Even though it is recognized as the macro-language skill most strongly correlated with the rapid development of foreign language skills, listening is reported to be the most under-researched and the most neglected by foreign language teachers. Motivated by our will to improve as L2 listening teachers, we embarked on an action research project aiming to develop a series of listening training approaches based on contemporary listening research. Focusing on a combination of metacognitive, top-down and bottom-up strategies, twelve English as a lingua franca-informed listening training activities were implemented at a private Japanese university. This paper provides a review of the listening training program for 147 Japanese students. It considers pre and post-program listening assessment, student perceptions of their self-efficacy as L2 listeners, teachers" observations and student reactions to the explicit training program. While the program was received favorably by students, as indicated by their positive stance towards listening and communicating in English at the end of the treatment, no improvement in listening test scores was observed.

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Smartphones, tablets, and today's touch screen laptops are powerfultools capable of serving hundreds of specialized, complex operationsand applications to anyone, seemingly anywhere in the world. Forsecond language learners and those who teach them, these toolssuddenly have the potential to recast the reading experience for 21stcentury students and invigorate Extensive Reading (ER) research.Exploration into digital ER exclusively through the medium of mobiledevices is only an emerging area of study in the English as a LinguaFranca (ELF) classroom. This study reports on the implementation of a15 week (one semester) pilot test of Xreading® (www.xreading.com),an online Graded Reader (GR) library and learning managementsystem (LMS) devoted specifically to the implementation and operationof extensive reading at a private university in Tokyo, Japan.Participants in this study have access to a vast virtual library of gradedreaders and are being instructed to read outside of class using a mobiledevice. This paper reports on student engagement with this platformexclusively for 15 weeks in regards to changes in reading speeds,volume of reading, and correlations between these numbers andTOEIC® IP test scores. The authors will reflect on student attitudesand perceptions of reading digitally and lastly, present someconsiderations for teachers and administrators who recognize thebenefits of ER and who, for various reasons, envisage implementingextensive reading into their classroom syllabus or program curriculum.

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Focusing on the teaching of listening strategies to second language (L2) learners, this study sought to revisit Renandya and Farrell’s (2011) claims that explicit listening strategy instruction for lower-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) is a fruitless endeavor. As such, we implemented a quasi-experimental study to measure the effectiveness of a metacognitive intervention for a convenience sample of lower-proficiency (CEFR A2) Japanese university EFL learners ( n = 129). The training program focused on an explicit process-based approach, involving integrated experiential learning tasks and guided reflections, to develop learners’ L2 listening skills. Data collection consisted of TOEIC® test scores, listening comprehension tests, cloze tests, a listening self-efficacy questionnaire, and a post-treatment survey. While the training program was received favorably by students, and students displayed a slightly more confident stance towards listening in their L2, we were unable to find any strong empirical evidence that our lower-proficiency EFL learners’ listening performance improved. As such, these results provide evidence of a potential proficiency threshold for EFL learners to start to benefit from a strategy-focused metacognitive intervention.