Listening Comprehension Programmes in Iranian (Persian) High Schools and Universities

According to Brown (1994) the role and significance of listening comprehension in language acquisition can hardly be overlooked. Listening skill is universally a “larger” and “stronger” factor than other skills. In recent years, the language-teaching profession has placed a concerted emphasis on listening comprehension. Listening comprehension in most of the countries is considered as a major component in language acquisition. However in my country, Iran, listening comprehension has not received much attention by English language teachers..

Very modern views on language such as sociocultural, connectionist, emergentist, and communicative views (cf. Lynch, 2009) are not taken into account in schools or universities in Iran. Rather old views on language such as the Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) and Structural Syllabi of classroom teaching continue in my country (Iran) till today.

In this paper, linguistic (bottom-up) and communicative (top-down) categories are discussed showing them in a continuum as two extremes and assuming both of these categories to be necessary in listening comprehension and other language skills.