LISTENING SKILL

 LANGUAGE – II

PEDAGOGY

(PART – I)

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Teaching English to speakers of other languages can be looked at from many different angles. One useful way is to look at the teaching process as the teaching of various language skills.

There are, in general. Four language skills, each based upon the modality of emphasis. These are: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing skills.

Generally speaking, it is emphasized that we first teach listening, then speaking, then reading and writing. However, in real-life situations of language communication, these skills are interdependent in many ways, even though they can be taught independently to some extent.

LISTENING SKILL

Listening in English is attending to and interpreting oral English. Listening is necessary to develop speaking skill. The student listens to oral speech in English, then separates into segments the stretch of utterances he hears, groups them into words, phrases and sentences, and finally, he understands the message these carry. Listening prepares the students to understand the speech of the native speakers of English as they speak naturally at a normal speed and normal manner. 

There are three approaches to listening: Interactive (listening to a message and doing something as a consequence) and one-way communication or non-interactive (just listening and retaining the message, in activities such as conversations overheard, public address announcements, recorded messages etc.) and self-talk. Listening to the radio and watching TV and films, public performances, lectures, religious services, etc. generally reflect non-interactive listening. Responding to the commands given reflects interactive listening, which in fact, is equally widespread in communicative situations. Self-talk is also an important process by which internal thinking and reasoning are carried out.

In the classroom, students listen in order to repeat and to understand. In listening to repeat, students imitate and memorize linguistic items such as words, idioms, and sentence patterns. This is an important beginning task and focus of listening exercises. However, it is listening to understand that is real listening in its own right.

Students listen to understand as part of using English for communication purposes. In listening to understand, students may be involved in the question-oriented response model of learning or in the task-oriented response model of learning. In the question-oriented response model, students may be asked to listen to a sentence, a dialogue, a conversation, a passage, or a lecture and asked to answer questions that may be presented in the form of true/false statements, multiple-choice questions, fill in blanks or short answers. In the task-oriented response model, students may be asked to listen to a passage and accomplish the task described in the passage through interaction with others or by themselves.

Remember that research indicates that most students have difficulty with listening skills, even when listening to their native language. Among other factors, because of the phenomenon of stress (some syllables of a word may be stressed while others may not be), most learners of English have difficulty in mastering the correct placement of the primary and other stresses in English (this could lead to misunderstanding the meaning of a word, phrase or sentence.) As a consequence, listening proficiency in English is to be cultivated with great care.

 

(PART – II)

Listening skill is related to audio sense. It is a passive activity. Listening occurs when someone is speaking. Listening means that audio sense makes sense to the sound which is created by speech. It helps a person in understanding.

The skill of listening can be developed through systematic teaching. Listening operates on two levels:

          1. Recognition

          2. Selection

Listening must be developed among students. Therefore, practice should be given to students in two kinds of speech:

          1. Formal

          2. Informal

A child should be trained in both forms of speech.

CONDITION OF LISTENING

The listening skill requires the following conditions for its situation of happening:

1. The sound created by the speech must have some sense or meaning. The sound should be supported by the action.

2. The person should be attentive to the sound which reaches his audio sense.

3. The person should be able to understand the meaning of words conveyed through sounds.

4. The person should have a favourable attitude to the speech or sound by speaking.

5. The audio sense of the person should be normal.

THE OBJECTIVES OF LISTENING SKILL

The listening skill has the following objectives:

          1. It makes speech effective.

          2. Listening is the basis of good learning of the language.

          3. In a teaching-learning situation the students are the passive learners.

          4. It facilitates verbal interaction among the person and the group.

5. The main objective of listening is to develop an understanding of concepts, facts, ideas and feelings.

6. One can react properly only after listening actively and attentively.

FUNCTIONS OF LISTENING

          1. Listening for locating.

          2. Listening to performing a physical task.

          3. For putting things into sequential order.

          4. Transferring information from one place to another.

          5. Listening for perception (The power of understanding).

AUTHENTIC LISTENING ACTIVITIES

          1. Exercise in class.

          2. Students should listen to T.V. and radio.

          3. Face to face conversation with a teacher who is good at conversation.

LISTENING IN REAL LIFE 

There are two ways in which we listen:

          1. Casual Listening – Sometimes we listen with no particular purpose in mind and often without much concentration. Examples of this are listening to the radio while doing homework. Usually, we do not listen very closely, we listen only to something. Afterwards, we may not remember what we have heard at that point of time.

          2. Focused Listening – When we listen carefully with a particular purpose to find or get some information we need to know. For example, listening to the news on the radio. In these situations also we listen but not with equal concentration, we only listen to what is relevant to us and what we think is important for us. Usually, we know beforehand what we want to listen and this helps us to listen better and in a proper way, we remember the same.

          Besides these, we have appreciative listening, critical listening and discriminative listening.

THE WEAKNESS THAT AFFECT LISTENING (ENGLISH)

         1. Inadequate range of words and phrases that are understood.

         2. Inability to maintain attention.

         3. Inability to understand fast speech.

4. Inability to understand pronunciation other than the personal or regional pronunciation. 

MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED FOR LISTENING PROPERLY

         1. The students should enrich their vocabulary knowledge.

2. Dictation helps in sharpening attention. Listening to broadcasts or recordings or films also help in it.

3. Specially prepared recordings and tape recorders can also be of great help.

4. The students should learn the correct pronunciation for each word.

5. Te teacher can adjust his/her speed and clarify the capacity of the class and then gradually speed up.

 

QUESTIONS:

1. Good speech is the result of –

a. Good speaking     b. Good reading    c. Good listening    d. Good referring

Answer: c. Good listening.

2. Telling interesting stories to young learners is primarily meant for improving their –

a. Listening skills    b. Speaking skills    c. Reading skills    d. Writing skills

Answer: a. Listening skills. 

3. ‘While listening’ means a stage

a. When students are listening to a recording of a natural conversation.

b. When students are listening for pleasure.

c. Where the students attempt a listening task.

d. When a listening activity is introduced.

Answer: a. When students are listening to a recording of a natural conversation.

 4.  Which of these is not a step in the listening process?

a. To stop talking    b. Receiving    c. Misinterpreting    d. Responding

Answer: c. Misinterpreting.

5. Which of these is the first step in the listening process?

a. Stop talking        b. Receiving    c. Interpreting            d. Responding

Answer: a. Stop talking.

6. _____ is the last step of the listening process?

a. Stop talking        b. Receiving    c. Interpreting            d. Responding

Answer: d. Responding.

7. Which of these is the second step in the listening process?

a. Stop talking        b. Receiving    c. Interpreting            d. Responding

Answer: b. Receiving.

8. Which of these is the third step in the listening process?

a. Stop talking        b. Receiving    c. Interpreting            d. Responding

Answer: c. Interpreting.

9. Listening is a ________ mental process that play vital role in our daily life?

a. Absorbable           b. Visible        c. Invisible                d. Eco able

Answer: c. Invisible.

10. Listening is the function of

a. Audio sense        b. Video sense    c. Lingual sense       d. None of these.

Answer: a. Audio sense.