I think the importance of listening input for students cannot be overemphasised, yet it is severely neglected in Japan, in both public and private teaching settings.
I myself have not really focused on teaching listening so far, for the following reasons:
1. graded listening materials are not as common as graded reading
2. it’s hard to categorize listening materials at a glance, like you would with a written text
3. technical issues get in the way: you have to make the materials available to the students, and it’s not as easy as just handing them a book or a handout
However, I have decided to have a go at really boosting my students’ listening practice. I am going to investigate online delivery, lending CDs, and lending mp3 players pre-loaded with content.
I will post on any challenges and successes with the project. Comments on the subject are also most welcome.
One reply on “The importance of listening”
On the topic, check out this great post at Confessions of a Language Addict, on using the lyrics tab in iTunes to read transcripts as you listen to an iPod.
http://gbarto.com/multilingua/confessions/2009/08/ipods-mp3s-and-lyrics-tab.html
Great stuff.