LISTENING

SKILLS
PKB 3053

listeni
ng
Languag
e Skills

speaking
reading
writing

What is Listening Skills

?
Listening as an aspect of skills, involves
neurological response and interpretations of
sounds to understand and to give meaning by
reacting, selecting meaning, remembering,
attending, analyzing and including previous
experience.

Hirsch (1986)

Listening is a highly complex, interactive

process that has been defined as the
process by which spoken language is
converted to meaning in the mind.

Lundsteen (1979)

What is
LISTENING
comprehensi
on?

Listening comprehension can be

defined as
the ability to recall and
understand information which is
presented orally.

This information might be

presented through a book,
filmstrip, video, or felt
board set.

Listening
comprehension refers
to the understanding
of the implications and
explicit meanings of
words and sentences
of spoken language.
Steinberg (2007)

Listening is one of
the most challenging
skills for ESL learners
to develop as it is
probably the least
explicit of the four
language skills.
Vandergrift (2004)

Concept Of Listening
ComprehensionTrying to see the
Active process
of receiving
and
responding to
spoken

Waiting alertly
for the flaws
in the other
persons
argument.

A good listener
does not merely
remain silent.
(asks questions)

problem the way

the speaker sees
it--which means
not sympathy,
which is feeling for
him, but empathy,
which is
experiencing with
him.

Listening requires
entering actively and
imaginatively into the
other person's
situation and trying to
understand a frame
of reference different
from your own

Listening is more complex

than merely hearing. It is a
process that consists of four
stages: sensing and
attending, understanding
and interpreting,
remembering, and
responding

Steinberg (2007)

attention

hearing
4 elements of
good listening
understanding

remembering

the focused
perception of
both visual and
verbal stimuli
the
physiological act
of 'opening the
gates to your
ears'
assigning
meaning to the
messages
received
the storing of
meaningful
information

4 LEVELS OF
LISTENING

Acknowledging

Sympathizing
agree with a
sentiment,
opinion, or
ideology

accept or admit
the existence or
truth of

Paraphrasing
express the meaning of
(something written or
spoken) using different
words, especially to
achieve greater clarity

Empathizing
understand and
share the
feelings of
another

Paying
attenti
on
Holding
judgme
nt

Sharin
g

ACTIVE
LISTENI
NG
Summariz
ing

Reflectin
g
Clarifyi
ng

Benefits of Listening
Comprehension
Can recall and understand information.
Children who have strong listening comprehension
skills also tend to be good listeners overall
Developing strong listening comprehension skills
early on will help each child become a better
listener for life.
Strong listening comprehension skills also
promote thinking and problem-solving skills.
The children begin to develop their own thoughts
and ideas about the situations presented in the
story.

Sight
Sound
SENSORY
FACTORS

smell
Temperature
and humidity
Physical
comfort

Factors
affecting
listening
problems

Discomfort
PSYCHOLOGIC
AL FACTORS

Illness
Fatigue
Stress

Listening Comprehension
Problems

Why some
learners find
listening
difficult

Many people
cannot cope
with missing
whole chunks of
speech while
having a
conversation

They
are
trying
to
underst
and
every
word

One method of
tackling this is
to show them
how to identify
the important
words that they
need to listen
out for
Repetition of
words
Spoken louder
and longer

You can cut down on

this problem with preteaching vocabulary
by getting learners to talk
about the same topic first to
bring the relevant vocabulary
for that topic area nearer the
This often happens
front of their brain.
when you hear a
word you half
Spend a lot of time
remember and find
revising vocabulary
you have completely
and doing skills work
lost the thread of
where they come
what was being said
into contact with it
They get
by the time you
and use it.
remember what it
left behind
means.
trying to

trying to
work out
what a
previous
word
meant

pre-teaching
vocabulary

They
just
don't
know
the
most
importa
nt
words

build up their
vocabulary and
teach them how
they can do the
same in their own
time with
vocabulary lists,
graded readers,
monolingual
dictionary use

Apart from just

being too busy
thinking about
other things and
missing a word,
common reasons
why learners might
not recognise a
word

Not distinguishing
between different
sounds in English
(e.g. /l/ and /r/ in
"led" and "red" for
many Asians)

They don't
recognise
the words
that they
know

it is better for
teachers to record
the conversation
before class,
reading all or part
of the tapescript
out in your accent

students have to
deal with a variety
of British,
American and
Australian accents

They have
problems
with
different
accents

Teachers should
not overload
their brains with
new language
beforehand

You can listen for

sometime until
your brain seems
to reach
saturation point
and from then on
nothing goes in

Teachers should
give them a
break

They lack
listening
stamina/
they get
tired

You can build up

their stamina by
also making the
speaking tasks
longer.

Watching English
movies without
subtitles for a
longer time to
get stamina

Bad experienceSometimes a
learner has to
struggle with badly
graded listening
texts in school,
examinations or
self-study
materials.

They
have a
mental
block

use much easier

texts, perhaps
using them mainly
as a prompt for
discussion or
grammar
presentations to
stop them feeling
patronized

Cut down on
noise inside the
classroom by
doing the first
task with books
closed and pens
down.

Boost their
confidence by
letting them use
headphones
They are
distracted
by
background
noise

Learners find
it difficult to
cope without
multimedia

They more
prefer to
visual

Teachers have
to set the
scene with
some photos
of the people
speaking

They
can't
cope
with
not
having
images

Using video

Learners who have

problems hearing
particular
frequencies or
who have
particular
problems with
background noise.

Teachers could try

setting most
listening tasks as
homework
Letting one or
more learners
read from the
tapescript as they
listen.

They
have
hearing
problems

Voices that are

clearly distinct
to a native
speaker can be
completely
confusing for a
non-native
speaker.

They can't
tell the
difference
between
the
different
voices

Teachers avoid
these problems
by using texts
with one woman
and one man

Tests that
assess
specific
aspects of
listening
Assessing
Listening
Comprehensi
on

The test
can be
presented
live

like sound discrimination

and task based tests which
test skills in accomplishing
different types of listening
tasks .
When testing, text
selection has to be carried
out carefully.
Certain aspects need to be
considered.
In primary schools listening
to classroom instruction
and listening to stories
test administrators could
either read it aloud in front
of the class or it can be
taped
Live presentation
Video tape better than
audio tape

As an example, to
assess if a pupil
has understood the
names of local
fruits, teacher
place a few pictures
of the fruits, then
say mango.

To determine if the
pupil knows the
meaning of the
word used to label
things

Have the pupil

point to the correct
picture. The
teacher can
substitute pictures
of fruits with
pictures of
furniture, vehicles,
buildings, parts of
the body and so on.

NOUN
S

It will be good if the

teacher can ask the
pupils to point to
real objects.

To test a pupils
comprehension of
action words, the
teacher can ask the
pupil to either
perform the action
named, or to point to
a picture showing the
action.

For example, the

teacher can
sayJump and ask the
pupil to show the
jumping action.

Ver
bs

To test the
students
understanding of
words used to
indicate position,
the teacher can
show pictures of
similar objects in
different positions.

For example, the

teacher can show
three pictures, one
of a book under the
desk, another of a
book on the desk
and the third of a
book beside the
desk.

Preposit
ion

The teacher then

says, Point to the
book which is
under the desk.
And if the pupil can
do so, it shows
he/she has
understood the
preposition used.

The teacher can

show a picture of
two similar objects
but with different
characteristics, and
ask the pupil to
point to the object
with the named
characteristics.

For example, to find

out understood the
word thick, the
teacher can show a
picture of two or
more books, one of
which is thicker than
the other.

Adjecti
ves

The teacher then

says, Point to the
thick book. If the
pupil understands,
he will point to the
correct picture.

To test whether the

pupil understands
present action,
completed action and
future action, the
teacher can again use
pictures.

For example, the

teacher can show
three pictures, one of a
boy kicking a ball,
another of a boy
walking towards the
ball and the third of a
boy about to kick the
ball.

Tens
es

The teacher then says,

Show me The picture
of a boy who has
kicked the ball..If the
pupil point to the
correct picture, it
shows he/she has
understood the tense
used.

For instance, the

teacher can say,
Wipe your
mouth..If the pupil
can carry out as
instructed it shows
he/she has
understood the
instruction.

the teacher
concerned gives
the instructions for
the pupil to
perform the task
given to carry out
the instructions.

Understan
ding
direction
and
instruction

To test whether the

pupil can
understand
connected text, the
teacher can read
from a text and
then ask questions
based on the text.

Understan
ding
discourse