LISTENING TO LEARN-Book One

NTRODUCTION
Thank you for selecting Listening to Learn (L2L)
Listening to Learn is the first of a series of specifically designed listening materials for use in secondary ESL and EFL classrooms here in Taiwan and the larger Chinese community (mainland China, Hong Kong, etc.). The authors of this particular series are myself, co-Project Director for English Education Resource Center (EERC, the ESL arm of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education for secondary language instruction) and Richard Roshay, EERC’s American ESL consultant and a career ESL materials developer specialist.
The source of listening material for Listening to Learn is based on selected video clips from English Central (EnglishCentral.com). Each of the five units is theme-based and we have selected themes which we believe will be of interest to both you and your students.
As with the other books in the listening series, Listening to Learn is developed around the three core sections called Think Ahead, Let’s Listen, and Learning More. The Think Ahead- section introduces the theme and seeks to activate prior or background knowledge. The Let’s Learn- section presents the core listening both with and without the video segment (thus allowing students the opportunity to listen only). The Learning More-section, encourages students to reconstruct some of the content of the video with theme-based follow up activities and a wide range of vocabulary practice of the lexical items selected in Vocabulary Practice Review. Each of the three sections has within it a number of activities which are designed to support the listening.
The authors of Listening to Learn
 believe the development of good listening skills a life skill
 consider listening as an effective means of vocabulary development and acquisition
 hold that listening is an active and demanding skill that all students can develop
 see listening as collaborative and not a skill practiced solely in isolation
 value learning as a life-long pursuit

Some of the key features of Listening to Learn are
 a wide range of vocabulary support activities and tasks
 the introduction of Visual Dictation and Visual Dictionaries to the series
 the inclusion of mini- Problem-Based-Learning activities
 highly visualized texts to enhance and encourage learning
 critical-thinking based tasks

Regards,
Pearl Chang & Richard Roshay

Richard is an experienced and enthusiastic ESL instructor and teacher trainer having taught in Europe (Paris, France) and the Middle East (The United Arab Emirates) for many years.
While having been born and educated in the USA (Oregon), Richard has lived his entire professional life abroad.
Throughout his career, Richard has been keenly involved in developing ESL materials for students and teachers alike. In Tunisia, he trialed the new high school ESL textbooks developed by the British Council and the Ford Foundation. In France, he began developing ESL and ESP materials for business, finance, real estate and even shipping. In Saudi Arabia, his talents for materials development were such that he was asked to re-write the Royal Saudi Air Force English Language course books. Shortly after arriving in the UAE, Richard put together the first materials development team for the Higher Colleges of Technology, a team which went on to produce five fully-integrated and themed books while heading up teams in both the Men’s (AAMC) and Women’s (AAWC) college.
Among his major credits, Richard cites his founding of his own language school in Paris, France The American Teachers’ Guild, over twenty years of professional peer development and, not the least, is one of the founding members of TESOL Arabia – now the largest TESOL event in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Richard is still very active in materials development and most notably for his work in vocabulary acquisition. He is the developer of a highly successful tool – Visual Dictionaries. These dictionaries, coupled with a range of Visual Dictation activities ensure a quick, fun and enduring experience in learning new vocabulary easily.
Richard was recently appointed an official consultant for EERC and has made two trips to Taiwan to work with EERC ESL instructors and in designing, developing and delivering excellent workshops and presentations.

Pearl Chang is the Executive Secretary of English Education Resource Center (EERC) as well the co-Project Designer, both under the auspices of the Taiwanese MOE.
Ms. Chang received her MA in TESOL from the National Taiwan Normal University in 2002. In 2005, she was sponsored by Taiwan MOE to attend the well-known EFL overseas training course at Georgetown University.
Even after twenty-eight years as an EFL instructor in secondary education, she continues to exemplify what it means to be a life-long learner as she is currently working on her doctorate (Curriculum, Instruction and
Assessment) through the Education Department of Walden University in the US.
In the course of her studies, Ms. Chang attended a number of courses and training via the University of Oregon, sponsored by the US State Department. This period proved to be pivotal in her pedagogical development as she remains today to be a strong advocate of Differentiated Instruction, Project/Problem Based Learning and the effective use of Graphic Organizers in the classroom. Over the last few years, Ms. Chang has been instrumental in the design and implementation of a nation-wide teacher development program. Her professional development initiatives have resulted in the creation of teaching teams called Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and SEED Teachers both of which contribute to the growth and development of ESL faculties in the secondary system across Taiwan.
A true academic, Ms. Chang also has a wide range of publications to her credit (notably a translation of How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classroom written by Carol Ann Tomlinson, Write the Best 20 and Show Me the Way) as well as a long history of presenting both at the national and international levels, most recently presenting at CamTESOL in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, TESOL Convention in New York and previously at the International Reading Association in Reno-Nevada, USA.
Ms. Chang is the initiator and architect of the Pathways to Listening series. Perhaps the most surprising outcome of the project has been her return to the classroom as she reaps the benefit of being both a developer and an end-user, demonstrating her life-long commitment to the teaching and learning of English here in Taiwan.