Includes index.

Includes a bibliography.

Part I: UNDERSTANDING SPOKEN ENGLISH

1. Real-life listening
1.1. Purpose and expectation -- 1.2. Response -- 1.3. Visibility of the speaker -- 1.4. Environmental clues -- 1.5. Shortness
1.6. Informal speech -- Redundancy -- 'Noise' -- Colloquial language -- Auditory character

2. Listening to English as a foreign language
2.1. Hearing the sounds -- 2.2. Understanding intonation and stress -- 2.3. Coping with redundancy and 'noise' -- 2.4. Predicting -- 2.5. Understanding colloquial vocabulary -- 2.6. Fatigue -- 2.7. Understanding different accents -- 2.8. Using visual and aural environment clues

3. Planning exercises
3.1. Listening materials -- Producing suitable discourse -- Using recordings -- 3.2. The task -- A pre-set purpose -- Ongoing learner-response -- Motivation -- Success -- Simplicity -- Feedback -- 3.3. Visual materials -- Contextualization -- Learning and motivation -- Pictures and diagrams as task-bases

Part 2: SUGGESTIONS FOR CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

4. Listening for perception
4.1. At word-level -- Oral activities -- Reading and writing activities -- Meaning-based activities -- 4.2. At sentence-level -- Oral activities -- Reading and writing activities -- Meaning-based activities

5. Listening for comprehension
5.1. Listening and making no response -- Following a written text -- Listening to a familiar text -- Listening aided by visuals -- Informal teacher-talk -- Entertainment -- 5.2. Listening and making short responses -- Obeying instructions -- Ticking off items -- True/false exercises -- Detecting mistakes -- Aural cloze -- Guessing definitions -- Noting specific information -- Pictures -- Maps -- Ground-plans -- Grids -- Family trees -- Graphs -- 5.3. Listening and making longer responses -- Repetition and dictation -- Paraphrase -- Translation -- Answering questions -- Answering comprehension questions on texts -- Predictions -- Filling gaps -- Summarizing -- 5.4. Listening as a basis for study and discussion -- Problem-solving -- Jigsaw listening -- Interpretative listening -- Evaluative and stylistic analysis

A postscript: conversation

"This book is about developing listening comprehension skills in the language classroom. In Part One, some essential background issues are dealt with. The author defines the characteristics of real-life listening, analyses the problems encountered by language learners, and discusses the considerations involved in planning successful classroom listening practice.

Part two contains a wide variety of exercise types. The activities range in level from elementary to advanced and illustrate techniques appropriate for both adults and children. The exercises can be used as they stand or they can serve as models for teachers who wish to design their own materials." (Book Cover)