Nature, Kinds, Stages of Listening
Nature, Kinds, Stages of Listening
When we teach listening we consider what the object of our instruction is.
We look at ideas that have influenced thinking on learner listening in English
language teaching.
Kinds of Listening
Teachers can help students become effective listeners by making them
aware of the different kinds of listening, the different purposes for listening, and
the qualities of good listeners. Wolvin and Coakley (1992) identify four different
kinds of listening:
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The Purposes for Listening
Listening requires conscious mental effort and specific purpose. The
purposes for listening relate to "types" of listening:
• Are you listening to receive information?
• Are you listening to follow instructions?
• Are you listening to evaluate information?
• Are you listening for pleasure?
• Are you listening to empathize?
Students should be able to determine what their purpose should be in any given
listening situation (see figure below).
Listening as a PRODUCT
It shows what listeners do in order to demonstrate their understanding. It is
described in terms of outcomes which are stated either verbally or non-verbally.
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Make appropriate oral respon
Listening as a PROCESS
Students do not have an innate understanding of what effective listeners
do; therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge with
them. Perhaps the most valuable way to teach listening skills is for teachers to
model them themselves, creating an environment which encourages listening.
Teachers can create such an environment by positive interaction, actively
listening to all students and responding in an open and appropriate manner.
Teachers should avoid responding either condescendingly or sarcastically. As
much as possible, they should minimize distractions and interruptions. It is
important for the teacher to provide numerous opportunities for students to
practice listening skills and to become actively engaged in the listening process.
Bottom–up Listening
Top-down processing
This refers to the application of background knowledge to facilitate
comprehension.
It is generally believed now that both top-down and bottom-up processing
occur at the same time in what is known as parallel processing (Eysenck,1993).
In some instances, one type of processing might take precedence over the other,
depending on the amount of practice an individual has had on a specific task.
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Factors that Influence Learners’ Listening
Three sources of information are crucial to how language learners listen:
1. Background knowledge (schematic)
2. Knowledge of the situation and co-text (contextual)
3. Knowledge of the language system (systemic)
Pre-listening
During the pre-listening phase, teachers need to recognize that all
students bring different backgrounds to the listening experience. Beliefs,
attitudes, and biases of the listeners will affect the understanding of the
message. In addition to being aware of these factors, teachers should show
students how their backgrounds affect the messages they receive.
Before listening, students need assistance to activate what they already
know about the ideas they are going to hear. Simply being told the topic is not
enough. Pre-listening activities are required to establish what is already known
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about the topic, to build necessary background, and to set purpose(s) for
listening. Students need to understand that the “…act of listening requires not
just hearing but thinking, as well as a good deal of interest and information which
both speaker and listener must have in common. Speaking and listening entail ...
three components: the speaker, the listener, and the meaning to be shared;
speaker, listener, and meaning form a unique triangle (King, 1984).”
The teacher allows the learner to ‘tune in’ to the context or to the topic of a
given text. The students may perhaps express their views about the text to be
listened to; they may predict content from the title of a selection, answer a set of
questions, study and examine pictures, and sing a song or a chant. Each of
these helps students to focus on a topic, activate their schemata or prior
knowledge and allows them to use the words which they will shortly hear in the
text.
There are several strategies that students and their teachers can use to
prepare for a listening experience. They can:
1. Activate Existing Knowledge. Students should be encouraged to ask the
question: What do I already know about this topic? From this teachers and
students can determine what information they need in order to get the
most from the message. Students can brainstorm, discuss, read, view
films or photos, and write and share journal entries.
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problems aside.
T – Tune-in
(The listener must tune-in to the speaker and the subject, mentally calling
up everything known about the subject and shutting out all distractions.)
Q -- Question
(The listener should mentally formulate questions. What will this speaker
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say about this topic? What is the speaker's background? I wonder if the
speaker will talk about...?)
L -- Listen
(The listener should organize the information as it is received, anticipating
what the speaker will say next and reacting mentally to everything heard.)
R -- Review
(The listener should go over what has been said, summarize, and evaluate
constantly. Main ideas should be separated from subordinate ones.)
1. Situation:
Speaker's name:
Date:
Occasion:
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Effective listeners:
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aware of the inferences they can make from non-verbal cues. A speaker's tone
and body language can convey a message as well.
Although listeners need not capture on paper everything they hear, there
are times that students need to focus on the message and need to record certain
words and phrases. Such note-making ("listening with pen in hand") forces
students to attend to the message. Devine (1982) suggests strategies such as
the following:
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speaker's topic, purpose, intended audience, and context. The most
frequent critical listening context is persuasion. They should keep an
open-minded and objective attitude as they strive to identify the main
idea(s)/thesis/claim and the supporting arguments/points/anecdotes. They
should ask relevant questions and restate perceptions to make sure they
have understood correctly. Taking notes will enhance their listening.
Critical listeners must understand the logic and reasoning of the speaker.
Is this evidence developed in logical arguments such as deductive,
inductive, causal, or analogous? Faulty reasoning might include hasty or
over-inclusive generalization, either-or argument, causal fallacy (therefore,
because of this), non sequitur (confusion of cause and effect), reasoning
in a circle, begging or ignoring the question, false analogy, attacking the
person instead of the idea, or guilt by association.
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