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Introduction
. Listening in language teaching refers to a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language. It’s not only a skill area in language performance，but is also a critical means of acquiring a second language.
. The problem of how to teach English listening effectively and get students to improve their listening skills has always been under fierce controversies since the New Curriculum of English Teaching in Chinese Secondary Schools was put into practice. Some believe that listening practice should be focused on the “test” situation，whereas a large proportion of teachers regard listening as one of the four basic skills of English learning，therefore，attention ought to be drawn to the long-term development and strategies of students individually，to which the author strongly agree. However，in order to develop students’ strategies for listening，the teacher should provide a structure to listening tasks in the classroom and help students feel more confident. In this essay，the author intends to focus on the vital elements in listening teaching process and by combining the theories with the present situations of Chinese English classrooms，acquire a general overview of English listening teaching in TESOL classrooms.
. This essay is divided into the following three parts：
. Firstly，it discusses the three periods in the listening-teaching task cycle，i.e.，pre-task，task- and post-task；
. Second，it relates the theories and strategies to the author’s practical teaching application；
. Thirdly，it indicates some important strategies fir developing Chinese students’ English listening skills.
Main Body
. Literary Review
I. Procedures and detailed activities chaining the flow-chart of Task-feedback Circle
According to Jim Scrivener(2005)，there are three guidelines in the task-feedback circle. First，grade the task rather than the material. Second，task first — then text or tape. And，finally，process rather than product. In his opinion，a basic working procedure for lessons on listening skills should be divided into the following three parts：pre-task，task，and post-task.
1. Pre-task
This is usually conducted by a pre-listening introduction to the topic of listening，such as discussion，vocabulary teaching，looking at pictures and describing，and sometimes some proper and relevant reading. All of these activities convey the function of lead-in to the topic.
2. Task
After the setting of a clear task and pre-task work，comes the central task，the most important part of the whole activity. According to Penny Ur(1996)，there are three main categories of tasks：short tasks，longer tasks and extended tasks. Short tasks include True or False exercises，answering questions，finding mistakes，cloze，matching，guessing definitions，ticking items，and following instructions，just to name a few. The longer tasks are more complicated and time ought to be carefully assumed beforehand，which include item like answering more complex questions，note-taking，paraphrasing，translating，summarising，longer gap-fill，etc. Finally，the most demanding and time-consuming tasks are the extended，among these are interpretation，discussion，problem-solving and follow-on tasks. It’s also very important for the teacher to play the recording a sufficient number of times，and even to break down longer recordings into “chunks”. In addition to these，the author is particularly obsessed with the method of “intelligent guessing”，which is quite an effective and efficient way of prediction. In this way，students’ interests are aroused immediately，so that students won’t lose heart and avoid becoming indifferent to listening，because interest is the fundamental layer of listening.
3. Post-task
After the listening activities，it’s important and necessary to get a feedback on this very task. It can be either students to students or students to teacher，in the forms of discussion，matching exercise，completing a sample of application form，and so on. However，one thing that the teacher must bear in mind is not to throw in a whole pile of extra questions，at this point，otherwise students may get confused and discouraged，thus losing their interest on English listening from now on. And as an efficient way of improving listening skills，it is always vital for the teacher to conclude and summarize the previous activities. He or she can tie up loose ends，make good preparations for follow-on activities，review what has been learned，etc.，to leave a deep impression of the relevant knowledge on the students.
II. Strategies applied for developing listening skills
Penny Ur(1996) believes that there are four elementary factors in the most effective strategies used for developing listening skills. The first one is recognition of context，lexis，grammar structures，register，etc. Next comes selection of structures within the listening to help complete the task and those that are redundant. The third strategy is prediction—what can students expect to hear? And finally，inferred meaning，which means it’s not important to understand everything. It emphasizes on what the students can infer from the listening about language that they don’t know. It is important for the teacher to take all these into thorough consideration in order to help our students develop listening strategies and skills that they can use both in and outside the classroom.
. Chinese context
The author has applied the effective method of “intelligent guessing” in the actual teaching activities. In the English high school English course book，there is a unit named “Environment”. Before doing the listening exercise in this unit，the author lets students predict the tendency of the contemporary and future environmental development. Combining with the information from all kinds of media and their knowledge，students immediately guessed the attitude and connotation of this listening exercise. By this means，the efficiency of listening is rapidly improved.
In another English class in practical teaching，the author applies the method of eliciting before the actual task of listening to a short dialogue. The title of this listening exercise is called “future transportation”，so the author elicits the possible sentence patterns and tenses that might be mentioned in this listening. The students think of words like “spaceship”，“aeroplane”，“UFO”，“motorboat”，etc. And they easily work out the tenses that would be most commonly used in this listening：the future simple，the future continuous，and the future prefect tenses. Then the author writes down these structures on the blackboard. Afterwards，the students take about five minutes to do some drillings. Then their first major task is to do some True or False exercise. After listening for the second time，they have to fill in the gaps the missing words or phrases and do the pair-checking work. Then，after the third time，the author asks some detailed questions related to the text. After the whole listening activity，the students have a heated discussion on choosing their favourite means of future transportation. Students think highly of this whole series of activities and learn a lot from the lesson.
. Conclusion
In this essay，the whole process of a listening class is degenerated and divided into three parts：pre-task，task，and post-task. And on the basis of these segments，the relative solutions and examples are put forward，just to give a possible suggestion on how to teach an English listening class in Chinese TESOL classrooms. Apart from these，four supplementary strategies are listed，subordinate to the category of improving listening skills. The author strongly recommends applying these strategies and methods in practical English teaching in Chinese TESOL classes.，especially the strategies of eliciting，intelligent guessing and prediction. These not only stimulate students’ motivation，but also enhance not only students’ fundamental listening skills and therefore improve students’ listening effectively. The author acquires these effective theories and strategies at the University of Brighton in UK，and sincerely hopes that this essay could be of some help to the teachers that are striving for improving their students’ English listening skills.
. Listening in language teaching refers to a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language. It’s not only a skill area in language performance，but is also a critical means of acquiring a second language.
. The problem of how to teach English listening effectively and get students to improve their listening skills has always been under fierce controversies since the New Curriculum of English Teaching in Chinese Secondary Schools was put into practice. Some believe that listening practice should be focused on the “test” situation，whereas a large proportion of teachers regard listening as one of the four basic skills of English learning，therefore，attention ought to be drawn to the long-term development and strategies of students individually，to which the author strongly agree. However，in order to develop students’ strategies for listening，the teacher should provide a structure to listening tasks in the classroom and help students feel more confident. In this essay，the author intends to focus on the vital elements in listening teaching process and by combining the theories with the present situations of Chinese English classrooms，acquire a general overview of English listening teaching in TESOL classrooms.
. This essay is divided into the following three parts：
. Firstly，it discusses the three periods in the listening-teaching task cycle，i.e.，pre-task，task- and post-task；
. Second，it relates the theories and strategies to the author’s practical teaching application；
. Thirdly，it indicates some important strategies fir developing Chinese students’ English listening skills.
Main Body
. Literary Review
I. Procedures and detailed activities chaining the flow-chart of Task-feedback Circle
According to Jim Scrivener(2005)，there are three guidelines in the task-feedback circle. First，grade the task rather than the material. Second，task first — then text or tape. And，finally，process rather than product. In his opinion，a basic working procedure for lessons on listening skills should be divided into the following three parts：pre-task，task，and post-task.
1. Pre-task
This is usually conducted by a pre-listening introduction to the topic of listening，such as discussion，vocabulary teaching，looking at pictures and describing，and sometimes some proper and relevant reading. All of these activities convey the function of lead-in to the topic.
2. Task
After the setting of a clear task and pre-task work，comes the central task，the most important part of the whole activity. According to Penny Ur(1996)，there are three main categories of tasks：short tasks，longer tasks and extended tasks. Short tasks include True or False exercises，answering questions，finding mistakes，cloze，matching，guessing definitions，ticking items，and following instructions，just to name a few. The longer tasks are more complicated and time ought to be carefully assumed beforehand，which include item like answering more complex questions，note-taking，paraphrasing，translating，summarising，longer gap-fill，etc. Finally，the most demanding and time-consuming tasks are the extended，among these are interpretation，discussion，problem-solving and follow-on tasks. It’s also very important for the teacher to play the recording a sufficient number of times，and even to break down longer recordings into “chunks”. In addition to these，the author is particularly obsessed with the method of “intelligent guessing”，which is quite an effective and efficient way of prediction. In this way，students’ interests are aroused immediately，so that students won’t lose heart and avoid becoming indifferent to listening，because interest is the fundamental layer of listening.
3. Post-task
After the listening activities，it’s important and necessary to get a feedback on this very task. It can be either students to students or students to teacher，in the forms of discussion，matching exercise，completing a sample of application form，and so on. However，one thing that the teacher must bear in mind is not to throw in a whole pile of extra questions，at this point，otherwise students may get confused and discouraged，thus losing their interest on English listening from now on. And as an efficient way of improving listening skills，it is always vital for the teacher to conclude and summarize the previous activities. He or she can tie up loose ends，make good preparations for follow-on activities，review what has been learned，etc.，to leave a deep impression of the relevant knowledge on the students.
II. Strategies applied for developing listening skills
Penny Ur(1996) believes that there are four elementary factors in the most effective strategies used for developing listening skills. The first one is recognition of context，lexis，grammar structures，register，etc. Next comes selection of structures within the listening to help complete the task and those that are redundant. The third strategy is prediction—what can students expect to hear? And finally，inferred meaning，which means it’s not important to understand everything. It emphasizes on what the students can infer from the listening about language that they don’t know. It is important for the teacher to take all these into thorough consideration in order to help our students develop listening strategies and skills that they can use both in and outside the classroom.
. Chinese context
The author has applied the effective method of “intelligent guessing” in the actual teaching activities. In the English high school English course book，there is a unit named “Environment”. Before doing the listening exercise in this unit，the author lets students predict the tendency of the contemporary and future environmental development. Combining with the information from all kinds of media and their knowledge，students immediately guessed the attitude and connotation of this listening exercise. By this means，the efficiency of listening is rapidly improved.
In another English class in practical teaching，the author applies the method of eliciting before the actual task of listening to a short dialogue. The title of this listening exercise is called “future transportation”，so the author elicits the possible sentence patterns and tenses that might be mentioned in this listening. The students think of words like “spaceship”，“aeroplane”，“UFO”，“motorboat”，etc. And they easily work out the tenses that would be most commonly used in this listening：the future simple，the future continuous，and the future prefect tenses. Then the author writes down these structures on the blackboard. Afterwards，the students take about five minutes to do some drillings. Then their first major task is to do some True or False exercise. After listening for the second time，they have to fill in the gaps the missing words or phrases and do the pair-checking work. Then，after the third time，the author asks some detailed questions related to the text. After the whole listening activity，the students have a heated discussion on choosing their favourite means of future transportation. Students think highly of this whole series of activities and learn a lot from the lesson.
. Conclusion
In this essay，the whole process of a listening class is degenerated and divided into three parts：pre-task，task，and post-task. And on the basis of these segments，the relative solutions and examples are put forward，just to give a possible suggestion on how to teach an English listening class in Chinese TESOL classrooms. Apart from these，four supplementary strategies are listed，subordinate to the category of improving listening skills. The author strongly recommends applying these strategies and methods in practical English teaching in Chinese TESOL classes.，especially the strategies of eliciting，intelligent guessing and prediction. These not only stimulate students’ motivation，but also enhance not only students’ fundamental listening skills and therefore improve students’ listening effectively. The author acquires these effective theories and strategies at the University of Brighton in UK，and sincerely hopes that this essay could be of some help to the teachers that are striving for improving their students’ English listening skills.