Using a content-based approach, Academic Listening Encounters helps prepare high-intermediate ESL students for listening to lectures and taking notes in an English speaking academic environment. The content focus of this book is human behavior, which includes such high interest topics as stress and health, intelligence, and friendship. Each of ten chapters explores one of these topics using a variety of listening materials, including a set of directions to follow, informal interviews, and authentic classroom lectures. These materials offer students the opportunity to practice crucial listening skills, such as summarizing what they have heard or listening for implied information; they also serve as stimuli for discussion and note-taking activities. Pre-listening tasks expose students to vocabulary they will encounter in the interviews and lectures and help them acquire important skills such as building background knowledge on the topic and guessing meaning from context.