The Power of Listening: Unlocking Academic Success for Multilingual Learners

Introduction: Why Listening Matters More Than We Think
Listening is often the most overlooked skill in language learning, yet it is the foundation upon which all other linguistic abilities are built. In the 2025 Aldine ISD Literacy Matters Conference, where I had the privilege of presenting on the empowerment of IEP and multilingual students, we explored how oral language development fuels academic growth.
Many teachers focus on reading and writing as the primary literacy components, but what happens before a student can effectively read and write? They must first develop listening comprehension, metalinguistic awareness, and the ability to process language in real time. Without strong listening skills, students struggle to understand classroom discourse, follow instructions, and engage in meaningful communication.
This article will unpack research-based listening strategies that support multilingual learners, exploring how pre-teaching vocabulary, activating prior knowledge, and scaffolding instruction can revolutionize listening instruction. By explicitly teaching listening, we can enhance students’ ability to process oral language, improve comprehension, and build a strong linguistic foundation that supports reading and writing.

The Role of Listening in Language Development
​Listening is not passive; it is an active process that requires learners to decode sounds, interpret meaning, and engage with context simultaneously. According to the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) framework, multilingual learners develop language and content concurrently—meaning that the more they listen, the better they learn.
In a bilingual education setting, listening plays three critical roles:
1️⃣ Developing Phonological Awareness – Multilingual learners must discriminate between sounds in their first language (L1) and English (L2). Understanding that sounds form words and words form meaning is a crucial metalinguistic skill.
2️⃣ Enhancing Comprehension – Students rely on listening comprehension to process new information, whether in a literacy lesson, science experiment, or math problem.
3️⃣ Bridging Oral Language and Literacy – Listening provides the input necessary for speaking, which in turn supports reading and writing development. As Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (1979) suggests, skills transfer from one language to another, making listening a cross-linguistic bridge between L1 and L2.
This underscores why listening should be explicitly taught, rather than assumed as a natural byproduct of exposure. Without structured listening instruction, many English learners are left to navigate complex language input without support—hindering their ability to engage with content and communicate effectively.

Moving Forward: Teaching Listening with Purpose
​So, how do we teach listening effectively in a multilingual classroom? The next sections will break down five research-based strategies that make listening instruction accessible, engaging, and meaningful for English learners at different proficiency levels.

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension is not just about hearing words; it is about understanding them within a meaningful context. One of the most effective ways to support multilingual learners in developing strong listening skills is through pre-teaching vocabulary—a strategy that provides students with the necessary linguistic tools before they engage with new content.
Why Pre-Teaching Vocabulary Matters for Listening
Many students—especially those in bilingual, ESL, and IEP settings—struggle with listening comprehension because they encounter unfamiliar words while processing spoken language in real time. Unlike reading, where students can pause, re-read, and use visual cues, listening happens instantaneously. This means that if students don’t recognize key vocabulary, they may quickly lose the thread of the conversation or lesson.
Research on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) highlights that students need multiple exposures to a word in different contexts to internalize its meaning. Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1985) suggests that learners acquire language when they are exposed to “comprehensible input” (i.e., language that is slightly beyond their current level but still accessible with support). Pre-teaching vocabulary makes input more comprehensible, allowing students to focus on listening comprehension rather than decoding unfamiliar words.

What Kind of Vocabulary Should We Pre-Teach?
Not all words need to be explicitly taught before a listening activity. Research suggests that teachers should prioritize Tier 2 vocabulary—words that appear frequently in academic settings and across multiple subjects but may not be commonly used in everyday conversation.
Types of Vocabulary to Pre-Teach:
✅ Tier 2 Academic Words – Words like classify, analyze, emerge, predict, evaluate are used across different content areas and are essential for academic discussions.
✅ Content-Specific Terms – Key words related to a lesson, such as photosynthesis in science or constitutional rights in social studies.
✅ High-Frequency Words with Multiple Meanings – Words like scale (which could mean a measurement tool or a climbing action) often confuse English learners.
✅ Cognates – Words that share a root in English and students’ native language (e.g., important – importante in Spanish) can provide an entry point into new vocabulary.

How to Pre-Teach Vocabulary Effectively
Pre-teaching vocabulary should go beyond simply giving students a list of words to memorize. Instead, students should be actively engaged in learning and using these words before they encounter them in a listening activity.
1️⃣ Use Visuals and Context CluesPairing words with images, gestures, and real-life examples helps students create mental associations that improve retention. 
Example Activity: Before listening to a podcast about volcanoes, show images of lava, ash clouds, and an erupting volcano. Ask students to match each image with a key vocabulary word (eruption, magma, crater).
2️⃣ Incorporate Short Audio Clips for FamiliarizationExpose students to key words in context before the main listening activity. This gives them a preview of what they will hear and helps them predict meaning. 
Example Activity: Use short 30-second news stories (such as Listenwise’s Weird News stories) to introduce Tier 2 words in authentic contexts before moving into a longer discussion.
3️⃣ Leverage Student Background KnowledgeActivate students’ prior knowledge by asking them to connect new vocabulary to something they already know.
Example Activity: For a lesson on government structures, ask students: Does your home country have a president or a king? How do leaders make laws in your country? Then, introduce terms like democracy, legislature, and executive branch in connection with their responses.
4️⃣ Engage in Structured Retelling with Sentence FramesAfter pre-teaching vocabulary, guide students in reusing the words in their own speech before they hear them in context.
Example Activity: Provide sentence frames like:

• “An eruption happens when _______________.”
• “A crater is found at _______________.”

Students can fill in the blanks with what they predict about the lesson before they listen.

Laying the Foundation for Listening Success
​Pre-teaching vocabulary is not just a warm-up activity—it is a critical scaffold that enables students to actively engage in listening. When multilingual learners recognize key words in a listening passage, they can focus on comprehending the message rather than struggling to decode unfamiliar terms.

Activating Prior Knowledge to Boost Listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension is not just about hearing words—it’s about making sense of them in context. One of the most powerful strategies for improving listening skills, especially for multilingual learners, is activating prior knowledge before introducing new content.
As we discussed in the Aldine ISD Literacy Matters 2025 Conference, metalinguistic awareness—the ability to think about and analyze language—plays a crucial role in helping students connect new information to what they already know. When teachers deliberately activate students' background knowledge, they create a bridge between familiar concepts and new linguistic input, making listening a meaningful and engaging process.

Why Activating Prior Knowledge Matters for Listening
Multilingual learners do not start from scratch when they enter an English-speaking classroom. They bring with them linguistic and cultural knowledge from their first language (L1), as well as life experiences that shape the way they process new information. Cummins' Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) theory supports the idea that knowledge transfers across languages, meaning that if students understand a concept in their L1, they can apply that understanding to English.
When students struggle with listening comprehension, it is often not because they lack intelligence or ability, but because they lack context for what they are hearing. Research shows that when students have a framework for new information, they are more likely to stay engaged, retain content, and critically process what they hear.
Key Strategies for Activating Prior Knowledge in ListeningTo help students connect their existing knowledge to new listening material, teachers can use three research-based strategies:

1️⃣ Anticipation Guides: Predicting and Discussing Key Themes
Before listening, students benefit from predicting what they will hear based on their prior knowledge and experiences.
Example Activity: Agree/Disagree Statements
For a listening passage about climate change, teachers can present students with statements such as:

• “Climate change is mostly caused by human activity.”
• “All countries experience the same effects of climate change.”
• “Recycling has no real impact on the environment.”

Students discuss whether they agree or disagree with each statement before listening. This helps them activate prior knowledge, make connections, and mentally prepare for the content they are about to hear.
Why It Works: Anticipation guides prime students' brains for what they will hear, making them more engaged and attentive during the listening activity.

2️⃣ Visual Aids: Making Connections Through Images and VideosMany multilingual learners rely on visual cues to support comprehension. Before listening, showing pictures, maps, or short video clips can provide essential background knowledge.
Example Activity: Picture Walks
For a lesson on historical events, such as the Civil Rights Movement, teachers can show historical photos of key figures (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.), protest marches, and signs. Students describe what they see and predict what the upcoming listening passage will be about.
Why It Works: Visual aids contextualize unfamiliar words and concepts, making the listening passage more accessible.

3️⃣ Storytelling & Personal Connections: Building RelevanceStudents engage more when they can relate to a topic. By tapping into their personal experiences, we help them emotionally invest in what they are about to hear.
Example Activity: Think-Pair-Share Personal Connections
For a lesson on migration, ask students:

• “Has anyone in your family ever moved to a different city or country? What was it like?”
• “What challenges do people face when they move to a new place?”

After sharing in small groups, students listen to a podcast on migration and compare their experiences with those in the story.
Why It Works: Relating new information to personal experiences makes it more memorable and meaningful, leading to stronger listening comprehension.

Making Listening Meaningful
​When we activate students' prior knowledge, we make listening an interactive process rather than a passive task. By using anticipation guides, visual supports, and personal connections, we empower students to engage deeply with what they hear, improving both comprehension and retention.

Teaching Language and Content Together: Making Listening More Purposeful

Listening is not just a language skill, it is a cognitive tool that helps students access content, make meaning, and engage in academic learning. In multilingual classrooms, listening serves a dual purpose: students are not only learning new information but also acquiring the language needed to express and analyze that information.
During the Aldine ISD Literacy Matters 2025 Conference, we explored the importance of integrating oral language development with academic content. The World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) framework supports this by stating that multilingual learners develop content and language concurrently—meaning that listening activities should always be designed to enhance both linguistic skills and subject matter understanding.

Why Teaching Language and Content Together Matters for Listening
🔹 Listening with a Purpose: Students comprehend more when they know why they are listening. If listening is tied to an academic objective, students are more likely to engage.
🔹 Scaffolding Language Through Content: When students listen in real-world contexts, they acquire new vocabulary and structures naturally rather than memorizing isolated words.
🔹 Motivation & Relevance: Multilingual students often struggle with motivation if the listening material feels disconnected from their interests and real-life experiences. By embedding listening within meaningful academic content, we give students a reason to care.

Key Strategies for Teaching Language and Content Through ListeningTo ensure that students develop both listening skills and academic knowledge, teachers can use three effective strategies:

1️⃣ T-Chart Listening for Academic Language vs. Content Knowledge
When listening to academic discussions, students need to process both what is being said (content) and how it is being communicated (language). A T-chart listening organizer helps students break this down.
Example Activity: Sorting Language for Purpose
For a listening passage about space exploration, students divide their notes into two categories:
Academic Language (How is it said?)Content Knowledge (What is it about?)"According to scientific research..."Facts about Mars and its atmosphere
"The data suggests..."Description of NASA’s missions
"One argument in favor of..."Debate over space colonization
Why It Works: This strategy trains students to recognize patterns in academic language while absorbing subject matter, strengthening both linguistic skills and content comprehension.

2️⃣ Interactive Listening with Debate & Discussion
Listening should not be passive, students should engage with what they hear by analyzing, responding, and debating.
Example Activity: The Friday Debate (Listen – Discuss – Defend)
- Step 1 – Listen to an Argument: Play a short podcast or news clip that presents two sides of an issue (e.g., Should social media be banned in schools?).
- Step 2 – Discuss with a Partner: Students summarize the key arguments and share their opinions.
- Step 3 – Defend a Position: Assign students a viewpoint (even if it’s not their own) and have them argue their case using evidence from the listening passage.
Why It Works: This method transforms listening into critical thinking and structured conversation, reinforcing academic discussion skills.

3️⃣ Listening with Graphic Organizers for Content Retention
Visual tools help multilingual learners organize and retain information from listening tasks.
Example Activity: Story Maps, Cause-Effect Charts, and Timelines
🔹 For narrative texts (e.g., historical events, biographies) → Use a story map to track key details.
🔹 For scientific concepts (e.g., climate change) → Use a cause-effect chart to map out relationships.
🔹 For historical events → Use a timeline to sequence important dates and facts.
Why It Works: These tools provide a structured way to capture ideas from listening, making content easier to process and recall.

Merging Listening, Language, and Learning
​When we integrate listening with academic content, we are not just teaching students how to hear words—we are equipping them with the tools to analyze, interpret, and engage with complex ideas. By using T-charts, debates, and graphic organizers, we ensure that students are not just listening for language but also thinking through content.

Scaffolding Instruction for Listening: Making Comprehension Accessible for All Learners

Listening is one of the most challenging skills for multilingual learners, as it requires them to process language in real time, without the ability to pause and reflect as they can when reading. The challenge is even greater for students who are still developing their academic language proficiency.
At the Aldine ISD Literacy Matters Conference, we discussed how scaffolding listening instruction ensures that all students—whether they are newcomers, intermediate bilinguals, or advanced English learners—can access content, build confidence, and strengthen comprehension.
By scaffolding, we provide temporary supports that help students navigate complex listening tasks until they can manage them independently. These supports can be adjusted depending on students’ English proficiency levels, prior knowledge, and learning needs.
Why Scaffolding Matters for Listening
🔹 Reduces Cognitive Overload – When students are exposed to unfamiliar vocabulary, fast-paced speech, or complex sentence structures, they can become overwhelmed. Scaffolding breaks information into manageable parts, making listening less intimidating.
🔹 Increases Engagement & Confidence – Students are more likely to participate in discussions and comprehension activities when they feel prepared to understand what they hear.
🔹 Supports Language Processing at All Levels – Listening scaffolds allow students to focus on meaning rather than struggling with individual words, enabling them to engage with content at their own level.

Key Scaffolding Strategies for Listening Comprehension
To make listening more accessible and effective, teachers can implement three research-based scaffolding strategies before, during, and after listening.
1️⃣ Pre-Listening Supports: Setting Students Up for SuccessBefore students engage with a listening passage, they should be given tools to predict meaning and anticipate key ideas.
💡 Example Activity: Think-Aloud Predictions
- Step 1 – Provide students with the title and topic of the listening passage.
- Step 2 – Ask students to predict what they think they will hear based on the title.
- Step 3 – Have students listen to the first 30 seconds and check if their predictions were correct.
Why It Works: This technique activates prior knowledge, builds curiosity, and gives students a mental framework to process the information.
2️⃣ During-Listening Supports: Making Input ComprehensibleWhile students are listening, we can provide real-time supports to help them decode meaning and stay engaged.
Example Activity: Interactive Transcripts & Slowed Audio
Using tools like interactive transcripts, audio speed controls, and note-taking guides can help students chunk information while they listen.
🔹 For beginner learners: Provide visual cues, gestures, and sentence frames to support understanding.
🔹 For intermediate learners: Allow students to pause the audio and discuss key points in pairs.
🔹 For advanced learners: Challenge students to summarize key arguments in real-time as they listen.
Why It Works: These strategies allow students to process language at their own pace, reducing frustration and increasing comprehension.
3️⃣ Post-Listening Supports: Reinforcing Understanding
After listening, students should engage in meaningful activities that solidify comprehension and encourage language production.
Example Activity: "What’s the Big Idea?" Retelling Routine
-Step 1 – Ask students to retell the main idea of the listening passage in one sentence.
-Step 2 – Have students expand their summary by adding two supporting details.
- Step 3 – Pair students and have them share and compare their summaries.
Why It Works: Retelling forces students to process information actively, reinforcing listening comprehension while promoting oral language development.
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Final Thoughts: Listening as a Scaffolded Process
Listening comprehension does not happen instantly—it is a skill that must be developed over time. By using pre-listening, during-listening, and post-listening scaffolds, we ensure that students engage deeply with spoken language, rather than feeling lost or discouraged.