Listening Skills PDF

# What is listening? Listening is receiving language through the ears. It requires focus and attention. When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds and we use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us. * Listening is the first of four language skills whic...

# What is listening? Listening is receiving language through the ears. It requires focus and attention. When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds and we use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us. * Listening is the first of four language skills which are: - Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing # Listening skills We need to make a special effort to work on our listening skills. You need to learn about: - Listening and how it differs from hearing - Listening materials for English learners - Typical tasks found in English listening tests - General listening tips to become a more active listener - Where can you find listening materials - Listening strategies for better comprehension - Questions to ask yourself * Listening is the first of the four skills. It is called a "receptive" skill because we listen, receive language: - Listening (in) - Speaking (out) - Reading (in) - Writing (out) # Differences between hearing and listening - Hearing is simply the physical act of sound waves entering our ears and being transported to our brain. This is a passive process that requires no effort. - Listening is an active skill, it requires effort and you can choose not to do it. - Listeners take sounds and attach meaning to them. If they comprehend what a speaker has said, they can interpret and respond to the message. This is called "active listening". # What to listen to? - **Podcasts:** They offer regularly updated episodes of listening bites. They may be formal or informal, short or long. It also typically free. - **Online listening labs and sites:** Many websites offer free listening activities. Some are organized by topic or level. - **News:** Many English news sites offer audio or video clips to go with news stories. - **Music:** Listening to music lyrics is a great way to practice your active listening. Many lyrics are available online so you can read along as you listen. - **Videos/Film/TV:** Find a topic you are interested and start watching video. You can watch English cartoon. - **Dictations:** Improve your spelling, writing and typing skills as you practice listening. Dictations can also help you learn new vocabulary in context. - **Conversations:** If you are in an English-speaking country instead of texting in your own. - **Lectures:** Many online schools offer free lectures on a variety of topics. # Tips to be a good listener - Try to ignore distractions. - Make eye contact with the speaker. - Try not to daydream. - Try not to think what you are going to say next. - Avoid interruption. - Try to be still as you are listening. # Listening strategies - Reduce listening barriers. - Listen for specific details such as problems. - Listen to many different accents. - If you ask a question, listen for the answer. - Create your own questions # Listen to natural speech Listening to your teacher, your classmates is not enough. You also need to listen to real people speaking real English and you will notice the following: - **People link words together.** For example: Turn off - turnoff. - **Some vowels fade out when people say them out loud.** They become weak and almost non-existent. For example: Can I talk to you? - **Some sound and syllables disappear altogether. This is called elision.** This is common when the letter "h" in initial position. For example: What will he do? - **Sometimes people leave out full words. This is called ellipsis.** For example: Have you got a second? Gotta sec? # Listening barriers Your listening barriers may include some of the following: - The speaker spoke too quickly. - Something is distracting you. - You are tired. - You are nervous. - You are hungry. - You don't have any background knowledge. - The recording is not clear. - The recording is not loud enough # Listening processes Based on how listeners process the input, researchers have classified listening process into two types: - **Bottom-up processing** The listeners try to make sense of what they hear by focusing on the different parts. Vocabulary - grammar - functional phrases. Bottom-up is a process of decoding the sounds that one hear's in a liner fashion to complete texts. In other words, listeners make use of their knowledge of words, syntax and grammar to work on form. - **Top-down processing** Is the process in which listeners employ background knowledge to make sense of what they hear. The knowledge may be the general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning. In fact, the two processes cannot be separated during listening comprehension, but both of them is related to each other. # Features of spoken English 1. **Sounds** In English, there are sounds which are unknown for foreign learners, as a result they may fall to catch such sounds or distinguish from similar sounds. 2. **Stress and intonation** Stress is widely used in spoken English, which aim to carry the information speakers wish to convey and emphasize. Students need to be explained and shown stressed words as well as unstressed words which help them to distinguish the differences between these words. 3. **Organization of speech** Speaking is a creative process, in which speakers are almost in the position of formulating what they are saying. Therefore, there is no certain way of knowing how a speaker's speech will be organized. There are some "markers" which listeners can use to convey what speakers are saying. It may by word or phrases like: [yes, no, but, in addition, in contrast]. # Syntax and vocabulary of speech There is a number of differences between spoken discourse and written discourse. Instead of using subordinate clauses as in written form, speakers tend to use separate sentences. When subordinate clauses are used, they are generally linked by simple conjunctions such as: And, but, then. Speakers often use incomplete sentences. Also, speakers usually use "it - they - you - someone - somebody" refers to people, in general. # Pauses and fillers Pauses occur in speech to give listeners time to think about what has just been said and to relate it to what has gone before. Long gaps in speech are often filed with sounds and expressions such as: Er, mm to avoid science silences. # Formal and informal language There is often a distinction between the language spoken in "formal" and "informal" situations. Language learners may have difficulties in understanding informal spoken discourse. # Schema theory and listening - A schema simply refers to an active organization of past reactions or past experience. - There are basically three areas of schema which are: Linguistic schema - formal schemata - content schemata. - **Linguistic schema:** It refers to linguistic knowledge which is the knowledge of phoneme, vocabulary, phase, paragraph, sentence structure and grammar. It also the first step of the whole listening in the. - **Formal schemata:** Refers to the knowledge of organizational form and ret rhetorical structures of a discourse. Formal schemata is described as abstract and textual organization. - **Content schemata:** It deals with the knowledge relative to the content domain of the text, including systems of factual knowledge, values and cultural conventions. - The appropriate schemata must exist and be activated during text processing. # Schema theory Schema theory text only provides directions for listeners or reader as to how they should construct meaning from their own. According to schema theory listening is not a simple one-way flow of information to the brain after a sound is heard, but an interactive process of two way communication during which the listeners background knowledge plays an important role. **In summary:** The nature of the listening process is an active interactive process to serve certain communication. # Application of schema theory in listening techniques teaching - **Pre-listening activities:** This stage is a necessary phase, which turns the student's passive state of mind into an active one. - **Establishing a purpose for listening:** This is an association between expectation, purpose and comprehension. - **Listening purpose vary according to whether learners are involved in listening as a component of social interaction. High listening for information** academic listening, listening for the pleasure, or for some other reasons. - **Activating existing knowledge:** Teachers should give students the questions before they listen to the target text. By reading the questions, students may build up their information own expectation about the coming information. It can make the understanding of the listening materials become easier. - **Brainstorming:** It is a technique whose purpose is to initiate some sort of thinking process. It also serves as a warming-up to the theme as well as the framework for the introduction of some new information. - **Providing necessary cultural background information:** Lack of cultural knowledge will be an obstacle to listening comprehension. Listeners who are not familiar with the cultured culture may have considerable difficulties in interpreting the words that they have hear. - **Multi-media:** Projector, computer, scanner and video presenter will achieve satisfactory results in listening comprehension. Pictures are also very important for listeners to construct complete schemata. - **After all these stages, students are willing to receive incoming information.** **B: While-listening activities:** People think and listen at approximately four times the normal speaking rate. Simply speaking, one can think faster than the speaker can talk. An effective listener should constantly check their understanding of messages by making predictions and evaluating and reflecting. **C: Post-listening activities:** Well-planned post-listening activities are just as important as those before and during. Having students retell or summarize the report is proven a useful way of checking comprehension. Post-listening activities would help of the learners to transfer the listening skill to the world by beyond the listening classroom. Some controversial reports can lead to a debate or role-play. # What is an active listener? Active listening is a skill that can be developed with practice. "Active listening" means fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just "hearing" the message of the speaker. Active listening involves listening with all senses, as well as giving full attention to the speaker. Listening is the most fundamental component of interpersonal communication skills. Listening is not something that just happens. Listening is an active process, also it should remain natural and non-judgmental. This means trying to not to take sides or form opinions. Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings. * Appropriate responses to listening can be both verbal and non-verbal # Signs of active listening ## Non-verbal of active listening - People who are listening are more likely to display at least some of these signs. - **Smile:** Small smiles can be used to show that the listener is paying attention to what is being said. - **Eye contact:** Eye contact can however be intimidating, especially for more shy speakers, gauge how much eye contact is appropriate for any given situations. - **Posture:** It can tell you a lot about the sender. Also, involves slight slant of the head or resting the hand on one hand. - **Mirroring:** Automatic reflection, mirroring of any facial expressions used the speaker can be a sign of attentive listening. - **Distraction:** The active listener will not be distracted, refrain from looking at the watch, doodling and playing with their hair. ## Verbal signs of active listening - **Positive reinforcement:** Although some positive words of encouragement may be used beneficial to the speaker, the listener should use them sparingly so as not to distract from what is being said. - **Remembering:** The human mind is notoriously bad at remembering details. Remembering details, ideals and concepts from previous conversations proves that attention was kept. - **Questioning:** The listener can demonstrate that they have been paying attention by asking relevant questions to clarify what the speaker has said. - **Reflection:** Reflecting is closely repeating or paraphrasing what the speaker has said in order to show comprehension. - **Clarification:** Clarifying involves asking questions of the speaker to ensure that the correct message has been received. - **Summarization:** Summarizing involves taking main points of the received message and repeating them in a logical and clear way. # Types of listening - **Informative listening:** Your aim is to concentrate on the message being given. The pre-session task is a useful awareness raising exercise that should confirm that it is difficult to retain information we have listened to. Illustrate that informative listening in hard work. - **Appreciative listening:** It's when the listener gains pleasure or satisfaction from listening. - **Critical listening:** Where the listener may be trying to weigh up whether the message being given is logical and whether they are being manipulated by the speaker. - **Discriminative listening:** Where the listener may be trying is able to identify and distinguish inferences or emotions through the speaker's change in voice tone. - **Empathic listening:** Where the listener tends to listen rather than talk. Their non-verbal behavior indicates that the listeners is attending to what is being said. - **Comprehension listening:** To comprehend the meaning requires first having a lexicon of words at our fingertips and also all rules of grammar and syntax by which we can understand what others are saying. Comprehension listening is also known as content listening, informative listening and full listening. - **Biased listening:** It happens when the person hears only what they want to hear. - **Evaluative listening:** In evaluative listening or critical listening, we make judgments about what the other person is saying. We seek to assess the truth of what is being said. Evaluating listening is also called critical or interpretive listening. - **Sympathetic listening:** We care about the other person and express our sorrow for their ills and happiness at their joy. - **Dialogic listening:** Dialogic listening means learning through conversation. The word "dialogia" comes from the Greek "dia" = "through", "logos" = "words". Dialogic listening is sometimes known as "relational listening". - **Relationship listening:** Sometimes the most important factor in listening is in order to develop or sustain a relationship. Relationship listening is also important in areas such negotiation and sales, where it is helpful if the other person likes you and trusts you. # Depth of listening - **False listening:** This occurs where a person is pretending to listen but is not hearing anything that is being said. - **Initial listening:** Sometimes when we listen, we hear the first few words and then start to think about what we want to say in return. - **Selective listening:** It involves listening for particular things and ignoring others. - **Partial listening:** It is what most of us do most of the time. We listen to the other person with the best of intent and then become distracted. - **Full listening:** It happens where the listener pay close and careful attention to what is being said, seeking carefully to understand the full content that the speaker is seeking to put across. - **Deep listening:** You can also reach into a form of listening that not only hears what is said but also seeks to understand the whole person behind the words. In deep listening, you hear the emotion and watch the body language.