International Journal of Academic Research in Education and Review

Vol. 9(2), pp. 63-82, March 2021

ISSN: 2360-7866

DOI: 10.14662/IJARER2021.035

 

Full Length Research

 

 

Teaching Listening to Adult Learners

 

Effrosyni K. Giannarou

 

12, Patriarhou Fotiou St, 13121 Ilion, Greece. E-mail: frosgian@hotmail.com

 

Accepted 9 March 2021

Abstract

 

Listening is an essential language learning skill. In cases of foreign languages learners listen to authentic in origin utterances and language input helps their language acquisition. This paper is based on teaching the listening skill to a group of adult learners who are taught English as a foreign language in a Centre of Lifelong Learning in Greece. In fact, most of the learners are Greek natives with only one mother languages whereas one is Albanian and one is Bulgarian. These two, apart from speaking their native tongues, also use Greek as a second language. An authentic in nature listening input was created for the learners. The learners� interests were first taken into account and the listening input encouraged them to complete comprehension tasks as well as engage in writing for a simulated real life like communicative purpose at the end of the lesson. They listened for both gist and detail----soft focused and intensive listening. Finally, the learners engaged in functional writing tasks like the one of writing based on information retrieved from the listening excerpts. Though not accustomed to listening practice, most of the learners corresponded rather well to the tasks and practiced their listening skill in a foreign language. This practice may aid them in the future learning of foreign languages.

 

Keywords: listening, learner interests, functional writing, listening input, communicative purpose, comprehension task

 

Cite This Article As: Effrosyni K. Giannarou (2021). Teaching Listening to Adult Learners. Inter. J. Acad. Res. Educ. Rev. 9(2): 63-82