12 Listening Skill

Mrs. Bhavna Dave

Unit Structure:

11.0Learning Outcomes

11.1Introduction

11.2 Different Kinds of Listening Material

11.3 The Listening Activity

11.4 Three Phases of Listening

11.5 Types of Listening

11.6Sample Listening Activities

11.7Tips for being a Good Listener

11.8Let us sum up

11.0 Learning Outcomes:

With the help of this unit, you will be able to:

Explain the meaning of listening skill
Understand the listening activity
Identify the barriers tothe listening activity
Identify the materials used for listening activity
Comprehend the phases of a listening process
Understand the different types of listening
Understand the essentials for being a good listener

11.1 Introduction:

Listening may be defined as an act of receiving oral language. It is the ability to understand what others speak or say. It is the basic skill in the process of learning a language. It is a receptive skill but not passive. The learner is actively involved in the process, but is at the receiving end.

Barriers to the Listening activity:

Both listening and reading are receptive skills, but listening can be more difficult than reading because different speakers produce the same sounds in different ways. They may have different dialects and accents; they may use different stress, rhythm, intonation, and pronunciation. The speed of the input of spoken material cannot be controlled, besides spoken material is often heard only once. The listener cannot stop the speaker to work out the meaning.Background noise and recurrence of matter may also pose a problem in listening.Therefore in listening, people must do many things to process information they are receiving. They have to hear what is being said, they have to pay attention to catch as much information as possible so as to construct a meaningful message in their mind by relating what they hear to what they already know. While listening, the speakers’ facial expressions, gestures and other body language provide visual clues which help to understand and predict what is heard. Most of the listening allows the listener to respond to the speaker, whether the matter is understood or not.

Significance of listening:

Every good communication starts with good listening. Good listening skill helps to improve our interaction and relationship with others. It leads tofewer mistakes in any task we are allotted, increases sharing of information which in turn leads to more creative and innovative work.

11.2 Different Kinds of Listening Material:

In general, there are two different kinds of materials you can listen to:

Authentic materials includes anything that is ‘unscripted’, ‘live’ lectures and seminars, the English you hear on the television and radio, and English spoken outside the classroom, etc. An unscripted text is one that is not written down in advance, but rather, transcribed afterwards (more natural, but often harder to follow, because people do not speak in an organized or structured way in real life).
Course book materials include simulated lectures and seminar presentations and semi-scripted listening tasks from course books.

11.3 The Listening Activity

What does it mean to really listen?

Real listening is an active process that has three basic steps.

Hearing: Hearing just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is saying. For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras, and the speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact, then you have heard what has been said.
Understanding:The next part of listening happens when you take what you have heard and understand it in your own way. Let’s go back to that report on zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that might mean. You might think, “Maybe this means that the pattern of stripes is different for each zebra.”
Judging: After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? You might think, “How could the stripes to be different for every zebra? But then again, the fingerprints are different for every person. I think this seems believable.”

11.4 Three Phases of Listening:

The three phases of the listening process are: pre- listening, during listening, and after listening:

Pre- listening phase: During the pre- listening phase, teachers need to recognize that all students bring different backgrounds to the listening experience. Beliefs, attitudes, and biases of the listeners will affect the understanding of the message. In addition to being aware of these factors, teachers should show students how their backgrounds affect the messages they receive.Before listening, students need assistance to activate what they already know about the ideas they are going to hear. Simply being told the topic is not enough. Pre- listening activities are required to establish what is already known about the topic, to build necessary background, and to set purpose(s) for listening. Students need to understand that the act of listening requires not just hearing but also thinking, as well as a good deal of interest and information that both speaker and listener must have in common.
While-listening phase: Students need to understand the implications of rate in the listening process. Nichols (1948) found that people listen and think at four times the normal conversation rate. Students have to be encouraged to use the “rate gap” to actively process the message. In order to use that extra time wisely, there are several things students can be encouraged to do: They can run a mental commentary on it; they can doubt it, talk back to it, or extend it. They can rehearse it in order to remember it; that is, they repeat interesting points back to themselves. They can formulate questions to ask the speaker and jot down key words or key phrases. They can wonder if what they are listening to is true, or what motives the speaker has in saying it, or whether the speaker is revealing personal feelings rather than objective assessments. (Temple and Gillet, 1989, p. 55)This kind of mental activity is what effective listeners do during listening.
Post-listening phase: Students need to act upon what they have heard to clarify meaning and extend their thinking. Well-planned post- listening activities are just as important as those before and during. Some examples are: To begin with, students can ask questions of themselves and the speaker to clarify their understanding and confirm their assumptions. Hook and Evans (1982) suggest that the post-mortem is a very useful device. Students should talk about what the speaker said, question statements of opinion, amplify certain remarks, and identify parallel incidents from life and literature. They can summarize a speaker’s presentation orally, in writing, or as an outline. In addition to the traditional outline format, students could use time lines, flow charts, ladders, circles, diagrams, webs, or maps. They can review their notes and add information that they did not have an opportunity to record during the speech. They can also analyse and evaluate critically what they have heard. Students can be given opportunities to engage activities in that build on and develop concepts acquired during an oral presentation. These may include writing (e.g., response journal, learning log, or composition), reading (e.g., further research on a topic or a contradictory viewpoint), art or drama (e.g., designing a cover jacket after a book talk or developing a mock trial concerning the topic through drama in role).

11.5 Types of Listening:

Discriminative listening: This develops right from childhood as we grow into an adult gaining more life experiences. Gradually our ability to distinguish between different sounds improves. We are able torecognize different voices and at the same time we develop the ability to identify understated differences in the way sounds are made and what they mean. Differences include many intricacies, recognizing foreign languages, distinguishing between regional accents and clues to the emotions and feelings of the speaker.
Comprehensive listening:This involves understanding the message that is being communicated. For this the listener first needs appropriate vocabulary and language skills. Overly complicated language or technical jargon can be a barrier to comprehensive listening. Two different people listening to the same thing may understand the message in two different ways, depending on their comprehension skills.
Informational Listening: Whenever you listen to learn something, you are engaged in informational listening. This is done in day-to-day situations, in education and at work.
Critical Listening: When we have to evaluate or scrutinize what is being said and make judgements, we are involved in critical listening.It involves some sort of problem solving or decision making. One has to analyze the information being received with what we already know or believe.
Empathic listening: It involves attempting to understand the feelings and emotions of the speaker – to put yourself into the speaker’s shoes and share their thoughts.This type of listening does not involve making judgements or offering advice but gently encouraging the speaker to explain and elaborate on their feelings and emotions.
Appreciative listening: It is listening for enjoyment. A good example is listening to music, especially as a way to relax.
Rapport Listening: When trying to build rapport with others we can engage in a type of listening that encourages the other person to trust and like us. A salesman, for example, may make an effort to listen carefully to what you are saying as a way to promote trust and potentially make a sale. This type of listening is common in situations of negotiation.
Selective listening: This is a negative type of listening; it implies that the listener is somehow biased to what they are hearing. Bias can be based on preconceived ideas or emotionally difficult communications. Selective listening is a sign of failing communication – you cannot hope to understand if you have filtered out some of the message and may reinforce or strengthen your bias for future communications.

11.6 Sample Listening Activities:

Word Clap: Gather the children together on the floor and read them a story that repeats a particular word many times. Instruct the children to clap every time they hear that word. You can make the game more competitive by paying attention to which children are clapping only after hearing their classmates clap. These kids can be “out” and the game can continue until establishing a winner.
Circle Message: Ask children to sit in a circle on the floor or outside. Whisper a short action phrase into the ear of one child, for example, “Touch your nose and jump up and down.” Instruct the children to whisper the message from one person to the next until reaching the end. The last student to receive the message must perform the action. This is a great game to play for children to practice attentive listening skills.
Draw a Picture: This game works well for people of all ages. Choose more difficult pictures for older individuals. Explain to the children that they are to draw a picture according to your verbal instructions. For example, to draw a picture of a cat, you can begin by telling the students to draw a figure eight with two triangles at the top. Continue to give verbal instructions on how to draw the cat and award the child whose drawing closely resembles yours.
Actions and Sounds: Prepare an audio track that plays a variety of different sounds such as a car horn, a whistle and a bell chime. Explain to the students that each sound is associated with an action. For example, when the children hear the car horn they should jump. Play the audio track and watch as the children perform the necessary actions. If a child stops paying attention or incorrectly performs an action, she is “out” and sits down. Continue playing until a winner is determined.
Listening Quizzes: Choose an interesting story, speech or newspaper article. Read the piece in front of the class. The class is not permitted to take notes. At the end of the piece, hand out a series of questions that pertain to the piece. The students must answer questions based on what they heard. After everyone is finished, students take turns reading their answers aloud and correcting their quizzes. Whoever answers the most correctly, wins.

11.7 Tips for being a good listener:

Give your full attention on the person who is speaking. Don’t look out the window or at what else is going on in the room.
Make sure your mind is focused, too. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your mind wandering, change the position of your body and try to concentrate on the speaker’s words.
Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance to say everything they would like to say without being interrupted. When you interrupt, it looks like you aren’t listening, even if you really are.
Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You can’t really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next.
Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with phrases such as “My point is…” or “The thing to remember is…”
Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said so that you can be sure your understanding is correct. For example, you might say, “When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean that the stripes are different on each one?”
Give feedback. Sit up straight and look directly at the speaker. Now and then, nod to show that you understand. At appropriate points you may also smile, frown, laugh, or be silent. These are all ways to let the speaker know that you are really listening. Remember, you listen with your face as well as your ears!

Remember: Thoughts move about four times as fast as speech. With practice, while you are listening you will also be able to think about what you are hearing, really understand it, and give feedback to the speaker.

11.8Let us sum up:

In this unit, we have looked at the different aspects of the listening skill. We can use recorded listening materials or live listening materials in our teaching practice. Students need to be guided through the listening activity in a phased manner.

First the student has to be prepared for the exercise- this is termed as the pre-listening phase, the second step is the while-listening phase in which the learner completes the task set up as part of the listening activity. The final post-listening phasehelps consolidate the learner’s comprehension.

you can view video on Listening Skil

Suggested reading:

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kline-listen/b10ch3.htm
http://esl.about.com/od/listeninglessonplans/a/youtube.htm