8 Techniques to Teach Advanced Listening Skills in the ELT Classroom

The Quest for Listening Proficiency

Teaching listening skills to advanced EFL students might be like asking them to hear whispers in a crowded room; it is technically possible but sometimes frustratingly challenging. Understanding the subtleties of spoken language, such as intonation, implied meanings, and rapid, native-speed conversation, is the next step for students who have advanced past basic understanding.

From my experience working with international students, I’ve noticed that while they generally understand most academic materials, they sometimes struggle to follow lectures. It’s not that they don’t know the words—often, they miss important details because the speaker’s tone changes the meaning in subtle ways.

Many EFL teachers may relate to this problem, which is why mastering advanced listening techniques is crucial. In this post, we’re examining eight useful techniques that could assist teachers in overcoming these obstacles and enhancing their students’ proficiency in spoken English. By applying these strategies, you may assist your students in moving from a foundational comprehension level to a complex realm of everyday communication.

8 Practical Techniques for Advanced Listening Practice

Sometimes listening seems like a passive skill. However, active participation is necessary for successful listening. The eight tried-and-true techniques listed below will help your learners become better listeners and hone their advanced listening abilities.

In this article:

1. Shadowing: Imitating Native Speech Patterns

Shadowing is an effective technique where students listen to a piece of audio while repeating what they hear, imitating the speaker’s pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. It’s especially effective for helping learners become familiar with natural speech patterns, such as native speakers’ fast tempo. This technique trains students not only to listen but also to reproduce the sounds, stress, and intonation in real-time. Advanced students can benefit from shadowing as it forces them to stay on their toes and follow along quickly—much like trying to keep pace with someone who’s a little bit faster on a run.

How to implement:

• Select audio recordings such as news broadcasts, TED Talks, or podcasts with clear, natural speech.
• Ask students to play the audio at normal speed, pausing occasionally to allow them to catch up if needed. I advise going chunk by chunk.
• Encourage them to focus on not only the words but also the way the speaker emphasizes certain parts of the sentence, as this can often carry additional meaning.

Encourage students to pay attention to the speaker’s emphasis on specific phrase components as well as the words themselves, since this can frequently convey extra meaning.

Pro Tip: If your students are brave enough, you can begin shadowing with native-speed spoken audio: The real learning happens when you dive into the deep end of the pool!

Expert Insight: According to Hamada (2014), shadowing improves students’ fluency and accuracy of pronunciation in addition to their listening comprehension level. The repetitive nature of the activity helps students better grasp the subtle details of spoken language.

2. Dictogloss: Collaborative Listening and Writing

Dictogloss is a fun, interactive technique that blends listening and writing in a group setting. Students listen to an audio piece played at normal speed, jot down notes, and then work together to recreate the text as accurately as they can. It’s especially helpful for advanced learners since it pushes them to pay close attention to both meaning and specific language features.

This technique really helps students make sense of listening tasks by encouraging them to think about how ideas connect, how the content is structured, and how key language pieces fit into the overall puzzle. When using this in my classes, I’ve found that the collaborative element is especially powerful—students not only clarify their uncertainties but also share their unique interpretations, which often leads to those “aha” moments of deeper understanding. It’s amazing to watch them learn from each other as they piece things together!

How to implement:

• Select a passage that is suitable for your students’ level, preferably one rich in content and language variety.
• Read the passage aloud at natural speed as students listen and take notes. 
• After the first reading, students can share their notes in pairs or small groups. 
• Re-read the passage once more, this time allowing students to fill in the rest of their notes. 
• Finally, students work in groups to reconstruct the passage as precisely as possible, then compare it with the original.

Pro Tip: For advanced students, try using more complex and authentic materials, like news articles or university lectures. The challenge of reconstructing longer, more information-dense texts pushes them to analyze both language and meaning at the same time.

Expert Insight: Wajnryb (1990), the creator of the dictogloss method, highlights how this approach helps students better engage with and retain language components by actively listening and participating.

Remember, to successfully complete the task, students must focus not just on the main idea, but also on grammar, coherence, vocabulary, and other key details.

3. Using Authentic Listening Materials

Real-life listening materials integrated into the lesson, such as podcasts, news, interviews, and conversations, would allow advanced learners to get real exposure to how language is normally used in situations. This would expose them to a wide array of accents, ways of delivering speech, and speeds, so crucial in refining advanced listening abilities.

How to implement:

• Choose materials that match your students’ listening needs. TED Talks, radio interviews, and podcasts can offer rich and diverse language input.
• Select items that incorporate natural pauses, interruptions, and hesitations to mimic real speech patterns.
• After listening, encourage students to discuss how the speaker used tone, pauses, and emphasis to convey meaning beyond just the words.

Pro Tip: To challenge your students even more, have them listen to materials featuring a variety of accents or fast-paced conversations.

Expert Insight: According to Field, authentic listening material enables students to develop top-down and bottom-up processing by requiring them to understand both the general meaning of a text (top-down) and specific details (bottom-up). Field’s study indicates that this dual focus is essential for pupils to attain actual listening competency at advanced levels.

4. Listening for Detail vs. Listening for Gist

Advanced learners must have the capacity to transition between listening for gist (general comprehension) and hearing for detail (specific information).

Listening for gist helps students understand the overall meaning of a discussion or presentation, while listening for detail sharpens their focus on specific elements like key words, statistics, or facts.

It’s important for students to differentiate between these two skills and know when to use each one. For example, when listening to an interview, they might need to zero in on particular remarks (details), whereas watching a news program would require them to grasp the broader context (gist). By learning to recognize and switch between these two types of listening, students become better equipped to handle more complex listening scenarios.

How to Implement:

• Use short news segments or radio interviews. The first time, instruct pupils to listen for the general meaning (gist) and summarize the content.
• In a second round, ask for precise facts like names, dates, or arguments.
• Emphasize the significance of knowing when to apply each listening approach in practical situations

Pro Tip: Incorporate exercises in which students listen twice—once to obtain the big picture and again to catch individual nuances. This practice improves both listening muscles and provides strategies for dealing with various forms of spoken conten

Expert Insight: According to Vandergrift (2007), combining these two methods allows learners to gain a thorough knowledge of texts. Listening for gist activates learners’ top-down processing skills, but listening for detail improves their bottom-up processing skills, making the two skills complementary in developing advanced listening comprehension.

5. Predictive listening: anticipating the speaker’s next move.

Predictive listening is one of the most sophisticated listening abilities, which involves anticipating what a speaker will say next based on context, tone, or prior knowledge. For example, during a conversation or a presentation, students can frequently anticipate the next piece of information or the conclusion based on the speaker’s introduction or previous points.

This becomes particularly significant when it comes to complex or fast speech, so that one does not get lost while waiting for the meaning of every word. Students who practice predictive listening turn into more attentive and engaging listeners. Instead of passively waiting for meaning, they keep their mind sharp with anticipation of what’s coming next, which helps them understand what is being said and respond more quickly.

I’ve found this technique to be especially crucial for exam preparation lessons, where students need to grasp key ideas from fast-paced audio clips and provide quick, accurate responses under time pressure. Predictive listening can give them a strategic edge by helping them stay one step ahead during high-stakes tests.

How to implement:

• Provide a title or synopsis of the audio or video clip before students have listened to or viewed the clip. Students can be encouraged to speculate on what points the speaker would make. 
• Stop the recording at crucial moments and ask students to predict the speaker’s next words or to further develop their argument. 
• After listening, discuss how their predictions coincided or did not coincide with the actual content.

Pro Tip: Using cliffhanger moments in audio materials, such as pausing before a vital point in a news story or lecture, can help students improve their prediction skills and engage in interactive listening.

Expert Insight: Wilson (2003) found that students’ comprehension and ability to maintain focus during longer listening tasks was enhanced by predictive listening exercises. Students are more involved in the listening process and exhibit better retention and comprehension when they are encouraged to actively anticipate content.

6. Listening Journals: Reflections on Listening Progress

Students can use listening journals as reflecting tools to document their listening experiences throughout time. With the help of this technique, students can critically evaluate their listening techniques, actively assess themselves, and monitor their progress. To record their responses to various listening materials, issues they face, and strategies they employ to get past them, students can maintain a journal.

Advanced learners might identify specific areas for improvement, including understanding quick speech or comprehending uncommon accents, by keeping listening journals. Journals also enable students to think about the broader context of listening and come up with ways to improve their abilities in practical situations.

How to implement:

• Assign regular listening exercises, such as listening to TED Talks or podcasts, and ask students to reflect on their experiences in a notebook. 
• Use question prompts as guides to facilitate reflections like: What was the main idea? What parts were difficult? What strategy did you use to understand the speaker? 
• Review the diaries with students to identify patterns in listening and make recommendations.

Pro Tip: Encourage students to review past posts and reflect on their progress over time. This can be extremely motivating for advanced learners, who will see tangible evidence of their development.

Expert Insight: Adopting listening journals helps students become more self-regulated listeners by raising their metacognitive awareness, claim Vandergrift and Goh (2012). According to their findings, considering listening tasks and solutions helps one better understand how to handle comprehension problems in practical situations.

7. Listening with Visual Supports

Visual aids can significantly enhance comprehension when incorporated into hearing exercises, especially for advanced students who are struggling with complex vocabulary or abstract concepts.

Infographics, charts, pictures, and videos provide valuable context and cues, making information easier to understand and more engaging. These visuals help students link spoken words to imagery, improving both their comprehension and retention. For instance, a lecture on climate change becomes far more impactful when supported by relevant graphs, pictures of natural events, or videos that demonstrate real-world effects.

How to implement:

• Pair audio resources with relevant visuals, such as slideshows, videos, or infographics.
• Use images to set the context and help students anticipate the content.
• Encourage students to discuss how the visuals enhanced their understanding of the audio and resolved any questions.

Pro Tip: Maintain student interest by combining static visuals with dynamic video segments. You can also explore multimedia presentations that seamlessly blend audio and visuals for a richer experience.

Expert Insight: Mayer (2014) highlights the advantages of using multimedia to enhance learning. According to his Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, visuals can support the processing of auditory information by engaging different cognitive pathways, resulting in better comprehension and retention.

8. Interactive Listening Activities

Interactive listening activities create a lively and engaging classroom atmosphere where students not only engage with audio materials but also interact with each other. These activities might include role-playing, debates, or group discussions, where listening tasks are designed to strengthen students’ skills in a collaborative environment.

These activities boost engagement and motivation since students actively participate in the learning process rather than passively absorbing information. For advanced learners, they also enhance critical thinking and speaking skills while sharpening their listening abilities.

How to implement:

• After playing a relevant audio clip, divide students into small groups and assign each group a specific role related to the content (e.g., debating a controversial topic).
• Encourage students to focus on key points and arguments during the discussion, holding them accountable for grasping the audio.
• Conclude with a whole-class discussion where students share their insights and reflections based on what they heard.

Pro Tip: Make the activity more engaging by simulating real-world scenarios where students must listen and respond to their peers’ arguments, replicating realistic interactions.

Expert Insight: According to Vandergrift and Goh (2021), interactive listening activities improve learner engagement and understanding by creating collaborative learning settings. Such exercises encourage critical thinking and allow students to negotiate meaning, resulting in improved listening skills.

The final word

Understanding a native speaker can be as challenging as deciphering ancient hieroglyphics! I’ve seen this firsthand with my students, especially when they’re confronted with unfamiliar accents or rapid speech. So teaching advanced listening skills in an ELT classroom presents special challenges and opportunities. Teachers may, however, establish a rich and stimulating learning environment that fosters students’ listening skills and confidence by implementing the eight strategies discussed in this blog.

Through the use of authentic materials, interactive exercises, shadowing, and teaching listening strategies, these methods can be modified to meet the diverse needs of advanced students. We should all keep in mind that we are guiding our students through the wild and wonderful world of spoken language, where even the most seasoned listeners can be misled by accents and idioms.

As teachers, our job is not just to offer knowledge but also to empower students to become self-sufficient learners. By providing them with the tools and techniques they need to negotiate complicated listening tasks, we prepare them for real-world communication, where they will meet a range of speakers, accents, and contexts—often all in the same coffee shop!

Remember that the collaborative nature plays a significant role here. Let your students describe what they experienced and what they think about any given topic, making sure they understand failures are just stepping stones toward progress. Some of my best teaching moments have come from watching students work through their struggles, emerging on the other side with a deeper understanding of the language. Listening, after all, is an adventure, and every stumble along the way is a lesson in itself.

So, let’s tune in, turn up the volume, and start listening!

If you are looking for a way to gain more confidence integrating pronunciation into your classes, or improve your knowledge and practical classroom skills in this area, you could consider our Online One-to-One Teaching Pronunciation course.

If you would like to obtain an advanced qualification in ELT and learn from our expert tutors, you could consider our blended Trinity DipTESOL course. Get in touch with us to find out more or apply here.

Reference:

• Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom. Cambridge University Press.
• Hamada, Yo. (2014). The effectiveness of pre- and post-shadowing in improving listening comprehension skills. The Language Teacher. 38. 3. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTTLT38.1-1
• Goh, C.C.M., & Vandergrift, L. (2021). Teaching and Learning Second Language Listening: Metacognition in Action (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429287749
• Mayer, R. E. (Ed.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO97811395473
• Vandergrift, L., & Goh, C. C. M. (2012). Teaching and learning second language listening: Metacognition in action. Routledge.
• Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language listening comprehension research. Language Teaching, 40(3), 191–210. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444807004338
• Wilson, J. J. (2003). How to teach listening. Pearson Education Limited.
• Wajnryb, R. (1990). Grammar dictation. Oxford University Press.

Want to learn more? Check out some other blog posts:

• 10 tools for developing students listening skills.
• Pronunciation: 3 practices to question and 3 practices to explore
• My Top Ten Pronunciation Tips: Physicality and Integration
• Pronunciation: 3 practices to question and 3 practices to explore
• 7 Reasons why you should be making videos with your students and 9 activities to get you started