Using Lecture Transcripts in EAP Lecture Comprehension Courses

Good lecture comprehension involves the interaction of the following skills: 1) the ability to synthesize discourse in order to extract relevant information, 2) the ability to predict future information, and 3) the ability to relate background knowledge to new information. Many non‐native English‐speaking students, who are competent listeners in their native languages, are not aware of the conventions and cues which signal important information in lectures delivered in a foreign language. This article will demonstrate how transcripts of academic lectures and pseudo‐cloze exercises developed from these transcripts may be used to help foreign students to become aware of the skills involved in the process of listening to lectures. By making cues and conventions salient, these exercises give students confidence in their ability to listen selectively without attending to every word. The article begins with a discussion of several theories of discourse processing and follows with relevant examples of analyzed lecture discourse and suggested exercises for non‐native speakers.