As pointed out in the previous lessons, listening is the most often used

but perhaps the most difficult communication skill to develop and yet it is
often a neglected task in the classroom. This may perhaps explain why most
students perform poorly in some important listening activities such as
listening to academic lectures or other forms of oral presentations in class. In
the workplace, as noted by some business experts, graduates also
demonstrate inability to listen effectively during business planning and oral
presentations, and their inability to listen better often results in profit loss.

The Significance of Listening to Others

You do not just talk to others; you must also listen. Listening is, in fact,
the first step in the learning process. A child picks up a language by first
listening to those around him before he tries to imitate what they say. It is
said that a baby was once left in the woods where she grew up in the
company of wolves. When she was found many years later the sounds she
produced were the guttural sounds of wolves. We learn, therefore, from what
we listen to.

Here are other reasons for listening to others:

1. To grow as persons cognitively from the ideas and values shared;

2. To learn from the ideas of others which may further clarify our
doubts and strengthen our beliefs about certain concepts;
3. To show respect and appreciation for those with whom we
interact and in the process grow as social beings.

Now can you think of other reasons why you need to listen to others?

Identifying and Overcoming Listening Barriers or Noise

Awareness of the significance of listening is important so we can see

what might be done about barriers or noise that could affect our listening
comprehension. According to Berlo’s communication model presented in Unit
1, the reason why we sometimes fail to catch what we listened to is because
of barriers or noise. These may be internal or external. Internal noise could
be physiological like stomach pains and aches or psychological like worries
and feelings that distract and prevent you from effectively receiving the
message of the speaker. External noise could be loud sounds that affect your
auditory or visual perception of the message. You have to overcome noise if
you want to become an effective listener. This would call for strategies on
how to go about the listening tasks and get the most from what we listened
to.
USEFUL LISTENING TIPS

A. Employing Strategies to Get the Most Out of Listening

As pointed out in Unit One, we do not really catch everything we listen

to in the classroom. At most, we catch only 70% of what was uttered and in
the case of lectures, we retain 20% of what we hear. Given that listening is
the first step to learning, how then might we get maximum benefit from
lectures and discussions in the classroom? Rebecca Oxford (1990) has come
up with a set of language learning strategies that will enable us to pick up a
language and benefit from interactions in the target language on our own. Of
the six kinds of strategies, three are direct strategies that have to do directly
with language. These are memory, cognitive, and compensatory strategies.
The other three – metacognitive, social, and affective – are called indirect
strategies because they also include concerns other than language.

Memory strategies have to do with committing to and retrieving

from one’s memory terms, ideas, numbers, etc. that we listened to. An
information processing model (Bourne et. al., 1979) points out that the
human processing model has three memory stores: the sensory memory
which notes what is in the environment but retains the information for only a
second and which is lost unless it is passed on to the short term memory.
There the information is processed and matched with what one already
knows which is stored in the long term memory. It stays there for only 15
seconds during which time one decides to commit it to the long-term
memory where it stays for as long as one wishes. It is returned when needed.
Examples of strategies to commit items to memory and be able to retrieve
them later on is to associate names with other names that one is very
familiar with and to look for patterns where a series of numbers is concerned.

Cognitive Strategies have to do with making sense of the talk or

exchanges one listens to. Among the cognitive strategies cited by Flowerdew
and Miller (2005) are informed guessing by inferencing from clues – verbal as
well as non-verbal – what the speaker is actually doing in the statements he
makes, predicting what is to follow by establishing connection among the
ideas he presents, getting the big picture or objective of the speaker by
noting what is repeated and what he mentions to support it, taking down
notes to come up with a summary or a concept map of the ideas presented.

Compensatory strategies are moves taken to make up for

inadequacies or the noise that interferes in the communication process.
Some such strategies one can employ are elaborating on what was said,
using one’s own personal knowledge and experiences as support.
 Heading the indirect strategies are metacognitive strategies which
include planning how to go about the task, monitoring the implementation of
the plan and evaluating to find out how effective it is and if there is a need to
modify it.

As far as listening is concerned, Flowerdew and Miller (2005) point out

that the metacognitive “planning” strategies have to do with taking note of
the objective and the organization of the listening piece (advance
organization), directing attention to the main points and selective attention
to details, and managing one’s own motivation to keep tuned to the listening
task.

As to the metacognitive “monitoring” strategies, these have to do with

checking one’s understanding of the piece (comprehension monitoring)
deciding as to whether or not what one heard sounds “right” or not (auditory
monitoring) and checking how well one’s monitoring efforts goes (double
check monitoring).

And for the metacognitive “evaluation” strategies these include

judging how well one has performed the task (performance evaluation) and
pinpointing what has prevented him/her from completing the task
successfully (problem identification).

Affective strategies, which are also indirect strategies, are

concerned with keeping down feelings of anxiety and inadequacy that would
affect one’s performance and motivation regarding the listening and
speaking tasks one is asked to accomplish. Krashen (1982) has pointed out
the findings of studies which revealed that negative feelings interfere with
learning and if tension and stress are high, no learning will take place.

Finally, social strategies pertain to attempts to get help form others

and use them as a resource when one meets difficulty in a task.

B. Noting the Stages in the Listening Process

The Science Research Associates (SRA) have come up with a multi-

level kit to develop the decoding skills of reading and listening. For the
former, they designed a step-by-step procedure for readers to follow when
reading a text. The procedure was given the acronym, SQ3R to indicate the
stages in the process: Survey, the title, the picture, the opening and closing
paragraph, then raise Questions which you expect the text to answer, after
which you Read the selection, Review it to single out the answers to the
questions you raised earlier and Recite them to yourself in the form of a
summary.
 In the case of listening, the acronym used is TQLR. The stages in this
process would be:

T - tune in to the topic;

Q - raise mental questions concerning the topic that you expect
the talk to cover;
L - listen to see how and if the questions you raised were
answered; and
R - recall and recite to yourself the information you got from the
extended talk you listened to.

C. Some Do’s and Don’ts in Listening

If you want to achieve more in listening in different contexts or

situations (listening to a lecture of a speaker, small group discussion, oral
interaction, planning and feedback session, etc.), you must help yourself
overcome ineffective listening habits. Check if you are guilty of any of the
following listening attitudes and listening behaviors which you are advised to
avoid.

1. Prejudging. Ineffective listeners prejudge the speaker or the topic as

uninteresting or boring. What if it is otherwise? Effective listeners, on the
other hand, do not care whether the speaker is striking or not. What matters
to them is the message and its application to everyday life.

2. Assuming. Ineffective listeners may assume that they already know the
topic and therefore it is just a waste of time to listen to it. Effective listeners,
in contrast, think otherwise. If the topic does sound familiar, they still show
eagerness to listen to it, hoping that they can derive more or newer insights
about it.

3. Entertaining private agenda. Ineffective listeners easily allow

themselves to be preoccupied with thoughts that are not really related to the
topic being discussed. Thinking of what movie to watch that weekend, what
attire to wear in class next meeting, where to go for a date with a boyfriend
or girlfriend are examples of private agenda, which distract the listeners from
focusing on receiving the message.

4. Avoiding difficult information or points contrary to one’s views

and tuning in only to the portion of the message that you want. This
is also called selective listening. One ill effect is that you miss the meaning of
the entire message because the information you get is incomplete.

5. Getting so focused on the details. Doing this may also result in

missing the main message. Analogously, it is like saying that you miss the
main forest because you are enticed by the beauty of every tree that you
see.

6. Adopting a passive physical response such as slouching while seated

and avoiding eye contact with the speaker. This would show a lack of interest
in the talk and could be considered a discourteous act on the part of the
listener.

7. Showing defensive physical posture. If you have a negative mindset

about the speaker or topic, you are likely to do the following: making hostile
eye contact, crossing your arms while listening, or frowning when you hear
something you disagree about.

8. Getting more focused on the speaker than the message. This is

likely to happen particularly if the speakers themselves are physically
pleasing or their style of delivery is so animating. This may distract you from
focusing more on the message than on the speakers.

9. Faking attention. You may physically fake that you are actively listening
just to please the speakers, but in reality you are not.

To sum it up therefore, try following these pointers so you can stay in

focus while listening. This may be called the P4NCR of good listening habits:

P1 - determining your own purpose for listening to the talk;

P2 - determining speaker’s purpose or objective;
P3 - listening to single out the topic and what the speaker is
asserting about it and the main and supporting points;
P4 - showing positive non-verbal feedback;
N - taking down notes;
C - listening to the conclusion; and
R - recalling information

1. P1 – Listener’s purposes for listening. Keep track of your purposes for

listening. Why are you listening? Are you likely to listen for information, for
pleasure or entertainment, for support or rapport with another? Does your
purpose dovetail with the speaker’s purpose? At this point, you may also find
it useful to mentally raise questions regarding the topic you are going to
listen to and find out if these would be answered later during the listening
proper. This anticipation will give you a sense of direction in listening. This is
what was referred to earlier as “tuning in” to the topic.

2. P2 – Speaker’s purposes. Listen also for the speaker’s purposes in

delivering the message. Is the speaker going to inform you about a timely
issue, persuade or move you to action? A speaker’s main goal or purpose is
usually mentioned in the introductory part of the message. Awareness of the
speaker’s purpose will result in focused and critical listening.

3. P3 – Speaker’s main and supporting points. What is the topic and

what assertions are made about it? What are the speaker’s main points? Can
you enumerate them? Does he/she support each main point with evidence
and sources? These are usually found in the body of the message and it is
important that you listen for signs telling you which points are more
important than the others. This will help reduce the amount of information
you have to single out and remember.

4. P4 – Positive non-verbal feedback. Instead of slouching, sit upright.

Show eagerness in listening to what the speaker says and maintain eye
contact with him/her. Avoid looking at your watch many times or reading
newspapers or pocketbooks. These listening behaviors are discourteous. On
the other hand, do not fake attention by pretending that you are
enthusiastically listening although you are not.

5. N – Note-taking. Take down notes while you listen. Write down key ideas
or phrases so you have something to go back to when you want to recall the
information. Be sure to write one point per line and separate supporting
points from the main ideas. One cue that the speaker is presenting a main
point is when s/he slows down. S/he usually goes faster when s/he elaborates
on the key points s/he mentioned. Explicit signals may likewise be given in
the form of remarks like “And this is important…”
Aside from notes, you may also want to write questions which you can raise
later after the listening task.

4. C – Concluding part of the message. Listen for signals telling you that
the speaker is wrapping up or asking the audience to act on something. At
this point, the speaker may restate what he/she said in the introduction –
his/her main purpose and sum up the main points for you to take note of and
remember.

5. R – Recalling information. You may recite it to yourself or share it with a

friend or classmates. The notes which you took down while listening can help
you recall the information.

One must, however, make it a point to listen ethically to what is

shared. What does it mean to listen ethically? Griffin (2009) suggests three
things to do:

1. Suspend judgment while listening.

2. Assess the information you hear.
3. Respond to the speaker’s ideas.
 Can you explain what each of these means?

In conclusion, it is worth quoting from Nichols (1995) who says that “to
listen well, you must forget yourself and give your focused attention to what
the speaker says.”