LISTENING AND READING SKILS GUIDELINES

 

LISTENING AND READING SKILS

 

Meaning of Listening

Listening is the physical reality of hearing what another person says. The listener participates psychologically with the speaker. In this process there is an active decoding and interpreting of verbal messages.In short listening is the receiver’s activity in communication.

 Comparison between Listening and Hearing

There is often confusion between these two related concepts that is listening and hearing. However the two concepts are quite different in terms of their implication. Hearing is the process of collecting the sound waves through the ears and sending them to the brain. Listening involves hearing and listening with understanding. It involves both body energy and mind in the whole process. Listening requires both deliberate efforts and keen mind. It needs both physical and psychological efforts. On the other hand, hearing involves perceiving the sound. Hearing is the physical component of listening. It is a passive activity and effortless.

Listening is a receptive skill. This means that listening is a process in which you do not produce but receive, deal with and understand a language. This is an essential for good communication. Listening means attentiveness and interest perceptible in the posture and expression. It implies decoding i.e. translating the symbols into meaning and interpreting the message correctly.

Listening is an important skill in our daily life, especially when we talk to someone. We have to understand the person we talk to in order to have a satisfying conversation. No matter how you communicate, listening is the most important communication techniques one can master. It involves concentration on what the other person is saying.

 

Listening as a Function of Communication

Listening belongs to the category of receptive communication skills. Through listening one can acquire ideas, information, and feelings from other people. Effective communication depends on the ability to listen properly.

Listening involves communication of oral message between the speaker and the listener. This serves as a basis for acquisition of information, ideas, attitudes and feelings from the speaker.

 

Steps of Listening

There are four steps of listening:

1. Hearing

The listener pays attention to the speaker in order to hear the message.

2. Interpretation

Interpretation exploits listener’s vocabulary, knowledge and experience in order to understand the message.

3. Evaluation

This step allows the listener to decide what to do with the received information. Then he/she is at liberty of choosing to believe or not believing.

4. Response

The listener’s response to the message may be in words or in body language. Response helps the speaker to know if the listener has got the message including his/her reaction to it.

 

Strategies for Developing Listening Skills

Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.

Listening Strategies

These are techniques or activities that facilitate comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified according to how the listener processes the input. Listening strategies can be classified depending on how the listener processes the input.

1. Top- down strategy / Background knowledge

This is the listener based strategy; 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

Types of Listening

a.    Active listening: - this occurs when one decide to participate fully in the conversation. It involves resisting all psychological and physiological distractions and investing mental and emotional energy in the listening process.

b.    Passive listening: - this occurs by exercising little or no energy in the listening process e.g. listening with drifting mind. Passive listener cannot expect to understand much about the message.

 

The Process of Listening

a.    Receiving: - during listening one receives both verbal and nonverbal messages, not only the words but also the gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice etc.

b.    Understanding: - this involves learning what the speaker means. One put into consideration both the thoughts that are expressed and emotional tone that accompanies these thoughts. In this stage avoid premature judgment until you understood message fully, you need to ask questions etc.

c.      Remembering: - Simply mean retaining the massage that we receive and understand. You can augment your memory by taking notes, tape recording the message.

d.    Evaluating: -refers to the judging of message or rather doing a critical analysis. During evaluation resist until you fully understand the speaker’s point of view.

e.    Responding: - responses are feedback or information that one sends back to the speaker. It tells the speaker how you feel and think about his or her message.

 

 

Effective Listening

The major aim of effective listening apart from others is to follow what the speaker is saying. The following are the tips for effective listening:

 

·         Stop talking: it is not possible to listen while talking.

·          Put the speaker at ease: encourage the speaker to talk comfortably. Uneasy and uncomfortable person does not speak clearly.

·         Show a desire to listen.

·         Show non - verbally that you are interested to listen and that you are listening. Make eye contact and keep it still. Other acts which are disturbing make the speaker feel that you are not attending.

·         Write down the main points and check for their correctness.This makes the speaker more responsible and clear in what s/he says. Since s/he realizes your serious attention.

·         Do not create or tolerate distractions. Calling or receiving others or allowing others to interrupt disturbs and irritates the speaker.

·          Be patient: the speaker needs time to say what s/he wants to say. Some people are shy or nervous or cannot easily find words to speak. If they are interrupted or hurried, they get more nervous.

·         Keep your temper under control-Since angry persons cannot speak clearly and cannot listen.

·          Listen between lines- Concentrate on what is not being said as well as what is being said. Non – verbal signs provide clues to what is not said. People do not always say what they mean, but body language reveals speaker’s attitudes and emotional states.

·          Ask questions at suitable moments to get a clear understanding.If you are not sure of what the speaker is saying, ask. This is quite acceptable. Also state what you understand. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said in order to confirm that you understood.

·         Keep an open mind- Do not jump to conclusions. Avoid making any judgements until the speaker has completed speaking, otherwise you will end up in prejudice. Proper evaluation can be made only after getting full information, and understanding.

 

 

A good active listener will avoid:

·         Having preconceived ideas about the speaker and/or topic

·         Interrupting or finishing off the speaker’s sentences

·         Thinking about unrelated thoughts, possibly triggered by the speaker

·         Selective hearing - or only hearing what reinforces their point of view

·         Tuning out because they don’t value or respect the speaker

·         Jumping in and responding immediately

·         Taking offence at something that is said or making negative assumptions about something that is said.

·         Reacting to a mannerism and/or to the speaker’s appearance.

 

Developing Listening Comprehension Skills

Listening and comprehending are closely related. This is because one listens in order to comprehend. More over one comprehends while listening. As one listens he/she should be able to comprehend.

Comprehension is manifested in different levels during the listening process. One may have full comprehension and partial comprehension (when points are less important).

Some points need proper attention because the matter being presented is very crucial. Remember flexibility in listening and comprehension is very important.

 

Listening comprehension skills

Listening for comprehending presupposes the listener to:

·         Listen attentively

·         Follow the speaker

·         Possess a wide range of vocabulary which is related to the subject being discussed.

·         Recognize general speech pattern and major speech divisions i.e. introduction, main body of speech, transitional words, change of ideas, shift of emphasis, summary and conclusion.

·         Relate the topic with the experience of the world (prior knowledge)

·         Get interest in the topic.

 

Steps to Listening - Comprehension

S/N	COMPREHENSION STEPS	HOW TO TAKE THE STEPS
1.	Listen attentively	·         Show high concentration ·         Avoid noise and distractions ·         Be focused, do not let your mind absent from the topic(do not wonder away) ·         Fix your eyes on the speaker
2.	Follow the speaker	·         Imagine what he is saying ·         Speak along with him ·         Be close to him in thought
3.	Possess vocabulary	·         Read widely on the topic before the lecture ·         Search the library ·         Bring to memory all words related to the topic
4.	Recognize general speech pattern	·         Know what introduction is given ·         Be conscious of the major speech divisions ·         Note transitional words such as now, then, later, on the other hand, firstly, however etc. ·         Note shift of emphasis, change of ideas etc. ·         Note when the speaker is summarizing all points (that moment is important). ·         Note the conclusion
5.	Previous knowledge	·         Think about what you know about the topic before. ·         Think about what is going on at the moment related to the topic ·         Think about the horrible or pleasant experience about the topic

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