These activities have various purposes, including pre-teaching or activating vocabulary, predicting content, generating interest and checking understanding of task.
Example
The learners are going to listen to a radio programme about sharks. First, they work in groups to pool their knowledge of sharks and then tell the rest of the class.
In the classroom
Pre-listening tasks include discussion questions, true or false statements, vocabulary work, prediction tasks and brainstorming the topic.
Further links:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/pre-listening-activities
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/a-framework-planning-a-listening-skills-lesson
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/listening-activities-songs
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/listening-young-learners
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/listening-elementary-learners