ADVANCE LISTENING

THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING IN OUR LIVES

Arranged by Group 8 :
Hanifah Zain
Putri Intan Baiduri
Nur Anisah Siregar
M. Indra Syahputra

Lecturer :
Khairun Niswa, Spd.I M.Hum

ENGLISH EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF TARBIYAH SCIENCE AND TEACHER TRAINING
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA
MEDAN
2019
 A. Definiton
Listening is the active process of receiving and responding to spoken (and sometimes
unspoken) messages. It is one of the subjects studied in the field of language arts and in the
discipline of conversation analysis.
Listening is the ability to comprehend verbally communicated information and providing
appropriate feedback. It can be described also as the ability to pay attention to sound.
Though it seems a simple natural activity, it is a skill that has not been mastered by many
people. Everyone, except deaf people, hears but it is listening that makes the differences.
Hearing is the effect of vibrations in the eardrums caused by sound waves, but listening goes
beyond this process.

B. Benefits of Listening

Listening has an important role both in daily life and in academic context as it is crucial
for people to sustain effective communication. In spite of important listening in the development
of the communicative and cognitive skills, it didn’t start to take it’s place in language teaching
curriculum for long years. However in recent year with the emphasis given in communication in
language teaching, listening started to take its long deserved place in language programs.
Although there are different perspectives to teaching listening, the success of each perspective
somewhat depends on addressing and minizing the listening comprehension problems
experienced by language learners. This literature review aims to review the basic concepts
relatedto the place and importance of listening skill in learning English as second or foreign
language, and in the light of the related literature, it focuses on listening comprehension
problems experienced by second and foreign language learners.

People who truly listen understand that effective listening provides solid, reliable
benefits. Listening expands your knowledge, helps best solve problems, aids in negotiations,
reduces mistakes and misunderstandings, and enables that nirvana of all business situations,
enhanced relationships with prospects and clients. And where do all these benefits ultimately
lead? More recognition, greater income, increased market share, and higher profitability.

1. Expand your knowledge.

 No one knows everything. You can certainly learn from reading, but when you listen to
someone, you get consolidated information that goes to the heart of the matter. The talker has
already discarded the useless and minimized the peripheral. You get the true nuggets of what’s
most important. As you react, this talker can tailor what they are saying, explain something in
greater detail. You can ask questions to gain more insight and depth. You can also learn things
that have not yet been written down.

2. Everyone has something to say.

If you just listen long enough. Our friends once had a piano teacher, Mrs Regis (not her real
name, of course). While brilliant on a piano, what Mrs Regis said during a conversation could be
quite incomprehensible. Picking up Alita after practice often meant enduring more of Mrs
Regis’s flighty thoughts. Alita and I tried listening, but we always seemed to come away wide-
eyed and baffled. I often questioned the value of listening to her, until one enlightening moment
that completely changed my perspective. My family was joining me for a sixmonth sabbatical I
was taking in Hawai‘i, so I phoned Mrs Regis and told her that Alita’s lessons would have to
end. The next time I saw Mrs Regis, she said to me, “So, you’re taking a sabbatical?” When I
affirmed this, she said something to me that I will never forget: “Let’s see, that’s rest, relaxation,
rejuvenation, and reinvention.” Well, I just stared at her, stunned. In one neat, sweet, and pithy
phrase, she captured the essence of my sabbatical. Just like that. These four alliterative words
became a foundation on which I built my sabbatical.Everyone, and I mean everyone, has
something to say. Sabastian Junger, the novelist (A Perfect Storm) and journalist built a career
on this. In his article “Welcome Stranger”, published in Adventure magazine, Junger wrote,
“Every person I’ve interviewed has lead a life unique to them, they havesomething to say about
the world that I couldn’t get from anyone else. That became a cornerstone of my journalism.”

3. Better solve problems.

To solve a problem, it’s best to know everything about the situation. Wouldn’t that be
wonderful — to solve a problem about which you know everything? While that is impossible,
the next best thing is to know as much as possible. And the best way to gain that information is
to listen. The longer you listen, the more information you receive, the greater your
understanding, the better you are able to solve a problem. At some point, however, you must stop
listening, use the information you have, and act.

4. Reduce mistakes and misunderstandings.

You certainly don’t want to be the manager who half listened (literally, it appears) and shipped
a truckload of product to Portland, Maine when it should have gone to Portland, Oregon (true
story).

5. Be better understood.
To be better understood, first listen. Does this appear paradoxical? On the surface it does, but
after you truly listen to someone, they are much more likely to return the favor — and listen
more intently to you, mirroring your behavior. And what if they don’t? You can always point out
that you made the effort to listen, and would appreciate the same in return. As a bonus, both of
you understand each other at a deeper level. I once had a client who had to dump everything on
her mind before she could listen. It wasn’t always easy to be patient and wait her out; sometimes
there were 30 second pauses between her thoughts. I learned to just keep quiet, listen, and wait
for her to completely finish. How did I know? She would wonder aloud why I hadn’t said
anything yet! But that was okay because now, she was ready to listen. And she really did listen
well, now that she was “empty”. We always accomplished a lot during our conversations, and
attained many accords.

6. People like a listener.

Think about it. The person you are most likely to tell your innermost secrets is someone you
know well and trust, someone with whom you have built a relationship. Relationships are built
through many human attributes — at the core of these attributes is listening.

B. The importance of Listening

So listening is important in our lives because :

1. Without listening, no organisation can operate effectively, nor ultimately survive.
Effective listening provides the information required to enable organisations to adapt to
meet the changing needs of customers and keep up with market trends.

2. Good listening and skilful questioning give a powerful message to those with whom you
interact. They hugely increase your capacity to influence, motivate, develop or serve
people effectively.
3. Listening and questioning are an inherent part of most life skills, fundamental to human
interaction, and a major factor in the success of a good communicator.
4. Good listening allows us to demonstrate that we are paying attention to the thoughts,
feelings and behaviours of the other person (seeing the world through their eyes). This is
crucial to maintaining productive relationships, and sometimes the only way to establish
communication.
5. Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner.
Without understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin.
6. Spoken language provides a means of interactions for learner. Because learners must
interact to achieve understanding. Access to speakers of the language is essential.
Moreover, learners failure to understand the language they hear is an impetus, not an
obstacle, to interaction and learning.
7. Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learners to understand language
as native speakers actually use it.
8. Listening exercise provides teachers with a means for drawing learners attention to new
forms (vocabulary, grammar, new interaction patterns) in the language.
 REFERENCES

https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/291967

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://solaricommunication.com/position-papers/listening/Solari-
Many-Benefits-of-
Listening.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjipNqryLnmAhVN6nMBHWEdC7EQFnoECAsQAg&usg
=AOvVaw0YxdqrtFItHOTWQTtLprIV

https://www.thoughtco.com/listening-communication-term-1691247