The following explanations assume you have some kind of access to the Language Gym site as well as a basic familiarity with the Conti approach.
How it works
Identical to the Vocab Trainer, the first ' activity' is a list of the terms in the set - called Self Study - with audio for both the target language and English. Having the audio for the English is especially beneficial for those students who need to hear and see text in English - especially because in the US we have many students who have "read-aloud" accommodations required by law as part of their special education plan (I am not sure how this works legally for my UK and global colleagues). The learner should start by listening to the terms in Self-Study before proceeding to the other activities.
The 8 different activities that follow begin with focus on meaning, then expand to focus on form (spelling) and word order. The beginning tasks require a lower cognitive load and prime for the later activities with less scaffolding that require a higher cognitive load (but that load will be reduced if the activities are done in order - very important to explain to students!) This explanation about sequencing comes from Conti's Becoming an EPI Teacher workshop - see his blog also.
Considerations
As always, be mindful of students who have any kind of auditory processing issues, attention or working memory issues, or processing issues that effect spelling or word order (dyslexia, dyspraxia). Provide textual support on paper with the terms in the set, and direct students to omit activities that they may not be able to do successfully. For example, as I mention the video below, students with working memory or attention challenges may not be able to do the Delayed Dictation and Delayed Translation tasks.
Possible Uses
If you are using the full or partial MARSEARS sequence from Conti, the Listening Trainer could be a valuable addition to (or replacement for) teacher-led activities in the classroom for Listening as Modeling. I do a sort of blended-learning with students doing a lot of work online, so I plan to use this and the Listening as Modeling activities on SentenceBuilders.com at the start of the sequence; I like it because students can change the speed of the audio, choose the level of difficulty and move at the pace they need to. This provides for differentiation and personalization while minimizing my labor. Obviously I will require students to use headphones so the room does not become too noisy and distracting.
The Listening Trainer could be used as homework or cover work for when a teacher is out of the building, as it is independent work and could be done easily without adult supervision. It also is a good option for students reviewing for assessments who need reinforcement of their listening skills, or students who simply require more practice than what they get in the classroom with the teacher-led activities.
Overall, I find it to be a very valuable tool that will provide my students with Listening as Modeling in a manner that is accessible and allows them choice while sparing me a bit.
Here is my walkthrough video with commentary: