Teaching Listening & Speaking to Teens and Young Learners

-Mark Cormier, 2026

Introduction: This blog contains the activities, and support material for a two hour interactive workshop given on March 27, 2026 for trainees of Peace Corps Costa Rica.   

Session Goals: In today's session we will ...

• Explore 10 key concepts in the teaching of listening and speaking.
• Participate in a variety of small group tasks to better understand the key concepts.
• Create an original proposal for a listening or speaking lesson using either the PWP or PPP framework.
• Consider a collection of complementary resources to help you learn more about the teaching of these skills. 

Guiding Questions: By the end of the session, you should be able to answer ...

• Why is learning to listen and speak in a foreign language a serious challenge?
• What kinds of listening and speaking activities might be engaging for my student population?
• How can I design an instructional sequence for listening and speaking lessons?

Table of Contents

Click the links below to access the section of the blog you would like to see.

• Information: Key Concepts in Listening and Speaking Instruction

• Task 1: How are the four language skills used to communicate?

• Task 2: How is skill usage distributed?

• Task 3: What makes L2 listening hard?

• How do L2 listeners construct meaning?

• Task 4: How can I know if students understand the listening?

• Task 5: How can I support student engagement in a listening task?

• Task 6: How can I support students' understanding of other classroom listening opportunities?

• Task 7: How can I increase students' use of English during class time?

• Task 8: What are some communicative speaking task types?

• Task 9: How can I support students during speaking tasks?

• Task 10: How can students improve their speaking performance?

• What helps students engage in speaking tasks?

• Practice: Strategies to Plan a Listening & Speaking Lesson

• PWP: Three Stage Framework for Listening Instruction

• PPP: Three Stage Framework for Speaking Instruction

• Self-Assessment Checklist - Listening and Speaking Tasks for Kids and Teens

• Application: Propose an Activity Sequence

• Wrap Up: Exit Ticket and Reflection

• Resources: Materials for Further Study

• References 

• Session Details and Author Information 

Information: Key Concepts in Listening and Speaking Instruction

Task 1: How are the four language skills used to communicate? 

Traditionally, foreign language pedagogy divides language competence into the four "macro skills" of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. However, ACTFL's World Readiness Standards framework (Cutshall, 2012) presents a more holistic description of language skill use by differentiating between three communicative modes depending on context and purpose. 

Instructions: Read the information below and match the three communication modes with their descriptions and decide which of the language skills [ R W S L] are likely to be used in each mode.

INTERPRETIVE - PRESENTATIONAL - INTERPERSONAL

• _____ Communication: Learners interact and negotiate meaning in real-time to exchange information, reactions, feelings, and opinions.  [ R W S L ]

• _____ Communication: Learners understand, interpret, and analyze messages on a variety of topics. [ R W S L ]

• _____ Communication: Learners share information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a vareity of topics.  [ R W S L ]

Task 2: How is skill usage distributed? 

We have four "macro skills", but their use in real life and in classroom contexts is not distributed evenly. According to Morley (2001), "on average, we can expect to _____ twice as much as we _____, four times more than we _____, and five times more than we _____" (p. 70).

READ - WRITE - LISTEN - SPEAK

Instructions: Place the four language skills above in the appropriate blanks in the quote from Morley. Then think about your own experiences using the four skills in real life and in a language classsroom. Do these ratios hold up? 

🔑Key Concept 1: The four macro skills are not developed in isolation, so it is good teaching practice to use activities that integrate the skills. However, listening and speaking should receive more attention than reading and writing in a course that follows a communicative methodology.

Task 3: What makes L2 listening hard? 

Instructions: Read the list of factors that contribute to L2 listening difficulty. 

• Can you suggest any additional factors based on your experience as a language learner? 

• Identify two factors that you find (or found) most challenging in learning to listen in your L2. 

• Identify any factors that you think a teacher is unable to help students with.

L2 LISTENING CHALLENGES

1. [  ] You encounter new words, expressions, and grammar structures.
2. [  ] You are not familiar with the speaker's accent.
3. [  ] Words blend together in connected speech (ex. "I don't know = áono)
4. [  ] Speaking is ephemeral and leaves no visual record to refer to.
5. [  ] Speakers  talk too fast for you to keep up.
6. [  ] Speakers refer to people, places, ideas, or cultural concepts that are unknown to you.
7. [  ] Unlike writing, speech not typically composed of nice, complete sentences and instead is often a mess of choppy phrases, incomplete ideas, false starts, and rephrasing. 
8. [  ] ...
9. [  ] ...

 

How do L2 listeners construct meaning?

Interactive Processing: Learners make use of both linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge in order to accurately processin the meaning of messages they hear (Buck, 2001). The combination of bottom-up and top-down processing described below is know as interactive processing (Hegelsen, 2003). 

Bottom-Up Processing: We build understanding of what we hear by combining sounds to form words, words to form phrases, phrases to form sentences, etc. We use our knowledge of the language to make meaning of what we hear. 

Top-Down Processing: We use background knowledge (schema) to make logical inferences about what is happening and interpret what speakers mean. We use knowledge of the subject and context of the communication to make meaning.

Adequate Copmrehension Requires Both: When unfamilar words, structures, or accents are encountered, we use knowledge of topic and context to infer meaning. When this knowledge is missing, we must rely more on our understanding of sounds, words, and sentences to construct meaning. Effective listening instruction should account for and support both kinds of processing. This is why it is important to do preparation activities (PRE-listening stage) before having students complete a listening task in order to. 

• Activate or build background knowledge and understanding of the context of the listening for students to apply top-down processing.

• Review important vocab, grammar, and pronunciation features and/ore pre-teach unkown elements that are essential to understand in order to help students apply bottom-up processing.

🔑Key Concept 2: Learners construct the meaning of what they hear or read through a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing. It is essential teaching practice to incorporate opportunities to use both processing strategies. 

Task 4: How can I know if students understand the listening? 

Because listening comprehension is a cognitive activity that occurs in the minds of the learners, it can't be directly observed. 

• Discuss: What are some strategies to make students' thinking "visible" during a listening activity?

🔑Key Concept 3: Checking listening comprehension requires a response from learners (physical, oral, or written). There are MANY ways to do this! The phrase "Students listen and ..." should feature prominently in your lesson plan. 

Task 5: How can I support student engagement in a listening task? 

Let's participate in a listening activity to experience a range of possible student response activities that you can incorporate in your listening lessons. Please note that this activity was designed for training purposes and contains a much greater variety of response types than I would suggest doing in a single listening lesson with your students.

• Instructions: CLICK HERE to read the description of the six response types used in this listening lesson and match them with activities in the chart. The first is done for you.

EXTENDING - CHOOSING - TRANSFERRING - DUPLICATING - CONDENSING - DOING

🔑Key Concept 4: Checking comprehension does not have to come at the end of the listening passage. Tehe WHILE-listening stage of a lesson is critical and often overlooked. Break the text up into multiple sections with small comprehension checks and processing tasks along the way. 

Task 6: How can I support students' understanding of other classroom listening opportunities? 

The source of most of the listening that students do in an EFL class is the teacher as he or she gives instructions to the group during the lesson. It is always a good idea to familiarize students with common classroom phrases so they can follow along without having to revert to Spanish. 

Instructions: Read the list of classroom phrases. What additional phrases would you suggest teaching your students?

• Come in
• Sit down / Stand up
• Attention please
• Be quiet
• Come to the board
• Open your books
• Turn to page ...
• ...
• ...
• ...

🔑Key Concept 5: When following a communicative methodology, English is not just the topic of study, it is the medium of instruction in the classroom. This means we need to teach students common classroom phrases so we can give instructions in English and increase students' exposure to L2 listening.

Task 7: How can I increase students' use of English during class time?  

The language that students need to participate in classroom life is often absent from the official curriculum. It is a great strategy to teach these phrases to students at the beginning of a course and create a poster or some other permanent visual reference that students can look at in case they forget. 

Instructions: Read the lists of classroom phrases below. What other phrases would you include in these lists?

• Clarification Strategies: 

• I have a question.
• I don't understand.
• Can you help me?
• What do we have to do?
• Can you repeat?
• What does _____ mean?
• How do you say _____ in English?
• How do you spell _____?
• ...
• ...

• Interaction Strategies: 

• It's my / your / his / her turn.
• I don't know.
• In my opinion _____. 
• I agree / disagree because _____. 
• You think _____?
• Really? That's interesting.
• Tell me more about _____. 
• ...
• ...

• Other Classroom Language: 

• Can I go to the bathroom?
• I'm (not) finished.
• I'm (not) ready. 
• What page are we on?
• Can I borrow a pencil / eraser / etc.?
• ...
• ...    

🔑Key Concept 6: We can reduce the need for student L1 use by teaching language to support basic classroom behaviors such as asking for help or clarification, supporting interaction between students, and other common scenarios. 

Task 8: What are some communicative speaking task types?   

Instructions: CLICK HERE to access the document. Read your assigned section with your partners and prepare to share the following with another group in your own words: 

• What is the activity type and how does it work?
• What are the benefits? 
• Share an example! 

🔑Key Concept 7: Authentic oral communication in a foreign language class goes beyond mindless parroting. Teachers must design opportunities for students to express, interpret, and respond to real ideas. Even low level students are capable of expressing something with the right support. 

Task 9: How can I support students during speaking tasks?    

"Cognitive load refers to the amount of information our working memory can process at any given time. For education purposes, cognitive load theory helps us to avoid overloading learners with more than they can effectively process..." (Medical College of Wisconsin, 2022) 

Speaking a second language is a very cognitively demanding task for learners. Even though you teach them the necessary vocab and grammar for the speaking activity, they often forget or struggle to use it during spontaneous performance and interaction. Include useful phrases, sentence starters, question stems, and key vocabulary in the design of the materials that students use during the task. 

Instructions: Refer to your assigned speaking activity. How did ( or could) the design of the materials reduce the cognitive load needed to participate in the task?   

🔑Key Concept 8: Teaching and practicing speaking is not the same as testing speaking. Give students langauge frames and reference material during speaking tasks to reduce cognitive load and help them articulate their ideas. 

Task 10: How can students improve their speaking performance?    

Do it Again: We can helps student develop their speaking confidence, fluency, and accuracy by intentionally incorporating task repetition in the design of our speaking tasks. Here are some ideas:

  

• Same: Students repeat the same task with a new partner.

• Different: Students keep the same partners and do a different but similar task that requires the same communication strategies and language.

• Beyond: Students do extention activities after the main task that require similar speaking strategies and language.  

Instructions: Refer to your assigned speaking activity. How did (or could) the design of the task incorporate opportunities for repetition?

🔑Key Concept 9: Speaking is like any other complex skill. Task repetition over time leads to improved fluency, accuracy, and confidence. Design speaking activities to allow for some degree of meaningful task repetition. 

What helps students engage in speaking tasks?

Simply telling students to talk about a specific topic without adequate preparation is not likely to result in a successful speaking activity. You need to help students build a personal connection with the topic so that they have some thing meaningful to say. 

🔑Key Concept 10: Better input leads to better output! Listenings, readings, short videos, and rich, teacher-led class discussions can serve as stimulus material for a speaking activity and/or modeling for the task.

Practice: Strategies to Plan a Listening and Speaking Lesson

PWP: Three Stage Framework for Listening Instruction

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PPP: Three Stage Framework for Speaking Instruction

Click image to view full screen or click here to view in another tab.

Self-Assessment Checklist for Speaking & Listening Tasks

This checklist adapted from Peck (2001) provides seven criteria to consider when designing your own speaking and listening tasks. 

Speaking and listening tasks for kids and teens should:

• ☑️ Focus primariliy on the expression and understanding of meaning, not just correctness.
• ☑️ Focus on the value of the activity, not just the language.
• ☑️ Focus on collaboration and social development.
• ☑️ Provide a rich context, include movment, the senses, pictures, and a variety of activities.
• ☑️ Teach English holistically, integrating other macro skills.
• ☑️ Treat learners appropriately in light of their age and interests.
• ☑️ Use language for authentic communication, not just as an object of analysis.

Application: Propose an Activity Sequence

Plan your Listening or Speaking Lesson Outline: 

Instructions: Now it's time to plan a listening or speaking lesson based on content from the MEP curriculum following either the PWP or PPP framework. Time is limited, so begin by planning the While-Stage (listening) or Produce-Stage (speaking) tasks before addressing the other stages. 

• Access the Curriculum: Choose a unit and identify the topic and some language aspects to focus on.

• Choose the Skill: Decide if you want to focus on listening or speaking.

• Develop your Main Task: Time is limited, so begin by planning the While-Stage (listening) or Produce-Stage (speaking) before addressing the other stages. You are encouraged to use Lund's Listening Response Taxonomy and the Communicative Speaking Task Types documents for inspiration.

• Brainstorm the Rest: If you have time, think about activities you could include in the other two stages of the lesson.

Wrap Up: Exit Ticket and Reflection

Instructions: Skim through the list of 12 bolded questions we have considered throughout this workshop. They help highlight important issues in the teaching of listening and speaking in English language teaching. Choose one that you think you can confidently and clearly answer now that you would not have been able to explain as well before participating in today's workshop. Then tell your partner your question and answer. 

• How are the four language skills used to communicate?
• How is skill usage distributed?
• What makes L2 listening hard?
• How do L2 listeners construct meaning?
• How can I know if students understand the listening?
• How can I support student engagement in a listening task?
• How can I support students' understanding of other classroom listening opportunities?
• How can I increase students' use of English during class time?
• What are some communicative speaking task types?
• How can I support students during speaking tasks?
• How can students improve their speaking performance?
• What helps students engage in speaking tasks?

Resources: Materials for Further Study

• Presentation Slides: Here are the slides from today's session. 

• Listening Response Types: A description of Lund's (1990) taxonomy of listening response types

• Speaking Activity Types: The seven common speaking task types we saw in today's session

• Webinar and Blog: Designing Communicative Listening Tasks with AI Support (Cormier & Torres, 2025) 

• Book Chapter: Teaching Listening and Reading for Young Learners (Shin & Crandall, 2014)

• Book Chapter: Developing Children's Listening and Speaking in ESL (Peck, 2001)

• Book Chapter: Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices (Morley, 2001)

• Full Book: Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking (Nation & Newton, 2009)

• Warm Up: Padlet link for the warm up we did. 

References:

Acuña, J. & Cormier, M. (2024, May 22-25). Backward Design Applied to Formative Oral Assessment [Presentation]. NCTE 2024, San José, Costa Rica. 

Buck, G. (2001). Assessing Listening. Cambridge University Press. 

Cormier, M. & Torres, P. (2025, December 12) Designing Communicative Listening Tasks with AI Support. [Presentation]. PD Talks: Professional Development Sessions Webinar Series, San José, Costa Rica.

Cutshall, S. (2012). More Than a Decade of Standards: Integrating "Communication" in Your Language Instruction. The Language Educator. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. 

Hegelsen, M. (2003). Listening. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp. 23-46). McGraw Hill. 

Lund, R. J. (1990). A taxonomy for teaching second language listening. Foreign Language Annals, 23. 105-115.

Morley, J. (2001). Aural comprehension instruction: Principles and practices. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (pp. 69-85). Heinle Cengage.

Medical College of Wisconsin. (2022, May). Cognitive load theory: A guide to applying cognitive load theory to your teaching. https://www.mcw.edu/-/media/MCW/Education/Academic-Affairs/OEI/Faculty-Quick-Guides/Cognitive-Load-Theory.pdf

Nation, I.S.P. & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. Routledge.

Peck, S. (2001). Develoing Children's Listening and Speaking in ESL. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed pp. 139-149). Heinle & Heinle.

Session Details and Author Information

Session Title: Teaching Listening and Speaking to Teens and Young Learners

Session Abstract: The macro skills of listening and speaking should form the core of any communicative second language curriculum, but they present real challenges for early career teachers especially when working with teenagers and young learners. Through completion of a series of collaborative tasks, participants in this workshop will discover 10 key concepts in the teaching of second language listening and speaking, as well as practical ideas for communicative listening and speaking tasks, frameworks for planning listening and writing instruction, a self-assessment checklist, and a collection of resources for further study. 

Author: Mark Foster Cormier

Author Bio: Mark Foster Cormier is an English teacher and teacher educator who is passionate about materials development, reflective practice, and professional development in ELT. He earned a master of arts in TESOL from Marlboro College and bachelor’s degrees in English teaching and Latin American studies from Universidad Americana and Appalachian State University. Mark has been an EFL teacher in Costa Rica for 17 years and has specialized in teacher development for over a decade. He currently works as Head of Training and Educational Quality at Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano where he is in charge of new teacher recruiting and training, planning ongoing professional development initiatives, and hosting the monthly webinar series for language teachers called PD Talks: Professional Development Sessions. Click here to connect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-cormier-elt/

PD Talk #84 - Designing Communicative Listening Tasks with AI Support

 

Designing Communicative Listening Tasks with AI Support

-Pablo Torres & Mark Cormier, 2025

Introduction: This blog contains the video recording, content, activities, and support material for a two hour interactive webinar given on December 12, 2025 for Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano as the 84th epidsode of the PD Talks: Professional Development Sessions webinar series.  

Session Goals: 

• Summarize key concepts in the teaching and learning of listening in a foreign language.
• Consider more communicative alternatives to traditional listening comprehension questions. 
• Explore a framework for developing listening materials with AI support. 

Guiding Questions: 

• How do people learn to listen in a foreign language?
• How can I design more communicative, student-centered listening activities?
• How can generative AI tools help me develop engaging listening materials? 

Table of Contents

Click the links below to access the section of the blog you would like to see.

Topic 1: Theory Input - Key Concepts in Second Language Listening

Topic 2: Exploring PWP Stages, Rationale, and Options for Designing Instruction

Topic 3: Designing Listening Tasks - Frameworks and Options

Topic 4: A Framework for AI Supported Listening Materials Development

Topic 5: Key Session Takeaways

References 

Session Details and Author Information 

Topic 1: Theory Input - Key Concepts in Second Language Listening 

Let's start by reviewing some important concepts about the role of listening in foreign language teaching and learning. 

Key Concept 1: Listening is the forgotten skill in language teaching and deserves more attention in the classroom. 

• Of the four skills, listening is "probably the least understood, the least researched, and historically, the least valued" (Wilson, 2008, pg. 17). 

• Listening is "the Cinderella skill ... constantly overlooked by its elder sister, speaking" (Nunan, 1999, pg. 199).

• Listening is invisible because it occurs in the mind of the learners, but it is an active skill, not a passive one. 

• Morely (2001) estimates that "on average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write" (p. 70). What are we doing in our language classes to address this critical skill?

Key Concept 2: Listening provides essential opportunities for language acquisition . 

• Meaning-Focused Input (MFI) is "learning through listening and reading where the learner's attention is on the ideas and messages conveyed by the language" (Nation & Newton, 2009, p. 1).

• Listening is a source of comprehensible input. "We acquire ... only when we understand language that contains structure that is 'a little beyond' where we are now" (Krashen, 1982, p. 21).

• "The type of input that learners need for acquisition is meaning based or communicative in nature. It must be language to which learners are supposed to respond for its meaning" (Wong & VanPatten, 2008, p. 409). 

• Listening tasks in language classes can support student learning in several ways:

• Develop Receptive Skills

• Introduce New Language in Context

• Model Appropriate Discourse

• Build Background Knowedge on the Lesson Theme

• Stimulate Student Language Production

Key Concept 3: Listening is an active process. Learners construct the meaning of what they hear through a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing. 

Interactive Processing: Learners make use of both linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge in order to accurately process the meaning of messages they hear (Buck, 2001). The combination of bottom-up and top-down processing described below is known as interactive processing (Hegelsen, 2003). 

• Bottom-Up Processing: We build understanding of what we hear by combining sounds to form words, words to form phrases, phrases to form sentences, etc. We use our knowledge of the language to make meaning of what we hear. 

• Top-Down Processing: We use background knowledge (schema) to make logical inferences about what is happening and interpret what learners mean. We use knowledge of the world and context to make meaning of what we hear. 

• Adequate Comprehension Requires Both: When unfamiliar words, structures, or accents are encountered, we use knowledge of topic and context to infer meaning. When this knowledge is missing, we must rely more on our understanding of sounds, words, and sentences to construct meaning. Effective listening instruction should account for and support both kinds of processing.

Key Concept 4: Designing effective listening tasks is a process of cognitive load management. 

Listening is a Complex Cognitive Task: A key concept in listening instruction is the topic of cognitive load. One of the challenges of second language listening is that students' cognitive processing capacities can easily become overwhelmed by factors such as speed, complexit, length, and accent of the recording, lack of sufficient context, as well as the nature of the tasks they are asked to complete. The Centre for Educational Statistics and Evaluation (2017) summarizes the work of Sweller (2010) on Cognitive Load Theory, which describes the processing limitations of working memory:

• Intrinsic Load: This is the inherent processing difficulty of a particular concept to be learned or task to be completed by students. We can't change the difficulty of a listening passage, but we can SIMPLFY the intrinsic load with various techniques such as slowing the audio down or breaking the audio into discreet, more easily digestible chunks with specific processing tasks for each one. 

• Extraneous Load: This is the unnecessary processing difficulties caused by the way information is presented to students that distracts their focus during the listening task. We can REDUCE the extraneous load by creating simple, easy to follow instructions for listening tasks and by ensuring that students understand what information they need to extract from the passage before they listen.

• Germane Load: This is the optimal level of challenge or cognitive effort needed to learn a concept or make sense of a text. The idea of listening instruction is not to eliminate all effort required of students but to ENHANCE the germane cognitive load through the careful design of support materials and listening tasks that promote effective processing of the passage.    

Topic 2: Exploring PWP Stages, Rationale, and Options for Designing Instruction

The long-established Pre-While-Post framework provides an excellent template for designing listening lessons. The primary aim of this blog post is to explore alternatives to traditional activities in the WHILE-listening stage, but it is important to review the purpose of each of the three stages first. 

Pre-While-Post Instructional Sequence 

• Pre-Listening Activities: Engage students in activities to activate background knowledge about the topic of the audio and raise interest in the task to come. This builds contextual knowledge needed to apply top-down listening strategies. Review important vocab from the audio that students already know and “pre-teach” any unfamiliar terms to aid their bottom-up processing. The majority of time spent in a listening lesson should involve students actually engaged in listening to, interpreting, and responding to the passage, so keep the Pre-Listening stage brief.

• How: Questions, images, predictions, vocabulary review, make personal connections with the topic, etc. 

• While-Listening Activities: Help students process the audio by breaking it down into manageable chunks in a variety of tasks to demonstrate their understanding of what they hear. Tasks should occur during the audio, not just at the end. Replay sections of the audio if needed, but always give students a task to complete.
  

• How: See Lund's (1990) taxonomy of listener response types below.

• Post-Listening Activities: Wrap up the cycle by checking and clarifying answers, reviewing difficult sections, asking students opinions about the audio, or doing a speaking or writing task inspired by the topic of the listening.
  

• How: Check answers, help with misunderstandings, analyze languagein the text, audio also serves as stimulus for speaking or writing. 

Topic 3: Designing Listening Tasks - Frameworks and Options

Teaching not Testing: Teaching listening is not the same as testing listening. When we design listening activities, we need to incorporate listening response tasks that support understanding of the message and personal engagement with the text. Wilson (2008) says that effective listening activities: 

• "Provide a focus, showing students what is important about any given passage;
• Allow them to perceive the text's structure (causes and effects, problems and solutions, etc.)
• Help them to 'chunk' the listening into sections or units of informatin;
• Provide clues as to how they might respond;
• Keep them concentrating throughout the passage;
• Contribute towards the entertainment factor of the lesson by highlighting points of interest, irony, humour, etc." (p. 81).

Let's consider some ways teachers can do this!

Listening Response Types 

Teachers have many options when it comes to deciding how students will listen and respond to a text. Let's start by reviewing traditional types of comprehension questions before considering more student-centered and communicative alternatives. 

• Traditional Response Types: Traditionally, students are asked to complete listening comprehension questions in a sequence that helps them identify information from general topic to specific details. Nunan (1999) provides a comprehensive list of typical questions:

• Listen for Gist: Is the speaker talking about a family celebration or a work meeting? Is the podcast episode about sports or politics?

• Listen for Purpose: Are the speakers making plans to travel or discussing a past trip? What is the speaker trying to do?

• Listen for Main Idea: Why is the woman giving the man directions? What is the speaker's opinion about the movie?

• Listen for Specific Information: What time does the bus leave tomorrow morning? How many guests are expected at the event? 

• Listen for Inference: What can we guess about the man's relationship with his boss? What does the woman mean when she says, "Well, that's one way to handle it"?

• Listen to Identify Attitude: Does the speaker sound enthusiastic or bored? Is the speaker being sincere or sarcastic?

• Listen for Stress: Listen to how the man says, "I just bought the watch here yesterday". What sounds more important, where he bought the watch, or when?

• Listen for Phonetic Distinctions: Did the man say "sheet" or "seat"?

• Lund's Taxonomy: Randall Lund's (1990) taxonomy of listening response types includes answering traditional comprehension questions along with eight other alternatives which teachers can use to develop listening activities that engage learners and support their processing of the text. 

• 1) Doing Activities: Require a physical response of some kind rather than a spoken or written one. For example, learners listen and point, sit or stand, move from one side of the room to another, perform gestures, raise thier hand or perform other actions based on what they hear. 

• 2) Choosing Activities: Require selection from among alternatives. Examples include selecting the right pictures, objects, texts or actions; matching, placing pictures in the right order, or picking up objects according to description.

• 3) Transferring Activities: Require learners to take information in one form and transfer it to another. Most of the time this involves drawing a picture or completing a graphic of some kind. Examples include making a map, tracing a route, completing a chart or table, or labeling a diagram. 

• 4) Extending Activities: Require the listener to provide a text that goes beyond what is given. Examples include creating some kind of ‘finish’ to an incomplete story, solving a problem, and filling in missing lines of dialogue.

• 5) Duplicating Activities: Require the learners to replicate all or part of the message, either verbatim in the L2 or as a translation in the L1. Examples include repeating the exact message orally or in writing in either the L2 or a translation in the L1.

• 6) Condensing Activities: Require the listener to represent the message in a reduced form. Examples include completing outlines, notes, bullet points, oral or written summaries.

• 7) Modeling Activities: Require the listener to use the text as a model for imitation or for another action. For example, parts of the audio are used for a pronunciation lesson or the audio models a similar speaking activity to come.

• 8) Conversing Activities: Require the listener to have an interactive exchange with the teacher or peers about the content of the audio. Examples include giving opinions about the topic, story, characters, or ideas in the audio.

• 9) Answering Activities: Require the listener to answer traditional true/false, multiple choice, or short answer questions about gist, main idea, purpose, specific details, inference, and other aspects of the text.  

Applying Lund's Taxonomy to Materials Development

AI Supported Materials Development: Until very recently, teachers' choice of audios to include in a listening lesson was limited to audio tracts from the textbook, authentic materials, homemade recordings, and in-class dictations. Now, with the advent of generative AI tools, it is easy for teachers to write audio scripts that better fit their learners' needs and interests and they can easily utilize online text-to-speech tools to generate lifelike audio recordings.  The following sample activity include recordings, images, and response tasks that were developed with AI support. 

Sample 1 - Office Mystery

Materials and Procedure: Students access the worksheet below. The teacher plays the audio in segments giving the students instructions about what they must do in the next panel before playing the audio. Students compare and discuss the results before either listening again to a segment or moving to the next passage. 

• Worksheet: CLICK HERE

• Audio 1: CLICK HERE - Listen and circle Jake's lunch.
• Audio 2: CLICK HERE - Listen and draw the map to trace Jakes's steps.
• Audio 3: CLICK HERE - Listen and copy the question Lucy asked.
• Audio 4: CLICK HERE - Listen and perform the actions and emotions.
• Audio 5: CLICK HERE - Listen and complete the summary
• Audio 6: CLICK HERE - Listen and continue the story.

Commentary: This audio is rather long but it is broken into manageable chunks with specific learner response tasks for each section. It shows a variety of Lund's listening response types including: choosing, transfering, duplicating, doing, condensing, and extending. For Audio 4, the teacher selects two students to be actors. They must carry out the actions while expressing the emotions listed on the worksheet as they listen to the track. Their classmates will decide who the better actor is. 

Tools: The audio script, listening tasks, and images were created with ChaptGPT. The audio was generated using Microsoft Clipchamp's text-to-speech tool. 

Communicative Listening Outlines: One strategy to promote effective bottom-up and top-down processing as well as account for cognitive load is an original framework we propose called Communicative Listening Outlines. Inspired by Lund's taxonomy (1990), this technique breaks down long listening passages into smaller chunks, each with one or two listening tasks for learners to complete. The tasks should not be traditional comprehension testing items and instead be ones that encourage and support deeper level processing and communication.

• Task Format: The passage is divided into sections by analyzing the transcript to identify national points to pause the audio due to a change of speaker, topic, attitude, or another semantically significant aspect. Tasks and instructions are provided for each segment. The instructions and tasks provide context and a supportive framework for learners. 

• Task Types: We propose the following list of task types which are illustrated in the reference document. 

• Task Type Reference Document: CLICK HERE

• Keyword Notetaking: Students write keywords and short phrases as they listen, focusing on main ideas, details, or patterns in the text following an outline, table, or graphic organizer. As a variation, students can be assigned different aspects to take notes on to share with a peer afterward. This task type aligns with Lund's transferring and condensing activities.

• Paraphrase Important Ideas: Students read three short paraphrased statements and select the one that best matches a key idea from the audio. All options are brief and written as statements, not questions. Only one option expresses the idea accurately. This task is aligned with Lund's choosing activities. 

• Direct Quote Gap-Fill: Students complete a short, important quote from the audio using familar words. This task is meant to be used sparingly and only with segments of the text that contain complex syntax or particularly rich vocabulary and significant ideas. Displaying the quote helps to draw students' attention to these aspects.However, the words that students should listen for to complete the blanks should be simple words they already know. This task is aligned with Lund's duplicate activities.

• Mentioned / Not Mentioned: Students mark only the ideas they hear in the audio about a particular topic from a list that contains addition items. The list should include some direct quotes as well as paraphrased ideas. This is aligned with Lund's choosing activities. 

• Sequencing: Students organize short phrases that represent steps or events in the correct order. This aligns with Lund's doing activities. 

• Predict and Check: Students make a simple prediction before listing to a section, then confirm or revise. This is aligned with Lund's conversing activities. 

• Matching Ideas or Concepts: Students match ideas, people, or examples from the text to demonstrate understanding of relationships like cause and effect, concepts and examples, people and their roles or actions, and many other possibilities. This aligns with Lund's choosing and doing activities. 

• Identify Speaker's Purpose or Attitude: Students read a quote from the audio and choose or describe the speaker's reason for speaking, emotional tone, or intended effect. This is aligned with Lund's choosing and answering activities. 

• Task Sequence: Teachers can use the following steps to plan the flow of the WHILE-Listening stage.

• Whole Class Preparation: Teacher and students read instructions for tasks in segment one. 

• Individual Listening and Response: Teacher plays the segment and students complete the tasks alone.

• Collaborative Sharing: Students compare and discuss their responses with a partner.

• Whole Class Checking: The teacher elicits responses from the class and determines whether a second playthough is necessary before moving to the next segment and set of tasks.

• AI Supported Task Design: The task design process can be supported by the use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. The following detailed prompt can be used to analyze a listening transcript and generate potential tasks. As with any use of AI, the teacher will need to make the necessary modifications before bringing it to the classroom. 

• AI Prompt: CLICK HERE

Sample 2 - Discussing Health Concerns

Materials and Procedure: Students access the worksheet below. The teacher reviews the instructions and task expectations for part one before playing the audio. Students take notes while and immediately after playing the segment before sharing and comparing their responses with a partner. The teacher determines whether the segment needs to be repeated before moving the the second part. 

• Worksheet: CLICK HERE 

• Audio 1: CLICK HERE - Students listen and complete Part 1 of the worksheet.
• Audio 2: CLICK HERE - Students listen and complete Part 2 of the worksheet.

Commentary: This was designed for a low intermediate course for adults. The Communicative Listening Outline contains opportunities for paraphrasing a key idea, keyword notetaking, and direct quote gap-fill.

Tools: The audio comes from the textbook Voices 3 (Bryson & Lee, 2022), listening tasks were created by the author with support from ChatGPT. 

Sample 3 - Teenage Dilemmas

Materials and Procedure: Students access the worksheet below. The teacher plays the audio the first time and students listen to three teenagers describing a problem they are facing. For each speaker, students need to identify key details by drawing a line between the speaker and images. Not all images will be relevant. Then they discuss their choices with a partner. In the second listening students complete a chart by putting a checkmark next to any people mentioned by each speaker. For the thrid and final listening, students articulate the speakers' dilemmas using simple phrases, and put a check next to what they think the speaker should do next. Then they discuss their choices with a partner. They finish by chosing one of the characters and improvising a brief roleplay exploring what might happen next in the story.

• Worksheet: CLICK HERE

• Audio Track: CLICK HERE 

Commentary: The audio is long but broken into three segments that the teacher can easily pause between to allow students to think and process the information. The worksheet requires the students to listen to the audio multiple times, each for a different purpose and a number of Lund's response ideas are included: choosing, transferring, condensing, conversing, and extending. Tasks one and two make use of pictures that represent key details from the audio but it is up to students to interpret what these images represent which encourages more personal engagement with the task.

Tools: The audio scripts and tasks one, two, and three were written by the author. The images in task one were sourced from www.flaticon.com. The voices were produced using Google Gemini and ChatGPT conversation function and the roleplay cards in task four were created using ChatGPT.  

Sample 4 - Daily Routines, Habits, and Eating Preferences

Materials and Procedure: Students access the worksheet below. The teacher plays the three audios and students are asked to identify the speaker of each audio by matching them with a picture. They should also be encouraged to recall as many details about each person as they can. Then the teacher plays the audios again and students take keyword notes in the table. After each track, students can compare their responses with the person sitting near them. The tracks can be played one more time if needed before students complete tasks three and four in which they analyze and respond to the ideas mentioned by the speaker before creating a similar text about themselves using a narrative frame. 

• Worksheet: CLICK HERE

• Speaker 1: CLICK HERE
• Speaker 2: CLICK HERE
• Speaker 3: CLICK HERE

Commentary: This worksheet makes use of a very useful technique called guided note taking which is a combination of Lund's transfering and condensing response types. The note taking table identifies specific information learners must find and includes short phrases to help them write the required details. Each audio script follows a similar structure and students are required to extract the same information. Once they complete the note taking table, they can refer to the information there in order to complete the personal response in task three and the audios serve as a kind of model for students to describe their own habits and routines in task four.

Tools: The audio scripts, character images, and discussion questions were created using ChatGPT. The notetaking table in task two and narrative frame in task four were created by the author. The audios were generated using the text-to-speech feature at luvvoice.com.  

Sample 5 - Animal Behaviors

Materials and Procedure: Students access the worksheet below. The teacher plays the audio the first time and students identify the animals and the order they were mentioned by drawing a line between each picture and the numbers in the chart. Then the teacher assigns each student two numbers at random. On the second listening, students have to take keyword notes to complete the chart about their two assigned animals. The teacher can play the track a third time if needed. Then students are put in small groups. First they help their partners complete the missing information from their chart and then they discuss the questions. 

• Worksheet: CLICK HERE

• Audio Track: CLICK HERE 

Commentary: This worksheet includes a variation of the note taking response strategy mixed with a jigsaw listening task in which students are only responsible for taking notes about portions of the audio. After listening, students complete a speaking task in which they help each other complete the missing portions of their table. The audios also serve as a model for the students' description of an additional animal in task three.

Tools: The audio scripts and images were created with ChatGPT. The audio was generated with Microsoft's Clipchamp text-to-speech tool and the table and task instructions were written by the author.

Topic 4: A Framework for AI Supported Listening Materials Development

New generative AI tools now allow teachers to quickly create and adapt materials for their listening lessons including generation of scripts and realistic audio files. Here we share an original five-stage framework to get you started. 

5-Step Materials Development Cycle for AI Listening Activities

• 1. Analyze the Curriculum & Learners:
• Identify unit goals, target grammar/vocabulary, CEFR level, and listening skills.
• Consider learner needs, interests, and challenges.
• Define the purpose and constraints (length, format, difficulty).

• 2. Design the Listening Concept:
• Choose the scenario/genre (dialogue, meeting, announcement, story, etc.).
• Decide on key vocabulary, grammar targets, tone accents, and complexity.
• Outline what the audio must achieve (function or skill focus).

• 3. Generate & Refine the Script (Prompting + Iteration): 
• Craft a detailed prompt including level, length, scenario, and constraints.
• Produce a draft script using GenAI.
• Review it for accuracy, clarity, naturalness, and pedagogical alignment.
• Negotiate revisions with the AI until the script is final.

• 4. Create & Validate the Audio:
• Select AI voice settings (accent, speed, tone).
• Generate the audio file from the approved script.
• Listen critically for pronunciation, pacing, and naturalness.
• Regenerate sections if needed.

• 5. Build the Tasks & Implement: 
• Design the PWP listening tasks.
• Integrate the audio into your LMS, worksheet, or classroom activity.
• Pilot, deliver, and collect feedback for future improvement. 

Sample AI Generated Materials: In the workshop we demonstrated how each of these steps were followed to generate a rough first draft of a set of listening materials and tasks. Here are the resources we showed:

• 1) Source Curriculum: CLICK HERE

• 2) Listening Concept:

• Genre / Scenario: Dialogue between to students discussing their birthday party plans

• Functions: Describing actions and items to organize a party, giving and following directions, describing location, making requests and invitations

• Grammar and Discourse: sequential past time sequence adverbs, past tense, 

• Vocabulary: party items, party locations, action verbs (design, send out, create, go to, have a party, etc.)

• 3) Script Prompt and Draft: CLICK HERE

• 4) AI Generated Audio: CLICK HERE

• 5) Draft of PWP Tasks: CLICK HERE

AI Resources for Audio Creation: Here is a list of resources you can use to create your own audios and support material for your listening lessons.

• Eleven Labs: (https://elevenlabs.io) AI voice models and products for developers, creators, and enterprises. From low-latency conversational agents to leading AI voice generator for voiceovers and audiobooks.

• Clipchamp: (https://clipchamp.com/es/) Video editing tool with a powerful text to speech tool that allows you to create and edit your videos adding voice over, subbing or different layers of sound effects.

• Free Convert: (https://www.freeconvert.com/convert/video-to-mp3) Convert Video to MP3 format online, for free.

• Artlist: (https://artlist.io/) Get cutting-edge AI image and video, voiceovers, high-quality music, and more.

• Amazon Polly: (https://aws.amazon.com/polly/) Amazon Polly is a fully-managed service that generates voice on demand, converting any text to an audio stream. Using deep learning technologies to convert articles, web pages, PDF documents, and other text-to-speech (TTS).

• Luvvoice: (https://luvvoice.com/) Convert text to speech.

Alternatives to AI Generated Audios: If AI generated audios is not your thing or you are interested in other ways to experiment with listening materials development, we recommend reviewing the section about the structured interview technique in this blog post and session recording from PD Talk 28 - Real Language, Real Challenges: Authenticity in ELT Texts and Tasks.  

• Blog Post: CLICK HERE (read final section)

• Session Recording: CLICK HERE (begin at 1:27:32)

Topic 5: Key Session Takeaways

Seven Principles: This session has reviewed theoretical support and practical idas for developing meaning-focused listening tasks. The following principles will help you continue exploring this topic in your classes.

• 1) Development over Testing: Teaching and developing students' listening skills is not the same as testing them. Tasks should encourage meaning-focused processing of and response to the ideas of the text, not simply surface level reacall of ideas. 

• 2) Task before Text: Always give students tasks to do while processing the text. Never have students listen before sharing and clarifying the specific task they must complete.

• 3) Multiple Interactions: Help students construct the meaning of the text through multiple encounters, each with a different task. 

• 4) Time on Task: In a Pre-While-Post cycle, the While-Listening stage should get the most time. The Pre-Listening should be just long enough to provide necessary context, motivation, and expectations for the While-Listening and Post-Listening stages to come. Don't overdo the preparation. 

• 5) Alone and Together: Students should have the chance to process the input individually as well as through pair discussion and collaboration. 

• 6) Yeah, So What?: Students must be given the chance to react to and evaluate the ideas presented in the text to develop their voice as independent users of English.

• 7) Speaking through Listening: Receptive skills like listening and reading can be practiced in a communicative way with plenty of opportunities for authentic communication before, during, and after. 

References:

Bryson, E. & Lee, C. (2022). Voices 3. Heinle ELT. 

Buck, G. (2001). Assessing Listening. Cambridge University Press.

Centre for Educational Statistics and Evaluation. (2017). Cognitive Load Theory: Research that Teachers Need to Understand. NSW Department of Education.

Helgesen, M. (2003). Listening. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp. 23-46). McGraw Hill.

Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Langauge Acquisition. Pergamon Press Ing.

Lund, R. J. (1990). A taxonomy for teaching second language listening. Foreign Language Annals, 23. 105-115.

Morley, J. (2001). Aural comprehension instruction: Principles and practices. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (pp. 69-85). Heinle Cengage.

Nation, I.S.P. & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. Routledge. 

Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching & Learning. Heinle & Heinle.

Seller, J. (2010). Element interactivity and intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. Educational Psychology Review, 22(2), 123-138. 

Wilson, J.J. (2008). How to Teach Listening. Pearson Education Limited.

Wong, W.& VanPatten, B. (2008). The Evidence is IN: Drills are OUT. Foreign Language Annals 36(3). 403-423. 

Session Details and Author Information

Session Title: Designing Communicative Listening Tasks with AI Support

Session Abstract: Listening is an essential language skill that supports learners’ ability to engage in real-world communication, but it also comes with its own set of challenges for both teachers and learners. The well-established Pre-While-Post instructional framework for receptive skills provides a powerful guide for sequencing listening lessons, but teachers often find it difficult to design appropriate activities for the “While-Listening” stage that genuinely support skill development rather than simply test comprehension. Participants in this workshop will explore several practical frameworks for listening task design, engage in demonstration activities to better understand the frameworks, and see how a selection of AI tools and prompts can help them develop their own listening materials that are better adapted to their curriculum and students’ needs than traditional textbook sources.

Authors: Pablo Torres Marín & Mark Foster Cormier

Author Bios: Pablo Torres Marín is an English teacher, curriculum designer, and AI-enhanced learning specialist with more than fifteen years of experience in ELT, materials design, teacher development, Business English and ESP instruction for professional and corporate contexts. Pablo earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Costa Rica and a master’s degree in Educational Technologies and Digital Competences from Universidad Internacional de La Rioja in Spain. He currently works at Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano where he holds the position of Curriculum Designer He has developed placement test materials, designed evaluations aligned with international standards, and created AI-driven chatbots for language learning, interactive practice platforms, as well as digital resources that enhance learner engagement, assessment, and personalization. His corporate and ESP teaching background includes delivering customized courses for organizations such as Edwards Lifesciences, Bayer, ADN, Starbucks, CFIA, Motiva, Bomberos de Costa Rica, and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, emphasizing 21st-century skills, professional communication, and technical English.

Mark Foster Cormier is an English teacher and teacher educator who is passionate about materials development, reflective practice, and professional development in ELT. He earned a master of arts in TESOL from Marlboro College and bachelor’s degrees in English teaching and Latin American studies from Universidad Americana and Appalachian State University. Mark has been an EFL teacher in Costa Rica for 17 years and has specialized in teacher development for over a decade. He currently works as Head of Training and Educational Quality at Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano where he is in charge of new teacher recruiting and training, planning ongoing professional development initiatives, and hosting the monthly webinar series for language teachers called PD Talks: Professional Development Sessions. Click here to connect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-cormier-elt/