Successful listening is a critical element of learning and performing in a new language. Second language teachers should include more listening activities in their class routines, and should consider a greater variety of formats and class organizational styles for those activities. The small-group format, not often used for listening activities, has a significant number of psychological and pedagogical benefits, including student assumption of more responsibility for their own and others' learning, increased attention to individual student needs, increased motivation, and a more natural range of listening experience. A number of commonly-used listening formats work well in small groups and many activity formats described in second-language publications can be adapted for both small groups and listening practice, including picture matching, manipulatives, commands, situations, logic, and sentence and paragraph true-false formats. (MSE)