ABSTRACT
This chapter explores effective approaches to listening comprehension for students in Japan as an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. It discusses the current situation of English listening pedagogy in Japan and introduces two theoretical frameworks on the listening comprehension process: J. R. Anderson's model and the top-down and the bottom-up processes. The chapter also discusses the three main sources of difficulties and suggests effective interventions by which teachers can facilitate students' listening comprehension. The three main sources of difficulties are speech rate, unknown vocabulary, and pronunciation. The chapter also discusses a solution that can be implemented in pre-tertiary and tertiary English education in Japan. Teaching suprasegmental features should be integrated with speaking skills. Field proposed a three-part sequence consisting of pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening and contains activities that link bottom-up and top-down listening. In the pre-listening phase, providing topical knowledge is more helpful for the use of metacognitive strategies for students than the vocabulary review.
