Perception and Knowledge: Teachers’ Views on Listening Comprehension and its Teaching in Junior Secondary Schools in Botswana

Abstract

The study surveyed, by means of a questionnaire, teachers’ knowledge and perception of listening comprehension and its teaching in some junior secondary schools in Gaborone, Botswana. The findings are that the teachers, in the schools surveyed, perceive listening comprehension as important; understand the stages involved in its teaching, although they find while-listening the most difficult to teach; and do not understand how to employ the Communicative Approach in the teaching of listening – they do not, in particular, understand what authentic texts mean nor do they understand what to do with students’ listening errors. There is thus need to discuss the place of listening comprehension in the English syllabus and provide in-service training for the English teachers who teach it.