EC2 Listening Goals & Objectives

The main aim of this course is to use listening texts to help students improve their listening skills and language competence. The emphasis will be on developing understanding of short texts containing features of authentic native-speaker speech, and developing knowledge and control of high-frequency language items, using listening texts as support. The course also aims to build engagement and confidence in listening through the use of recordings of graded readers.


Goal 1: Develop better comprehension of (controlled) spoken English.

Objective 1.1:Use lexical and / or grammatical knowledge developed through pre-listening & post-listening exercises to support listening comprehension.
Objective 1.2:Develop better and more consistent sound-word matches through repeated listening.
Objective 1.3:Listen to a wider range of genres than those of EC1 Listening: i.e., short monologues or short conversational exchanges, in addition to interviews.

Goal 2: Develop language competence – ‘"listening to learn."

Objective 2.1:Use listening texts as sources for language input through listening to short, controlled texts containing high-frequency language items (BNC top 2000 words).

Goal 3: Demonstrate the ability to communicate with teachers in written and verbal form.

Objective 3.1:Develop confidence through listening to extensive graded input (from graded readers).

Goal 4: Develop the ability to say and identify difficult sounds, words and phrases to support listening comprehension.

Objective 4.1:Develop a greater awareness of features of the speech stream (weak sounds, linking, elision).

Updated 2018.02.15