Listening, as a discrete skill within language teaching, is recognized as a difficult skill to learn and teach. It has perhaps become more challenging recently due to the current emphasis on using 'real' language, with background noise, at a natural speed, with hesitations, interruptions, fillers etc. combined with the use of a variety of accents. This article summarises and reflects on research which has focused on both the complex cognitive processes involved in listening and the need to improve students metacognition through the teaching of listening strategies. While perception skills and bottom-up approaches to listening need to be attended to, top down strategies also need to be taught. Given the difficulties experienced by learners in understanding oral texts, and advances in technology, video materials should be exploited more than audio, as they help set context and provide many visual clues enabling listeners to understand more easily. Video has become far more accessible and present in the everyday lives of our students and should be exploited more by (English) language teachers to develop their listening skills.
