Nowadays, in the rapid globalization process, ability to speak foreign languages is known as a big advantage. In almost language centers, communicating courses have a remarkably prominent place among language programs. Now that English is an international language, it is the effective means to communicate with people from all over the world. When studying a foreign language, many students find listening and speaking harder than reading and writing. However, of the four language skills, listening is usually considered as the most difficult one. According to many researches, people spend a lot of time listening in comparison with other skills and listening is a fundamental skill in interpersonal communication. To develop listening, both teachers and students have to identify goals to achieve as well as strategies to do that. Besides, language teachers can help students learn listening effectively if they apply some key principles successfully such as
In fact, listening is a capability to hear and understand what other people say. As Harmer (2007) states “What a good listener is able to do is to process what he hears on the basis of the context it occurs in”. Although listening is one of receptive skills, it is not easy to listen well if language learning and teaching strategies are not used properly.
The first important things when teaching or learning a language in general and listening skill in particular are setting clear goals and practice. Many students take classes