Many problems can be seen in the practical listening class, such as a distorted listening motivation, a lack of sufficient and authentic input and a corresponding neglect of metacognitive awareness of learning in actual teaching. In fact, what we are doing in the listening class is to test rather than to teach, to foster the passive receiver rather than the active learner. This article analyzes these problems from theoretical perspective, speculating on the limitations in terms of the comprehensible input, the affective filter and metacognitive awareness. Then, based on the author teaching experience, it provides some suggestions to solve the present problems. It suggests what is needed in teaching listening is careful consideration of pre-,during and post- listening tasks incorporating both the top-down and bottom-up processes.
