Introduction
Similar to reading, listening has for many years considered a receptive skill,
due to the fact that the listener has no authority over what the speaker says. However,
recent theories consider listening a highly interactive skill. This is true mainly for two
reasons. The first refers to the fact that a listener brings with her an amount of
background knowledge, organized in abstract units called “schemata”, which greatly
facilitate comprehension. The second has to do with the techniques which the listener
has to employ when she engages in live conversation with other speakers. These
include requests for repetition, clarification of meaning, rephrasing and many others.
Although the above should be part of a listening programme, what is usually involved
in teaching listening is having students listening to a recorded text in order to answer
questions or True-False statements.
The aim of this part is to cater for the above considerations by making
suggestions concerning the teaching of listening to primary school students and is
organized in two sections. Section I is theoretical, presenting the main principles in
the teaching of listening. Section II makes an attempt to put theory into practice by
presenting two lessons which were prepared according to the criteria presented in Part
I. More specifically, Lesson 1 is an adaptation of a lesson presented in the students’
course book, while Lesson 2 is linked thematically to the above lesson but contains
tasks which were wholly developed by the writer.
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