MP3 player, computer),
and strategies for comprehension.
2. Report two listening events each week in writing on a weekly work-
sheet or as oral summaries in class.

This activity may be carried out fortnightly or monthly depending on the

program and learner needs. Figure 8.3 outlines the structure for this person-
alized listening program. Apart from the benefits of improving strategy use
and metacognitive knowledge, students also learn to work cooperatively to
select programs and ways of practice that suit their interests and learning
styles. Because of the freedom of choice, this activity can motivate many
learners to carry out extensive listening outside class. By working with a
partner, they can also get mutual support and encouragement.
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Our personal listening program

Listening buddies: _______________________ and _________________________
Week _____________________
(Write your responses on separate sheets of paper)

Session 1
Listening material: _____________________
Type of text:
Source:
Equipment:
Date:
Time:
Other considerations, if any:
Our listening goal
1. Why are we listening to / viewing this recording?
2. What do we hope to achieve?
3. How many times should we listen to / watch this recording? Why?
Our listening plan
1. What do we know about this topic?
2. What type of information can we expect to hear (and see)?
3. What words can we expect to hear? (Use a dictionary, if necessary.)
4. What difficulties can we expect?
5. What strategies should we use when we encounter these difficulties?
Our listening report
1. Why did we choose this recording / listening text?
2. What was the most interesting thing about it?
3. Are we satisfied with what we have understood? Why?
4. Were we able to make use of our prior knowledge about the topic?
5. What difficulties did we face? Were our strategies useful?
6. What did we discuss after our listening?
7. What did we agree or disagree about?
8. What have we learnt from each other about listening?

Figure 8.3: Outline for a personalized listening program for listening buddies

Peer-designed listening tasks

The idea of a group listening project which has a metacognitive dimension
was introduced by Liu (2005) in an intensive English program for Chinese
ESL learners in Singapore. Here is an outline of the procedure:

1. Students must work in groups of four to develop or select an 8–10-

minute audio or video programme.
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196 Christine Goh

2. They plan listening activities for the whole class based on the program.
They have to make a number of important decisions such as the kinds
of listening material to use, the types of listening skill they want their
classmates to practise, strategies for motivating them to listen and
participate, and the problems that they might encounter.

By temporarily taking on the role of a teacher, the learners can develop

greater collective metacognitive knowledge about second / foreign language
listening. More importantly, according to Liu (2005), the presentation of the
projects can give teachers valuable insights into what learners understand
about listening comprehension, and that “listening is more than receiving
information and completing exercises” (p. 74).

Postlistening perception activities

Language learners often complain that native speakers speak too fast. Most
of the time, this perception of speed is really due to the students’ inability
to recognize words and phonological modifications in streams of speech.
Bottom-up processing, which involves perception of words and lexical seg-
mentation, is an important factor in successful listening, and it is something
that all listening lessons should address (Field 2003). A common technique
used in the 1960s, which is still found in some classrooms today, is the use of
minimal-pair drills or sentence-level perception exercises. These activities,
however, can be decontextualized, dry, and repetitive.
To make learning relevant to learners’ needs, perception activities are
best done after they have completed some listening tasks involving a
selected text. Postlistening perception activities enable students to notice
sounds in connected speech when they are not under pressure to process
what they hear and bearing a heavy cognitive load. One of my former ESL
students from China did not recognize the word “hostel” in her listening
text. When we carried out the postlistening perception activity, she realized
that it was a word she actually knew and that she had not recognized it
because of the way she pronounced “hostel” with the same word stress
pattern as “hotel.” By noticing sounds and phonological rules, learners will
increase their task knowledge, namely the nature of spoken English and
the demands of listening in another language. This knowledge is particu-
larly important for beginning learners because the perception phase of their
comprehension has not been automatized and many still depend largely
on bottom-up processing as a way of “getting into” the message. Through
repeated exposure to unfamiliar sounds and noticing how some sounds are
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changed in speech, they will learn to cope better with these phonological
features and improve their perceptual processing.
Features that learners should familiarize themselves with are weak forms,
rhythm, word stress, prominence, tone, pauses, and meaning segments. Here
are some steps to follow to increase learners’ awareness about phonological
factors:
1. Select a segment of a recording that your students work with during
the listening task. If the text is very short, use the entire text.
2. Identify one or two phonological features that you want to highlight.
(This may have to be modified during class depending on the type of
problems your students report with their listening.)
3. Play the segment and ask the students to transcribe it or write down
prominent words they hear.
4. Give each student a copy of the transcript or project it onto a screen.
Highlight phonological features that contributed to listening difficul-
ties.
5. Allow students to listen to the segment a few times, pointing out the
way particular sounds or words have been modified in the utterances.
An alternative technique is to let your students listen to the entire
recording with a transcript. Tell them to notice how certain words
are pronounced and listen out for those parts that they cannot hear
accurately during the task. Ask them to explain why they have this
problem. (It is useful to teach students names of the feature, e.g., word
stress, rise tone etc.)

Guided reflections on listening

Activities that involve guided reflections encourage learners to attend to

implicit processes in listening and help them make their knowledge of
listening explicit. They also encourage learners to co-construct some of this
knowledge when they share their reflections with one another. There are
limitations, however. Learners may find it monotonous if they have to do the
same reflection task each week. To help maintain the relevance of reflective
tasks, we can vary the reflection guides and the way they are used during
the listening course. By doing this we ensure that learners’ insights are fresh,
focused, and relevant. Guided reflections are not necessarily retrospective.
They can also encourage forward planning, which is an important part of
self-regulation and the management of learning. It involves thinking back
to learning that has taken place and thinking ahead to how learning can
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198 Christine Goh

be facilitated. The set of materials presented here can be used at different

points of the language course – at the start, during midterm review, and at
the end – or used regularly with some variations.

Listening diaries
Listening diaries have been used successfully in helping learners attend to
what they implicitly know about their own listening abilities, behaviors,
problems, and strengths (Goh 1997; Liu 2005; Sinanu et al. 2007). There
are different ways in which learners can reflect about their learning in their
diaries. They can respond to a set of generic prompts (see Figure 8.4a),
evaluate specific listening skills they are taught each week or fortnight
(see Figure 8.4b), or write about some specific points about the lesson
immediately when it is over (see Figure 8.4c). All these templates have
one thing in common – the guiding questions direct learners’ attention
to three dimensions of metacognitive knowledge. Learners are invited to
reflect on specific listening events: person knowledge (what problems did
I experience, how did I respond to the task), task knowledge (what were
the demands of the task), and strategy knowledge (what special ways of
listening did I do to help me understand, which strategies were useful / not
useful? How can I improve my comprehension when I have to listen again
in similar situations or to similar kinds of text?)
Another mode of open-ended reflections is the spoken word – learn-
ers can talk aloud and record their speech instead of writing about their
thoughts.

Anxiety and motivation charts

Besides responding to the mainly task- and strategy-focused prompts, you
can also get learners to reflect on specific aspects of their person knowl-
edge, such as motivation and anxiety. Research has shown that anxiety
can be a great setback for many second language listeners (Arnold 2000;
Lynch 1997; Vogely 1999) and that motivation is also positively correlated
with metacognitive awareness about listening (Vandergrift 2005). One way
in which language learners have been asked to report on their perceived
motivation and anxiety levels is through the drawing of graphs and charts.
Diagrams are not only a creative way for learners to reflect and report their
person knowledge, but they can also present information in a concise and
visually attractive manner for learners who may not enjoy writing. See Fig-
ure 8.5 for an example of a listening anxiety graph, which offers a way by
which learners can track their changes in anxiety levels according to the
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Listening as process: Learning activities 199

a) Focus: Weekly listening activities in and out of class

1. What was the listening event? (for example, TV news broadcasts, radio broad-
casts, films, conversations with English speakers, explanations by lecturers)
2. How much of it did you understand?
3. What did you do to understand as much of it as possible?
4. How did you feel about what you did?
5. Are you pleased with the result?
6. What do you plan to do to practise your listening this week?
(based on Goh 2002)

b) Focus: Specific lessons in a fortnight

(i) Performance on skills
Complete
√ the table by using the symbols1 provided.
= Yes, I feel I have learnt the skill (Alternative: ☺ ☺ ☺ )
x = No, I have not learnt the skill very well (Alternative:  )
? = Not sure, I am not sure I have learnt the skill (Alternative:  )

Skills for weeks 1 & 2 My performance

Asking for repetition and explanation / clarification
Listening for descriptions of past events
Recognizing words of time order
Distinguishing styles of requests
Listening for positive and negative opinions
Inferring speakers’ attitude from their tone of voice

(ii) Specific questions for weeks 1 and 22

1. Describe your previous experiences in learning to listen.
2. Do you think the lessons you’ve had so far are helpful? Compare them with
your previous experiences. (based on Liu 2005)

c) Focus: Weekly listening lessons in class

You will be given 10 minutes at the end of the class to write about:
1. the listening comprehension activities done in each class
2. your feelings toward the class today and what makes you feel that way
3. the problems encountered
4. Your plans to overcome similar problems in future
(based on Sinanu et al. 2007)

Figure 8.4: Variations in focus and prompts of listening diaries

1
This can be used with small children by using smiley icons and simplifying the way
skills are described.
2
The question(s) are changed every fortnight.
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200 Christine Goh

My feelings when listening to spoken English

Anxiety level
20
15
10
5
0
ay

ay

ay

ay

ay

un

un
Ju
M

-M

-M

-M

-M

-J

-J
7-
3-

14

21
10

17

24

31
Figure 8.5: A listening anxiety graph and a record of listening events

type of listening tasks they do in and out of class. To help children explore
their feelings of anxiety, you can also use symbols such as smiley faces,
which they can attach to a chart.

Date What I did

3 May Watched a movie in class
10 May Made a telephone call to the department secretary
17 May Listened to a lecture and took notes in class
24 May Discussed a listening plan with my listening buddy
31 May Listened to a lecture and took notes in class
7 June Had a long chat in the café with classmates
14 June Did a creative dictation activity in class
21 June Midterm listening and note-taking exam

Process-based discussions
Process-based discussions are discussions that are centered on the theme
of learning to listen in another language rather than on the listening text
and accurate answers for listening tasks (Goh 1997). These discussions can
be conducted as separate lessons where learners can share the beliefs or
strategies that they mention in their diaries or other postlistening activities.
For the former, teachers can use specific discussion questions, such as
“What I do to understand spoken English” and “How I practise my listening
outside class.” When conducted as postlistening activities, the focus can be
on specific strategies that the students used during the listening task. One
way to do this is to include a short time for individual reflection before the
group or class discussion, as Goh and Taib (2006) did in their intervention
study with primary school English language learners.
Process-based discussions can also be carried out at the prelistening
phase to generate task and strategy knowledge relevant to the particular
listening activity. For example, after learners have completed a short prelis-
tening activity based on the contents in the listening materials, you can ask
them to identify skills and strategies that are essential for the task they are
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Listening as process: Learning activities 201

about to do. In addition, you can guide them in predicting challenges they
might face and suggesting ways of dealing with them. You can also explain
the reasons for the content-specific prelistening activities you have used.
This can help learners notice the planning strategy that you have incorpo-
rated into the listening task for them. Some of the prompts presented for
self-directed listening can be used for group discussion.

Self-report checklists
A limitation of using open-ended reflection guides such as listening diaries
is that some learners may not have learnt to observe their learning beyond
one or two familiar perspectives. As a result of their limited metacognitive
knowledge, the scope of their reflection can be narrow and their comments
repetitive. This is where self-report checklists play an important comple-
mentary role in guided reflections. A list of carefully preselected items of
metacognitive knowledge is a handy tool for directing learners’ thinking
to specific areas of listening. They can be used for a number of purposes,
such as general self-appraisal of listening or focused reflection on specific
listening tasks, and are equally useful to adult and young learners.
A set of checklists that has been used both for research and classroom
teaching is the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire or MALQ
for short (see Vandergrift et al. 2006). From a research perspective, it in
an instrument with psychometric properties, uncovering perceived use of
strategies during listening. As a teaching tool, it can be used as a yardstick
for learner self-appraisal to identify current levels of metacognitive aware-
ness and strategy use, or to chart metacognitive development when used
at specific points in a listening program. The MALQ can also be used as
an awareness-raising tool to influence learners’ strategy use in listening.
This 21-item questionnaire comprises five distinct factors related to the
four listening strategies – planning and evaluation, problem solving, mental
translation, and directed attention – and person knowledge. Learners can
respond to the items by selecting a point in the likert scale. (See Goh 2008
for an adapted classroom version of the MALQ.)
It is important to keep checklists relatively simple and short, especially
when they are aimed at younger learners. Although having a relatively
short checklist may mean that not every item you think is important can
be included, it will make the checklist easy to read and respond to. (Some
learners may lose interest when they find they have a lot to read!) To allow
learners space to include other observations, you can complement check-
lists with other open-ended reflection activities discussed in this section.
Figure 8.6 shows items that can be included in postlistening evaluation
checklists suitable to be used even with young learners.
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202 Christine Goh

Thinking about what you did during your listening lesson

You have just finished doing a listening comprehension activity. Read the statements
below and think about how you listened. Draw a smiley face next to the statements
to show what you think.

Yes ☺ No  Only a little 

a) Listening to my teacher or a recording

1. Before I began listening, my teacher told me what the listening text was going
to be about.

That helped me to
r guess what I am going to hear _______
r listen out for the important words _______
r understand the meaning of the text better ________
2. While I was listening, I paid very close attention to the passage _______
3. When I couldn’t hear clearly, I wanted to ask my teacher to
r repeat part(s) of the passage _______
r speak more slowly ________
r to explain the word(s) I didn’t understand _______

b) Listening to my classmates
1. Before we started the speaking–listening activity, I knew what we had to talk
about.
That helped me to
r guess what I am going to hear _______
r listen out for the important words ______
r understand my classmate’s meaning better ________
2. While I was listening, I paid very close attention to what my classmates were
saying ____
3. When I couldn’t hear clearly, I asked my classmates to
r repeat part(s) of the passage _______
r speak more slowly ______
r to explain the word(s) I didn’t understand _______

My reflection notes:

Figure 8.6: Postlistening evaluation checklist

Principled design of metacognitive

instructional materials

The purpose of metacognitive instruction is to provide different kinds of

scaffolding so that learners can experience the processes of listening and
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Listening as process: Learning activities 203

Examples of prompts
Metacognitive knowledge Person knowledge
(self-appraisal) What listening problems do I commonly face?
What are my strengths when listening to spoken English?
Do I think I’m a good listener? Why do I say that?
Task knowledge
What makes listening to a lecture / conversations difficult?
What must I do when trying to understand someone who speaks fast?
I did an activity today before listening to the passage. What does it tell
me about listening?
Strategy knowledge
What are some good strategies I can use when watching a movie in
English?
What strategies do I need when making a telephone call?

Metacognitive strategies Planning

(self-regulation) What do I plan to do to improve my listening comprehension this term?
I am going to listen to a lecture on climate change. What should I do to
help me understand the explanations given?
Monitoring
Does what I hear match my knowledge of the topic or the person?
Am I making progress in my listening? What are some setbacks I’m
facing right now?
Evaluating
I used some strategies to help me understand the listening passage.
Are they useful? Should I use them again?
Are my goals for developing listening this term realistic?

Figure 8.7: Prompts for raising metacognitive awareness in listening

become aware of factors that influence overall comprehension and listening

development. It is important to apply a sound cognitive framework for
learning to ensure that activities and materials are designed systematically
and in a principled manner. Without a metacognitive framework, process-
based listening instruction will at best be intuitive. The framework I have
proposed identifies key components of self-appraisal and self-regulation in
learning, and when applied to learning materials can help students attend
to selected aspects of learning each time. Careful planning and design of
materials will ensure that all important aspects of learning are covered. The
key items of metacognitive knowledge and strategies are summarized in
Figure 8.7, which also gives examples of prompts that can be used in both
integrated experiential tasks and guided reflections on listening.
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204 Christine Goh

Conclusion

Metacognitive instruction in listening has produced many encouraging

results. Not only is an increase in confidence, motivation, and interest
consistently reported among learners who have experienced this process-
based approach, recent studies have also provided preliminary evidence of
its positive effects on improving listening performance. Clearly, more needs
to be done by way of research to strengthen the current findings. Never-
theless, verbal reports from participants involved in process-based learning
of listening demonstrated the enormous benefits they had derived from it.
Informal interviews I conducted with teachers also showed a high level of
interest among them. Before they learnt about metacognitive instruction,
these teachers had been delivering the lessons in much the same way as the
scenario I described at the start of this article. Many were encouraged by the
way their students had responded to the metacognitive activities they used
and were themselves motivated to continue to teach this way, as a result.
As one teacher put it, “I never knew there was so much more to teaching
listening.” Many of them also saw the output of the various metacognitive
activities as important materials that students can include in their learning
portfolios, or more specifically, listening portfolios. Buck (1995) notes that
it is not possible for teachers to manipulate learners’ listening processes
for them. He adds, however, that teachers can facilitate learners’ listening
development if we understand the nature of listening comprehension and
can sensitize learners to important aspects of it, while at the same time pro-
viding them with “optimum” practice. In this chapter I have tried to make
a case for metacognitive instruction as a theoretically sound and workable
method that can contribute to the type of optimum listening practice that
all language teachers aim for.

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Liu Xuelin for sharing with me her ideas on cooperative
listening in Listening Buddies, and to Jasmine Pang for her ideas on the
postlistening evaluation checklist for young learners.

Discussion questions & tasks

Reflection
1. What do you think is the difference between teaching listening and testing
listening?
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Listening as process: Learning activities 205

2. Refer to the examples given in the table on metacognitive knowledge

about second language listening. What other examples can you add to each
type of knowledge: person, task, and strategy?
3. Listen to a piece of spoken text in a language you are not very familiar
with. Describe in writing some of the problems that you face. Compare
your notes with another person and suggest what you can do to improve
your listening in that language.
4. What do you think are some challenges to using process-based materials
as suggested in this chapter? Suggest some possible ways of addressing
these challenges.

Evaluation
5. Select three metacognitive listening tasks suggested in the chapter. Dis-
cuss their relative strengths and limitations when applied to a group of
learners of your choice.

Adaptation / Design
6. Select a listening activity from a published coursebook. Using one of the
integrated experiential listening tasks, plan a lesson (or a series of lessons)
to improve learners’ metacognitive knowledge and / or strategy use.

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