Module 4

Academic Listening
Dr. Atul Aman
VIT Bhopal
Outline
• Listening
• Listening in Academic Contexts
• Listening to audio files of short stories
• News
• TV Clips
• Documentaries
• News Debate
• Motivational Speeches in Global English Accents
Listening
• Listening is done consciously, that involve the analysis and understanding of the
sounds you hear.
• Listening is temporary, as we cannot continuously pay attention to something for
long hours.
• Listening is a psychological (conscious) act.
• It is an active mental process, which involves the use of brain to draw meaning
from words and sentences.
• Listening encompasses interpretation of the message received by ears.
• Listening is a learned skill.
• It involves the use of more than one senses i.e., eyes, ears, touch etc. to understand
the message completely and accurately.
• We are aware of what the other person is saying and so we listen to acquire
knowledge and receive information.
• Listening requires a lot of focus.
Listening in Academic Contexts
• Note-taking is a crucial component in Academic Listening.
• Listening while attending a lecture or a formal talk or presentation.
• Here, Listening is a one-way process.
• Non interruption of speakers lecture or limitation of repetitive content
delivery is a major concern.
• Listening to information talks (viz., www. ted.com/talks)
• Select a topic which interests you and assess your comprehension
skills.
Listening in Academic Contexts
• Choice of the right and fruitful content which must be concise.
• Key information must be the goal.
• Implementation of shortened word forms and note taking codes,
e.g. use arrows ↑ ↓ for the words increase and decrease, you could
write ‘info’ for information etc.
• Looking after the outline of the talk, one can divide the sections of
the subtopics for better clarification.
• Final step must be preparation of the final report on the basis of
the whole talk.
• Further clarification should be done in case of any query.