diff --git a/include/ndn-cpp/c/encoding/element-listener.h b/include/ndn-cpp/c/encoding/element-listener.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af88a85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/ndn-cpp/c/encoding/element-listener.h
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2013 Regents of the University of California.
+ * @author: Jeff Thompson <jefft0@remap.ucla.edu>
+ * See COPYING for copyright and distribution information.
+ */
+
+#ifndef NDN_ELEMENT_LISTENER_H
+#define NDN_ELEMENT_LISTENER_H
+
+#include "../common.h"
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+/** An ndn_ElementListener struct holds a function pointer onReceivedElement.  You can extend this struct with data that
+ * will be passed to onReceivedElement.
+ */
+struct ndn_ElementListener {
+  void (*onReceivedElement)(struct ndn_ElementListener *self, uint8_t *element, size_t elementLength); /**< see ndn_ElementListener_initialize */
+};
+
+/**
+ * Initialize an ndn_ElementListener struct to use the onReceivedElement function pointer.
+ * @param self pointer to the ndn_ElementListener struct
+ * @param onReceivedElement pointer to a function which is called when an entire binary XML element is received.
+ * self is the pointer to this ndn_ElementListener struct.  See ndn_BinaryXmlElementReader_onReceivedData.
+ */
+static inline void ndn_ElementListener_initialize
+  (struct ndn_ElementListener *self, void (*onReceivedElement)(struct ndn_ElementListener *self, uint8_t *element, size_t elementLength))
+{
+  self->onReceivedElement = onReceivedElement;
+}
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+}
+#endif
+
+#endif