Chapter

From
Listening as Comprehension
to
Listening as Acquisition
How to Teach and Assess Listening Skill
• As the world embraces English as the international language, there is
also a growing demand for its fluency.

• As a future English teacher, you must master the pillars of effective

communication, namely – listening, speaking, reading, writing, and
viewing.

• A good English teacher ensures that students are provided with the
necessary conditions to acquire this skill set needed for academic and
personal success.
2
• Listening is primarily viewed as the foundation for language acquisition
process.

• Since communication is basically oral, people mostly learn, understand,

and respond effectively by listening to what others have to say.

• Studies pointed out that many people spend 70 to 80% communicating

and from that, 45% is spent on listening.

3
• However, according to Nation and Newton (2009), it has been the “least
understood and most overlooked of the four skills.

• Field (2008) states that “in the early days of English Language Teaching
(ELT), listening chiefly served as a means of introducing new grammar
through model dialogues.

4
• Listening is as important as the rest of the macro skills yet it is not
explicitly taught in language classes.

• Listening skills in language classrooms are more often tested through

students’ ability to respond effectively to what has been heard. However,
this skill is seldom taught.

5
• This chapter will guide you on how to teach your students to become
active listeners by providing them with relevant and comprehensible
input.

6
 Learning Outcomes

At the end of this Unit, the pre-service teachers will be able to:

A. Identify important concepts of listening, listening process, and listening comprehension.

B. Discus the techniques and strategies in the teaching and assessment of listening.
C. Select differentiated listening and viewing learning tasks to suit learners’ gender, needs,
strengths, interests, and experiences.
D. Demonstrate how to provide timely, accurate, and constructive feedback to improve learner
performance in the different tasks in listening.
E. Craft a learning plan according to the English curriculum that is developed from research-based
knowledge and principles of listening and the theoretical bases, principles, methods, and 7
strategies in teaching theses components.
 Using the listening skills self -inventory below, check the statementwhich describes who you
are ratherthan whatyou should be.
Yes, I Well, I Oh, I have
always do sometimes never
this. do this. done this.
I give my full attention when listening and stop whatever it is I’m doing.
I let the person finish talking first before I respond/speak.
I clarify important points in the conversation by restating and paraphrasing what is
said.
I ask questions to clarify ideas from the person talking.
I ask questions to get people to elaborate on their points.
I withhold judgments and personal opinions about the topic until the person is
finished with he/she has to say.
If the person hesitates, I encourage him/her to continue rather than start talking
myself.
I still listen to the person and let him/her finish even though I already know what
he/she is saying.
I respond appropriately while listening by giving non-verbal gestures like head nods
and verbal cues like “ok”. 8
I still listen fully regardless of a person’s status, manner of speaking, background,
So how are you doing? Which items do you sometimes do? How about
those that you haven’t done?

9
 ACTIVITY NO.1

Over the last 24 hours, create a list of the different listening experiences you have with people
speaking.
Who was speaking and why were you listening?
WHO WAS SPEAKING? WHY WERE YOU LISTENING TO THEM?

10
• What do you know of listening? How is it different from hearing?

• You heard, but you didn’t listen. You might have heard someone
say this line and have perfectly understood what the person
meant.

11
According to the dictionary,

• Hearing is the “process, function or power of perceiving a sound.”

• Listening is “to hear something with thoughtful attention.”

From the book Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking,

▪ Hearing is “an accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires
no effort. Listening is “purposeful and focused to understand the meanings
expressed by a speaker.”

12
According to Kline (1996),

▪ “hearing is the reception of sound, listening is the attachment of meaning to the

sound.”

According to Rost (2002),

▪ “hearing is a form of perception. Listening is an active and intentional process.

Although both hearing and listening involve sound perception, the difference in
terms reflects a degree of intention.”

To sum up, listening is more than just hearing sounds and

words. It is an active process wherein language learners
receive, construct meaning from, and respond to both
verbal and non-verbal messages.
13
Listening is an integral part of communication; thus, we need to
develop a keen interest in improving our listening skills.

But how does one listen actively?

14
 • Active Listening
❑ In various interactions (face-to-face or virtual),
listeners show their understanding and response
to the speakers through verbal utterances like
“ok”, “uh-huh”, “oh”, and non-verbal gestures like
nodding and pressing the emoticon buttons in
Zoom.

15
Presentation title
❑ They can also make comments, ask questions, and
take turns participating in the conversation.

❑ This proves that listening is active and not a

passive skill.

❑ “If the listener takes part actively in the process of

listening linguistically and uses non-linguistic
knowledge to follow up the message that the
speaker intends in a conversation, replies,
asks/answers questions, it is active listening.
(Lindslay & Knight, 2006)
❑ But, this skill may not come naturally for many of
us. There is a line that separates passive listening
and active listening.

❑ Passive listening is regarded as one-way

communication wherein the receiver does not
respond nor give feedback to the speaker in any
way.

❑ Active listening includes responding and providing

feedback at the right time. It is paying attention
not only to the speaker, or to the message but
even to the verbal and non-verbal messages.
 Listening is vital in the

• language classroom because it

provides input for the learner.

The Importance of Active

Listening

Presentation title
• Spoken language provides a
means of interaction for the
learner.
 Authentic spoken language

• presents a challenge for the

learner to understand
language as native speakers
use it.
The Importance of Active
Listening

Presentation title
 • Listening exercises provide teachers
with a means for drawing learners’
attention to new forms (vocabulary,
grammar, new interaction patterns)
in the language.

❑Som
eti
mes

arriers to Active Listening

 even if it is one’s intention to stay focused
while listening, some may have difficulty
staying attentive due to several factors like
noise, attention span, receiver biases, and
listening or receiver apprehension.

▪ Noise. It is the most common distraction when listening. Noise does not only refer to
something physical, but also psychological, physiological, and semantic noise.

20

▪ Attention span. As future teachers, you should now that your students can only maintain focused attention
for a finite length of time. Thus, classroom lectures should be short, interesting, and engaging.
 ▪ Receiver biases. One’s preconceived ideas and
opinions, whether about the speaker or the
message/topic, can be considered as noise and many
interfere in the listening process.

▪ Listening or receiver apprehension. Listening or

receiver apprehension is the fear that you might be
unable to understand the message or process the
information correctly or be able to adapt your thinking
to include the new information coherently.

arriers to Active Listening

Presentation title 22
1 . Pay Attention

• In active listening, we give the speaker our

undivided attention. It is concentrating on the
speaker’s message while integrating one’s own
prior knowledge and experiences.
2 . Withhold Judgment

• In active listening, it is important to stay

open-minded and to welcome varied
ideas, new perspectives, and different
opinions. good listeners know how to
respond appropriately without criticizing,
judging, insisting on their point of view.
 • Reflecting on the communication process
3 . Reflect allows you to understand the speaker’s
experiences and the emotions that come
with them.

✓Rephrasing
✓Repeating or reaffirming

• The listener will not ask questions but rather

helps the speaker direct his/her thoughts
and encourage to continue speaking.
 • In active listening, feedbacking is
important. However, to be able to
4 . Clarity
provide accurate and relevant feedback,
the listener has to clarify information
that has not been clearly understood.

• You may clarify by asking “What do you

mean by…?” or summarize by saying,
“So, you mean that…”
 • In addition to clarifying, you can also
summarize or restate key points in the
conversation to ensure that you have the
same understanding of the intention and 5 . Summarize
message of the speaker.

• When you summarize, you are not

stating a fact about what was said.
Rather, to clarify whether the
information have been heard
correctly.
• In the previous discussion, you’ve
learned to withhold judgment and not to
insist and impose your ideas.
6 . Share
• However, it also doesn’t mean that
you will not provide relevant,
accurate, and needed feedback to
the speaker.
• Active listening is having to
understand and be understood.
 Any question?

Thank you! Suggestion?

Clarification?