How can we make listening in the classroom more like listening in real life?

To make listening activities successful, a teacher need to make them true to life. In this case, the effectiveness will rise, students’ motivation and their engagement in the process as well

To make listening activities successful, a teacher need to make it true to life. In this case, the effectiveness will rise, students’ motivation as well and their engagement in the process too. 

To make listening like listening in real life may be achieved, I believe, by making a good lead-in and pre-listening activities.

For example, if the audio represents a monologue focused on teenagers’ reputation in modern society, before doing the listening a teacher can organise a talk with students.       What I mean is that a teacher can ask students who “teenagers” are, how they can comment on “teenagers’ reputation”, why it is negative, and what teenagers can do to improve their situation.

By eliciting the ideas, a teacher can introduce some new vocabulary, which will be in the audio. Then, a teacher can ask students to listen to a short report and to compare their ideas with the statistics.

So, this will create a natural atmosphere as students will listen not only because it is an exercise.

To achieve the same goal, a teacher can give more audio focused on real life situations. For example, “at the restaurant” or “at a hotel” and students can watch them and then either make up their own dialogues or perhaps a teacher can play the audio (or video) and after questions stop it so that students could answer them themselves.