Keywords
explicit listening strategy instruction, teacher mediation, metacognitive scaffolding, affective support, Moroccan CPGE
Abstract
This article investigates teachers’ mediating role in implementing Explicit Listening Strategy Instruction (ELSI) within Morocco’s Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles (CPGE). Despite a growing body of research affirming the benefits of strategy-based listening instruction, classroom realization often depends on how teachers bridge theory and practice. Grounded in cognitive, metacognitive, sociocultural, and constructivist frameworks, this qualitative, interpretivist study explored how two CPGE English teachers enacted, adapted, and sustained ELSI under high-stakes, exam-driven conditions. Data were collected through classroom observations, reflective teacher accounts, and student feedback, and analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase model. Findings revealed three core mediational roles—strategic modelling, metacognitive scaffolding, and affective mediation—that collectively transformed listening from a test-oriented to a reflective learning process. Nonetheless, teachers faced persistent contextual constraints: limited instructional time, curriculum rigidity, strategy–proficiency mismatches, and learner anxiety. The study concludes that effective listening pedagogy in such contexts depends on empowering teachers as reflective mediators capable of balancing explicitness, adaptability, and emotional support. It advocates sustained professional development, curriculum reform recognizing listening as a teachable skill, and institutional support for reflective practice.
