The development of listening skills is a crucial component of second language learning and teaching, and students need to acquire successful listening strategies to capitalize on the language input they receive. This article presents some comparative think-aloud protocols of beginning level language learners listening to an oral text. It is argued that successful listeners use more metacognitive strategies and use these strategies to interact at a deeper level with a text to construct meaning. The article concludes with pedagogical implications, outlining an instructional model for developing metastrategic awareness in students that will allow them to become more aware of the process of listening and to learn how to use the metacognitive strategies that will lead to greater success in listening comprehension.
