LISTENING

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When
we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and
finally to write. These are called the four "language skills": also known as "macro skills'.

Macro skills are most commonly referred to listening, speaking, reading and writing in English
language.

What is Listening?
Listening: This is a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret
and evaluate what he or she hears. Listening effectively improves personal relationships through
the reduction of conflict and strengthens cooperation through a collective understanding while
speaking is vocalization of human communication. Being able to express an idea, concept or
opinion through speech is essential in the communicative process and languages are about
communication. A good language teachers plan lessons, and sequences of lessons, which include a
mixture of all the macroskills, rather than focusing on developing only one macro-skill at a time.

Listening is the most important skill in communication. It is a mental operation involving

processing sound waves, interpreting their meaning, and storing them in memory. It is a
communication technique that requires the listeners to understand, interpret, and evaluate what
they hear. It paves the way for other skills to tower over the others because of its significance in
terms of speech, discussion and freedom of expression. They serve as an approach to make
everybody comprehend which is being said.

Usually tied up with speaking as a skill is listening. It is a complex process that involves the
understanding of spoken data and involves receptive, interpretative, or constructive cognitive
processes (Rost, 2005). This definition implies that listening and listening comprehension are
essentially the same. Similar to reading, listening involves both bottom-up and top-down
processing rather than using these processes individually and that these processes operate
simultaneously.
It is estimated that listening is twice as extensively used compared to speaking, four times L2
listening has three sub processes namely decoding, comprehension, and interpretation (Rost,
2005). Decoding refers to attending, perceiving speech, recognizing words, and parsing
grammar. Comprehension deals with activation of schema, representing propositions, and
logical inferencing. Interpretation refers to matching the meaning to previous expectations and
evaluating discourse meanings.

Further, Listening can be reciprocal or nonreciprocal. Reciprocal listening involves dialogues in

which the original listener and speaker have alternating roles as source and as receiver of
information. Nonreciprocal listening involves a one-way role taking as in the case of listening to
monologues. Comparing the two, nonreciprocal listening appears to be more difficult to
undertake (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000)

It is closely related to speaking and it enables the persons to soak in any information that is given
to them; consequently, the information can be passed on to another party later on after the
conversation. On the other hand, learners will develop prediction and anticipation skills in
listening. Without listening, communication will be crippled. It is vital and should be a main part in
communication.

Types of Listening
 Listening for gist: you listen in order to understand the main idea of the text.

 Listening for specific information: you want to find out specific details, for example key words.

 Listening for detailed understanding: you want to understand all the information the text
provides.

Importance of Listening
 Without listening, no organisation can operate effectively, nor ultimately survive. Effective
listening provides the information required to enable organisations to adapt to meet the
changing needs of customers and keep up with market trends.
 Good listening and skilful questioning give a powerful message to those with whom you
interact. They hugely increase your capacity to influence, motivate, develop or serve people
effectively.
 Listening and questioning are an inherent part of most life skills, fundamental to human
interaction, and a major factor in the success of a good communicator.
 Good listening allows us to demonstrate that we are paying attention to the thoughts, feelings
and behaviours of the other person (seeing the world through their eyes). This is crucial to
maintaining productive relationships, and sometimes the only way to establish
communication.

Strategies of Listening
As regards listening pedagogy, Hinkel (2006) argued that it has shifted from a more linguistically-
based approach to a more-schematic-based one which incorporates cultural constructs, discourse
clues, pragmatic norms, and topic familiarity. Current listening pedagogy also involves the
enhancement of metacognitive and cognitive strategies to facilitate listening comprehension. The
most widely adopted metacognitive strategies for listening include self-monitoring and evaluating
comprehension process, planning for listening, and determining listening difficulties. As for
cognitive strategies, they may include inferencing, elaboration, and summarizing. Note-taking and
other academic listening activities are techniques appropriate for advanced listeners and can be
integrated with speaking, reading, and writing.

Mendelsohn (1998) has outlined teaching strategies for a strategy-based L2 listening. The first step
is to make learners aware of the value of using strategies when listening. It is followed by pre-
listening activities that will activate learners’ schema. Then, listeners are explained on what they
will listen to and why. Guided listening is also provided to allow more practice of strategies.
Learners are then allowed to practice strategies in a meaning-focused context and to process what
has been listened to for note-taking and summarizing among others. Finally, learners are
encouraged to self-evaluate their level of comprehension.

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and
recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the
input.
1. Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the
topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge
activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what
will come next. Top-down strategies include:
 Listening for the main idea
 Predicting
 Drawing Inferences
 Summarizing

2. Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is,
the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies
include:
 Listening for specific details
 Recognizing cognates
 Recognizing word-order patterns

Research has demonstrated that adults spend 40-

50% of communication time listening (Gilman & Moody
1984), but the importance of listening in language
learning has only been recognized relatively recently
(Oxford 1993). Since the role of listening
comprehension in language learning was taken for
granted, it merited little research and pedagogical
attention. Although listening played an important role in
audio-lingual methods, students only listened to repeat
and develop a better pronunciation (for speaking).

Beginning in the early 70's, work by Asher,

Postovsky, Winitz and, later, Krashen, brought attention to the role of listening as a tool for
understanding and a key factor in facilitating language learning. Listening has emerged as an
important component in the process of second language acquisition (Feyten, 1991). This research
base provides support for the pre-eminence of listening comprehension in instructional methods,
especially in the early stages of language learning.

Listener
 a person who listens, especially someone who does so in an attentive manner.

Types of Listener
Listeners are of four types, namely, active listeners, passive listeners, non-listeners and evaluative
listeners.

ACTIVE LISTENERS
 As the term implies, active listeners involve themselves actively in the communication process
by keenly listening not only to the message but also to the way it has been delivered. They
focus on the content as well the manner in which it is delivered. This means that they will take
note of the verbal content along with its nonverbal subtexts. They will not hesitate to seek
clarifications, ask leading questions, show their approval by nodding head, and summarize to
clearly indicate that they fully follow the speaker. In this way, the active listeners are quiet
 sensitive towards the feelings of others, they understand the mood of the audience. They
show empathy and make the audience or the other person cared for. Once the audience get
the feeling that they are being cared for, they will devote themselves fully to the
communication process. Once there is mutual involvement, there will be hundred per cent
success in terms of communication. The message sent will be received correctly and feedback
is given in a favorable manner. So it leads to a win-win situation and causes effective
communication. Contrarily, if the audience would sense that the speaker is insensitive
towards their feelings, they would remain cold and distant.

PASSIVE LISTENERS
 Passive listeners exhibit exactly the opposite behavioristic traits of active listeners. They pay
attention only to partial message and lack sensitivity to the nuances, inner meanings,
nonverbal subtexts involved in communication. They allow someone to speak, without
interrupting or seeking clarifications. They do not make notes, nod their head in approval,
maintain eye contact and keep themselves idle. Passive “listening,” is actually hearing not
listening! Since passive listeners keep their minds closed, communication with them is futile
and incomplete.

NON LISTENERS
 The non-listeners do not listen at all because they are genuinely disinterested in the subject.
These people pretend to follow the speaker while they are actually preoccupied with
something else. So, they will fake attention, but they could easily be recognized by their blank
stare, impatient and nervousness mannerisms. They might be suffering from rigidity of
thinking and egotism. Their complete insensitivity and insensible nature makes them
incapable of understanding others. In fact, they do not even make an effort to hear what the
other person is saying. You will find non-listeners among authority figures who will do most of
the talking and will not let their sub-ordinates easily express their ideas. Although, they
frequently interrupt by saying “I understand,” and “I know,” they actually do not know
anything or understand the subject!

MARGINAL LISTENERS
 Impatient to listen to the main ideas, marginal listeners pay superficial attention, and are
interested only in the bottom line. They merely hear the sounds of words, but fail to grasp
their meanings. They do not go to the deeper level in arguments. They use external
distractions to excuse themselves from conversations. They will not have the patience to sit
through complex technical presentations, and jump to findings and conclusions. It is risky to
communicate with marginal listeners because they are not focused on the main ideas and
often misunderstand their import.

EVALUATIVE LISTENERS
 Evaluative listeners literally assess the verbal content on the basis of words not paralinguistic
or nonverbal cues. Generally, they use logic to understand the content, hence, they distance
themselves emotionally from the subject. As a result, they do not show empathy or sensitivity
to the speaker. They are mostly prejudiced and judgmental as they presume the meaning
before actually the speaker completes a sentence. Now, you will surprised to know that most
of us are evaluative listeners! If we observe ourselves carefully, most of the times we behave
like evaluative listeners. Without paying full attention to the content, we always evaluate
what somebody is trying to tell us. Those of us in a professional environment, actually assess
the message in terms of its usefulness and mentally reject the speaker even before the speech
 is delivered to us. Having discussed the various types of listeners, you may wonder which type
you should aspire to become. Obviously, you should become an active listener. All effective
communicators, for that matter, are active listeners.

Barriers in Listening
1. Physical barriers - To comprehend the message, the students should hear it. But reception may
be blocked by noise in the room or outside the room, poor accusations, impaired hearing of the
students, tiredness, sleepiness and hunger or plain inattention
2. Psychological barriers - These are preconceived beliefs about the subject being discussed that
prevent the hearers from receiving the speaker's teacher's ideas: the negative attitude towards
the subject which to the hearer is difficult, uninteresting or unpleasant; or antoganism towards the
speaker.
3. Language barrier - Is the level of language too high for the students? The teacher's/speaker's
pronunciation and grammar could also be a distraction to the hearer.
If any of these barriers are existing, the teacher will do well to remove or correct them before
conducting the lesson or doing any exercise on listening comprehension.

How to become an Active Listener?

Listening is effective only when the hearer becomes involved, not is passively sitting down,
pretending to understand or listen when he does not when he Below are some techniques to
become an active listener.

1. Stop talking. This is the first step in becoming a good listener. Students should be reminded not
to talk with their neighbor and to concentrate instead on what the speaker is saying.
2. Control the surroundings. Competing sounds (noises) should be removed. A quiet time and
place are conducive to listening.
3. Establish a receptive mind set. A positive attitude that there is something to learn from the
speaker, that the subject is easy and interesting, useful, is essential Attention wanders when the
student convinces himself that the subject is difficult and uninteresting or that he already know
the subject.
4. Listen for main points. The speaker usually gives clues on the main point by repetition and by
means of introductory phrases and transition words. Listening is enhanced and becomes
pleasurable when the message of the speaker is understood. Listening for the structure of the
message helps in the understanding of its meaning.
5. Make effective use of lag time. This is an opportunity for the hearer to review mentally what
has been said, or even to anticipate what the speaker will say next.
6. Listen between the lines. Developing the skill for listening for the underlying feeling behind
words, often communicated by non-verbal methods (gestures, facial expression), enhances
listening comprehension.
7. Judge ideas, not appearances. The content of the message should be the focus of
concentration, not the speaker's physical appearance, voice or mannerism. Listen objectively and
discard preconceived beliefs and biases that prevent a fair reception of the message.

Suggestions for Improving your Listening Skills

Mendelsohn’s (1998) and Wilson (2003) proposed the discovery listening approach which is a
response to the heavy emphasis given by most published textbooks on practicing comprehension
rather than teaching learners the skills needed for an improved performance. Discovery listening
allows learners to notice the differences between the original text and the text that they have
reconstructed after a listening task. From this noticing of gap, the learners will try to discover the
cause of their listening difficulties. The task has three phases: listening, reconstructing,
and discovering. Listening allows learners to listen to a text without any note-taking. They will,
then, assess their comprehension level. Finally, they will listen to the text twice with note-taking.
Reconstruction phase allows learners to reconstruct the text as a group. It bis followed by
discovering that allows learners to compare the reconstructed text to the original text and classify
the causes of errors.

Before you listen

 Think about the topic of the text you are going to listen to. What do you already know about
it? What could possibly be the content of the text? Which words come to mind that you
already know? Which words would you want to look up?
 If you have to do a task on the listening text, check whether you have understood the task
correctly.
 Think about what type of text you are going to listen to. What do you know about this type of
text?
 Relax and make yourself ready to pay attention to the listening text.

While you are listening

 It is not necessary to understand every single word. Try to ignore those words that you think
are less important anyway.
 If there are words or issues that you don't understand, use your general knowledge as well as
the context to find out the meaning.
 If you still don't understand something, use a dictionary to look up the words or ask someone
else for help.
 Focus on key words and facts.
 Take notes to support your memory.
 Intonation and stress of the speakers can help you to understand what you hear.
 Try to think ahead. What might happen next? What might the speakers say, which words
might they use?

After listening
 Think about the text again. Have you understood the main points?
 Remember the speculations you made before you listened. Did they come true?
 Review your notes.
 Check whether you have completed your task correctly.
 Have you had any problems while listening? Do you have any problems now to complete your
task? Identify your problems and ask someone for help.
 Listen again to difficult passages.

Methods of Teaching Listening Skills

Effective, modern methods of teaching listening skills encompass everything from interactive
exercises to multimedia resources. Listening skills are best learned through simple, engaging
activities that focus more on the learning process than on the final product. Whether you are
working with a large group of students or a small one, you can use any of the following examples
to develop your own methods for teaching students how to listen well.
1. Interpersonal Activities
One effective and nonthreatening way for students to develop stronger listening skills is through
interpersonal activities, such as mock interviews and storytelling. Assign the students to small
groups of two or three, and then give them a particular listening activity to accomplish. For
example, you may have one student interview another for a job with a company or for an article in
a newspaper. Even a storytelling activity, such as one that answers the question "What was your
favorite movie from last year?" can give students the opportunity to ask one another questions
and then to practice active listening skills.
2. Group Activities
Larger group activities also serve as a helpful method for teaching listening skills to students. You
can begin with a simple group activity. For the first part, divide students into groups of five or
larger and instruct them to learn one hobby or interest of at least two other group members.
Encourage them to ask clarifying questions during the activity, and you may allow them to take
notes if helpful. However, as time passes and their skills grow, you should limit students to only
writing notes after the completion of the first part of the group activity. For the second part, have
the students sit in a large circle, and then. have each individual student share the name and the
hobby or interest of the group members that she or he met. This second part of the group activity
can also lend itself to additional listening exercises. For example, you may ask students to name a
number of the hobbies and interests identified during the sharing session.
3. Audio Segments/songs
You can also teach listening skills through audio segments of radio programs, online podcast,
instructional lectures and other audio messages. You should model this interactive listening
process in class with your students, and then instruct them to repeat the exercise on their own.
First, instruct students to prepare for listening by considering anything that they will want to learn
from the content of the audio segment. Once they have written down or shared these ideas, then
play the audio segment, allowing the students to take notes if helpful. Once they have gained
confidence and experience, repeat this activity but instruct students to not take notes until the
completion of the audio segment. You can use shorter or longer audio segments, and you can
choose more accessible or more challenging material for this type of exercise.
4. Video Segments
Another helpful resource for teaching listening skills are video segments, including short sketches,
news programs, documentary films, interview segments, and dramatic and comedic material. As
with audio segments, select the portion and length of the video segment based on the skill level of
your students. With your students, first watch the segment without any sound and discuss it
together. Encourage the students to identify what they think will be the content of the segment.
Then, watch the segment again, this time with sound, allowing students to take notes if helpful for
their skill level. After the completion of the video segment, you can have students write a brief
summary of the segment, or you can take time to discuss as a group how the segment compares
with the students' expectations.