SESSION IV (10 January 2006)

In this session trainees experimented strategies for listening and speaking in their groups.
Thanks to the activities proposed and implemented during the session they were provided the opportunity to reflect on the specific strategies they were using and how the task to accomplish could become easier if cooperation with colleagues was called into question.

The activities were somehow samples to be considered as instances to carry out in the school context. During the final part of the session R. Oxford's strategy inventory was referred to in order to list all the different strategies used in the different steps of the learning unit. Trainees recognized thy moved from predicting, to concentrating, lowing down anxiety, relaxing, cooperating and many others. Of course the different tasks implemented that ranged from listening for gist to listening for specific information required metacognitive as well as affective and social strategies.

The experimentation was also meant to raise awareness of the strategies traditionally neglectsed. Therefore the activities carried out offered the chance to reflect on possible means to improve students' and teachers' awareness of possible ways to reinforce self-esteem and tackle tasks that sometimes may appear too difficult. Listening is a strategic skill to be developed since exposure to the target language is an essential prerequisite to make progress in language learning and acquisition.