Activity theory signifies that activities are at the centre of human behaviour and it has been used to study cognitive process in many fields. Nowadays, college English listening learning is time-consuming but less effective in China, so enhancing the performance of listening instruction is a very hot topic. Theoretically, activity theory is able to provide a proper framework for analyzing motive, designing tasks, contributing rules and tools in English listening in English as foreign language environment. Therefore, it is necessary and significant to unify the activity theory to design a novel model of listening comprehension and to analyze the college English listening from a different perspective. According to the theoretical analysis, activity theory is a useful framework to design the model of college English listening and to provide learner-centered education.