Prediction activities can also be tied to specific tasks. If your learner is a university student or has a job where she frequently has to attend lectures, you may want to teach your learner how speeches are generally written. If she knows the importance of the introduction, conclusion and other speech markers (first of all, my second point is etc.), she can more readily determine when she should pay close attention and when she can relax.

Making inferences; interpreting the underlying meaning

Making inferences can be extremely difficult for some learners. While the literal meaning of a statement can be discovered using a learner's knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, being able to understand inferred meaning will be an ongoing process. A learner's ability to infer meaning will improve as she learns more about the social conventions and body language of the new culture.

Unfortunately, this is not an easy skill to teach. The speaker and events need to be taken into consideration when considering the inferred meaning:

• The speaker - her personality, mood, attitude and relationship to the person spoken to
• The events - what has happened prior to this speech sample; what may be the result to this conversation

Often, inferred meaning is subtle, culturally dependent and open to interpretation. Take for example the statement, "Are you doing anything Saturday night?" Most of us see this as the start of an invitation. To say, "nothing" and then decline the subsequent invitation would be considered rude. ESL learners may not be aware of the significance of the question, "Are you doing anything Saturday night?"

C: A Listening Lesson: Using teaching strategies to assist the learner

Naturally, the best ESL workbooks and textbooks will present listening activities in an integrated manner. There will be reading, writing, speaking and listening exercises regarding a particular theme. Activities will reinforce each other, helping to develop the context and enabling the learner to develop each skill more effectively.

Should you and the learner opt to use other types of listening materials - television shows, video clips or movies, you will need to plan the lesson in a way that enables the learner to access prior knowledge before moving into the listening lesson itself.