Understanding Spoken Discourse

Listening as a Skill

• Listening is receiving language through the ears, requiring focus and attention.
• When listening, individuals use their ears to receive sounds and their brain to convert those sounds into messages.

Listening Skills

• Listening is the first of four language skills, the others being speaking, reading, and writing.
• Successful listening demands special effort.
• Learning about listening differences from simple hearing is crucial.
• English listening learners benefit from specific tasks, found in English listening tests, which involve general and specific listening tasks, active listening, and useful listening comprehension strategies.
• Learners require listening materials (e.g., podcasts, online listening labs and sites, news, music, videos/films/TV).
• Critical questions can enhance comprehension.

Listening vs. Hearing

• Hearing is a physical process of sound waves entering the ears and being sent to the brain.
• Listening is an active process demanding effort and the ability to interpret the meaning of the message.
• Listeners interpret sounds and attach meaning to them. (active listening)

Tips for Good Listening

• Minimize distractions.
• Maintain eye contact with the speaker.
• Avoid daydreaming.
• Don't anticipate what the speaker will say next.
• Avoid interrupting.
• Try to be still.

Listening Strategies

• Reduce listening barriers.
• Listen for specific details (e.g., problems).
• Listen to various accents.
• Ask clarifying questions.
• Generate personal questions.
• Listen to natural speech.
• Common features of natural speech (e.g., omission of words, changing vowels)
• How sound waves disappear when spoken.

Listening Barriers

• Speaker speaking too quickly.
• Distractions (e.g., noise, fatigue).
• Feeling tired or nervous.
• Lack of background knowledge.
• Poor recording quality (e.g., unclear, too quiet).

Listening Processes

• Research divides the listening process into bottom-up and top-down processing.

Bottom-Up Processing

• Listeners focus on the spoken words, paying attention to the different parts (vocabulary, grammar, phrases) to make sense of the input.

Top-Down Processing

• Listeners utilize background knowledge and life experience to understand the message.

Features of Spoken English

• Spoken English involves various sounds that may be unfamiliar to non-native speakers.
• Stress and intonation are essential for conveying information and emphasizing key points.
• Speaker organization is creative and dynamic, showing how information is organized rather than a set formula.
• Speech often includes markers like "yes, no, but, in addition, in contrast" which help listeners understand the speakers meaning.

Spoken vs. Written Discourse

• Syntax and vocabulary usage differ between spoken and written discourse.
• Speakers often use incomplete sentences, conjunctions, and fillers (e.g., "er," "um").

Pauses and Fillers

• Speakers use pauses and fillers (e.g., "um," "uh") to organize their thoughts and give listeners time to process information.

Formal and Informal Language

• Formal and informal language styles exist.
• Learners may struggle with understanding informal spoken discourse.

Schema Theory & Listening

• Schemas are active organizations of past experiences.
• Three schema types:
  • Linguistic: knowledge of phonetics, vocabulary, phrases, syntax.
  • Content: pertains to factual knowledge.
  • Formal: includes organization and structure of discourse.

Types of Listening

• Informative: focuses on gaining information.
• Appreciative: listening for pleasure or satisfaction.
• Critical: evaluating the information.
• Discriminative: identifying and distinguishing.
• Emphatic: involves listening to understand another person's perspective.
• Comprehension: understanding and processing a message.
• Biased: listener only hears what they want to hear.
• Evaluative: judging information based on your own opinions.
• Sympathetic: caring about the other person's feelings and expressing empathy.
• Dialogic: involves learning through conversation.
• Relationship: listening within a relationship context.

Depth of Listening

• False listening: pretending to listen when not hearing anything.
• Initial listening: listener hears only the beginning words, anticipating to respond.
• Selective listening: listener chooses only what interests them, ignoring other parts.
• Partial listening: listener tries to listen, but gets distracted.
• Full listening: paying close attention to what the speaker is saying.
• Deep listening: paying attention to the speaker's emotions and body language.

While Listening Activities

• Actively listening while the speaker is talking (at four times the normal speaking rate)
• Effective listeners constantly check their understanding of the message.
• Think and predict messages, keeping an open mind.

Post Listening Activities

• Summarizing the report or information
• Checking the comprehension level
• Learners can transfer the listening comprehension skills into a conversational learning situation.
• Role-playing and debates.

Active Listening

• Active listening entails focusing completely on the speaker's message instead of just hearing it.
• It involves utilizing all senses as well as giving the speaker full attention.
• Active listening is a crucial component of interpersonal communication skills.
• Active listeners avoid taking sides or forming opinions while they are listening.

Signs of Active Listening

• Nonverbal cues (e.g., smiling, eye contact, posture).
• Verbatim signs (questioning, reflecting, clarification, summarizing).
• Mirroring (mimicking facial expressions).
• Avoiding distractions.
• Positive reinforcement.