The main theme of this chapter is that the types of listening which feature in the language classroom are limited by comparison with those that occur outside. The demands of the comprehension approach place certain constraints upon the choices of listening passage made by teachers, while the tasks that are set tend to follow orthodox patterns of answering discrete questions or of filling in information. A case will be made for greater variety, both in the recordings used and in the responses demanded. Teachers are also urged to attempt to reproduce more closely the relationships between the two that occur in real-life contexts.

Constraints of the comprehension approach: text and task

The requirements of the comprehension approach favour a particular type of listening text.

• It has to be long enough to permit around eight comprehension items; and the items need to be quite widely spaced so that two do not occur too closely together. This indicates a medium-length recording (say, around three minutes) – ideally, one which can be divided into shorter subsections for more intensive listening if necessary.

• The recording needs to be information-rich.

• Because of potential problems in distinguishing voices, the recording is most likely to feature a single speaker or two speakers of different sexes.

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