Material for the course

Listening skills
(EnLa. 205) for BA
and
(EnLa. 211) for BED
 Unit One
The Nature of Listening
 1.1 Definition of Listening

 It is the ability to identify & understand what others are saying.

 It is visual as well as auditory act, as we communicate much
through body language.
 Listening is the act of hearing attentively.
 It is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get
meaning from something we hear.
 It is the active process of receiving, constructing meaning and
responding to spoken (and sometimes unspoken) messages.
 1.2 Listening & Hearing
1. Listening is a voluntary physical act. (physical+mental)
2. Hearing is an involuntary physical act.
1. Listening is an active process which involves attention &
concentration. (attending, understanding, evaluating & responding)
2. Hearing is a passive process which is physiological & occurs
without any attention.
1. Listening requires conscious efforts.
2. Hearing happens automatically (with out conscious thought).

1. In listening, the listener plays a very active part.

2. In hearing, the listener is not active.
 Listening & Hearing
1.Listening is a 2-way interactive process engaging speaker & listener.
2.Hearing is a one-way automatic and effortless process.

1.listening is making sense for what we hear, (paying attention, interpreting

messages & remembering sound stimulus)

2. Hearing is merely picking up sound vibrations.

1. Listening-physical & mental process; active; learned process; a skill.

2. Hearing-physical process; natural; passive.

 An effective listener is capable of doing these 4 things simultaneously:

 Understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, grammar,

vocabulary, & grasping his meaning.

 1.3 Key components (mss) of listening

 It comprises some key components, these micro-skills of listening are:

 Predicting what people are going to talk about,

 Recognizing words and understanding their meaning,

 Guessing at unknown words or phrases without panicking,

 Discriminating between sounds,

 Identifying grammatical groupings of words,

 Identifying expressions & sets of utterances that act to create meaning,

 Connecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic & paralinguistic cues,

 Recalling important words & ideas

 Key components of listening

 Using one’s knowledge of the subject to help understanding &

using background knowledge to predict & to confirm meaning.
 Identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information

 Retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing)

 Recognizing cohesive devices: including linking words,

pronouns, references, etc.
 Understanding different intonation patterns & uses of stress etc.,
which give clues to meaning & social setting
 Understanding inferred information; e.g. speaker’s attitude or
intentions.
 1.4 Process of listening

1. Receiving/hearing: The listener receives messages.

 During reception, he/she employs auditory & visual sensory receptors.

2. Understanding/interpreting: Is this stage listeners learn what the

speaker means: the thoughts & emotional tone.
 We combine the visual & auditory information we receive & try to
make meaning out of that information.
3. Remembering/recalling: After receiving & interpreting a message, the
listener has also add it to the mind's storage bank.
 Since our attention is selective, what is remembered may be quite
different from what was originally seen or heard.
 Cont.…
4. Evaluating: making judgments about its:
 Credibility: Do you believe the speaker’s statements are correct/true.
 Completeness: listen between the lines & evaluate the message in
relation to what we know about the topic or situation being discussed.
 Worth: making a value judgment about whether we think the message
or idea is good/bad, right/wrong, or desirable/undesirable.
5. Responding: sending verbal & nonverbal feedback while another person
is talking and after they have done.
 It requires the receiver to complete the process through verbal or
nonverbal feedback; because the speaker has no other way to determine
if a message has been received.
 1.5 Approaches to learning to listen

1. Bottom-up Approach:
 Refers to using incoming inputs as the basis for understanding the
message.
 Comprehension begins with the received data that is analyzed as
successive levels of organization (sounds, words, clauses,
sentences & texts) until meaning is derived.
 Comprehension is viewed as a process of decoding.
 The listener’s lexical & grammatical competence in a language
provides the basis for bottom-up processing.
 Listeners use bottom-up processes when they construct meaning
from the phoneme-level up to discourse-level features.
 Approaches to listen

 Bottom-up strategies are text based;

 The listener relies on the language in the message,
 that is, the combination of sounds, words, & grammar that
creates meaning.
 Bottom-up strategies include:
 listening for specific details
 recognizing cognates (similarity)
 recognizing word-order patterns
 2. Top down approach

 It refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the

meaning of a message.

 Listeners use top-down processes when they use context & prior
knowledge

 Top-down strategies are listener based.

 The listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the

situation/context, the type of text, & the language.

 This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that

help the listener to interpret what is heard & anticipate what
will come next.
 Approaches to listen
 Top-down strategies include:
 listening for main ideas
 predicting
 drawing inferences
 summarizing
 Note: the degree to which listeners may use one process more
than another depends on the purpose of listening.
 L2 listeners need to learn how to use both processes to their
advantage, depending on their purpose for listening.
 Types of Listening
 Different situations require different types of listening.
 There are about five primary types of listening:

1. Informative listening:
 The listener’s primary concern is to understand the message.
 This type of listening is found in all areas of our lives.
 Much of our learning comes from informative listening.
 Eg. we listen to lectures or instructions from teachers, & what we
learn depends on how well we listen.
 There are three key variables related to informative listening.
 Knowing them can help us to improve our informative listening.
 Informative Listening

I. Vocabulary:

 Increasing your vocabulary increases your potential for better

understanding.

II. Concentration:
 It requires discipline, motivation, & acceptance of responsibility.

III. Memory:
 You can’t process information without bringing it into play.

 It allows you to recall experiences & information necessary to function in

the world around you;
 It establishes expectations concerning what you will encounter;

 It allows you to understand what others say.

 2. Relationship Listening

 The purpose is either to help an individual or to improve

relationship between people.
 Therapeutic listening brings to mind situations where
counselors, medical personnel, or other professionals allow a
troubled person to talk through a problem.
 But it can also be used when you listen to friends & allow them
to “get things off their chests.”
 Although this listening requires you to listen for information,
the emphasis is on understanding the other person.
 Three behaviors are key for effective relationship listening:
 Cont.…
I. Attending:

 It indicates that the listener is focusing on the speaker.

 Nonverbal cues are crucial in relationship listening because they

indicate that you are attending to the speaker/you aren’t!

 Eye contact is one of the most important attending behaviors.

 Leaning forward toward the speaker, demonstrates interest;

 Head nods, smiles, frowns, & vocalized cues such as “I see,” or

“yes”—all are positive attending behaviors.

 Gentle touching & concern for the other person’s comfort are other

attending behaviors.
 II. Supporting

 Many responses have a non-supportive effect; for example,

 interrupting the speaker, changing the subject, turning the
conversation toward yourself, & demonstrating lack of
concern for the other person.
 Giving advice, attempting to manipulate the conversation, or
indicating that you consider yourself superior are other
behaviors that will have an adverse effect on the relationship.
 Sometimes the best response is silence.
 Cont.…
 Wise relationship listeners know when to talk & when to listen

 they generally listen more than they talk.

 Three characteristics describe supportive listeners:

(1) discretion:
 being careful about what they say and do;

(2) belief:
 expressing confidence in the ability of the other person; and

(3) patience:
 being willing to give others the time they need to express
themselves adequately.
 III. Empathizing

 Empathy is feeling & thinking with another person.

 It is the ability to understand & share the feelings of another.
 Empathic behavior can be learned:

1. you must learn as much as you can about the other person.
2. you must accept the other person, even if you can’t accept
some aspects of that person’s behavior.
3. you must have the desire to be an empathic listener.
 3. Appreciative Listening

 The listener gains pleasure/satisfaction from listening to a certain

type of music.

 Appreciative sources also include particular charismatic speakers

or entertainers.

 It includes listening to music for enjoyment, because you like their

style, or they are your choices in theater, television, radio, or film.

 It is the response of the listener, not the source of the message that

defines appreciative listening.

 The quality of this listening depends in large part on three factors:

 Appreciative Listening…cont…

A. Presentation:

 includes the medium, setting, style & personality of the presenter etc.

 Sometimes it is our perception of the presentation that influences our

listening pleasure/displeasure.
B. Perception:
 Expectations play a large role in perception.
 Perceptions & the expectations that drive them have their basis in attitudes.
 Our attitudes determine how we react to & interact with the world around us.

C. Previous experience:
 It influences whether we enjoy listening to something.
 Sometimes, we enjoy listening to things because we are experts in the area.
 4. Critical Listening

 The purpose is analyzing or evaluating a message based on the

information presented verbally & information that can be
inferred from context.
 A critical listener evaluates a message & accepts it, rejects it,
or decides to withhold judgment & seek more information.
 The ability to listen critically is essential in every aspect of
life: On the job, in the community, at service clubs ETC..
 We make judgments about what the other person is saying. We
seek to assess the truth of what is being said.
 Critical Listening…cont…

 Is pertinent when the person is trying to persuade us, perhaps to

change our behavior & may be to change our beliefs.

 Is sometimes named as evaluative, judgmental or interpretive

listening.

 listening to persuasive message includes:

 Identification & evaluation activity

 Identifying facts & opinions

 Evaluate the message from our point of view and based on the
objective reality.

 In critical listening, there are three things to keep in mind:

 1. Ethos/speaker credibility:

 The two critical factors of speaker credibility are expertness & trustworthiness.

2. logos/logical arguments:

 Critical listeners have a right to expect well supported arguments from

speakers,

3.Pathos/psychological appeals.

 The psychological or emotional element of communication is often

misunderstood & misused.

 Speakers often use psychological appeals to gain an emotional response from

listeners.

 Effective critical listeners carefully determine the focus of the speaker’s

message.
 5. Discriminative Listening

 Is a focused & usually instrumental type of listening.

 is primarily physiological & occurs mostly at the receiving
stage of the listening process.
 we engage in listening to scan & monitor our surroundings in
order to isolate particular auditory or visual stimuli.
 The listener is able to identify & distinguish inferences or
emotions through the speakers change in voice tone, their use
of pause, etc.
 There are three things to consider about this type of listening.

I. Hearing ability:
 Obviously, people who lack the ability to hear well will have greater
difficulty in discriminating among sounds.
II. Awareness of sound structure:
 Attention to the sound structure of the language will lead to more
proficient discriminatory listening.
III. Integration of nonverbal cues:
 Words don’t always communicate true feelings. The way they are
said, or the way the speaker acts, may be the key to understanding the
true or intended meaning.
 1.6. Importance of listening

 Good listening skills make workers more productive.

 The ability to listen carefully will allow a person to:
 understand assignments in better way & find what is expected
from him
 build rapport/relationship with co-workers, bosses, & clients;
 work better in a team-based environment;
 resolve problems with customers, co-workers, and bosses;
 answer questions
 find underlying meanings in what others say.
 Importance…

 Learning the skill of effective listening benefits personal growth &

development in the following ways:
I. Effective Communication:
 Clear & concise transmission of information is an important
component of effective human interaction.
 Having good listening skill helps to improve conversation skills.
 This way you can avoid a lot of misunderstandings/confusions.
 You could also stop possible conflicts even before they start.
 Benefits…cont…

II. Fewer Misunderstandings:

 effective listener can prevent misunderstandings.

 Good listeners can learn more about the people they talk to, make

new friends & have a better life, both personal/professional.

III. Improve Relationships:

 Relationships are damaged by misunderstandings that lead to

unsatisfactory business transactions & hurt feelings in personal

relationships.

 Excellent listening practices tell others that they are important,

special, & what they have to say is valued.

 Importance…

 That is very attractive & contributes to strong relationships.

 By becoming a good listener you could even improve existent
relationships.
IV. Personal Growth:
 A person learns & grows by listening & understanding
other viewpoints, differing ideas, & exploring conflicting
viewpoints.
 1.7 Ways to improve Listening skill
 Tips which can help a person to improve his/her Listening skills:

1. Face the speaker:

 Sit up straight or lean forward slightly to show your attentiveness through
body language.

2. Maintain eye contact

3. Minimize external distractions:

 E.g.. turn off the TV, Put down your book, & ask the speaker & other
listeners to do the same.

4. Respond appropriately:
 to show that you understand. Murmur (“uh-huh” & “um-hmm”) & nod.

 Raise your eyebrows.

 Say words such as “Really,” “Interesting,” as well as more direct prompts:

“What did you do then?” and “What did she say?”
 Ways to improve LS

5. Focus solely on what the speaker is saying:

 Try not to think about what you are going to say next.
 The conversation will have a logical flow after the speaker makes
his/her point.
6. Minimize internal distractions:
 If your own thoughts keep horning in, simply let them go &
continuously re-focus your attention on the speaker.
7. Keep an open mind:
 Wait until the speaker finishes before deciding that you disagree.
 Try not to make assumptions about what the speaker is thinking.
 Ways to improve LS

 Avoid letting the speaker know how you handled a similar

situation unless they ask for advice.
 Even if the speaker is launching a complaint against you, wait
until they finish to defend yourself.
 Engage yourself. Ask questions for clarification, but once
again, wait until the speaker has finished.
 That way, you won’t interrupt their train of thought.
 1.8 Barriers to Listening

 There are a number of obstacles that stand in the way of effective

listening, these barriers can be categorized as follows:

1. Physiological Barriers:

 some people may have genuine hearing problems or deficiencies that

prevent them from listening properly.

 Some people may have problem in processing information or retaining

information in the memory.

2. Physical Barriers:

 These refer to distraction in the environment such as the sound of an air

conditioner, cigarette smoke, or an overheated room.

 Barriers…cont…

3. Attitudinal Barriers:

 pre occupation with personal or work related problems can make it

difficult to focus one’s attention completely on what the speaker is saying.

 egocentrism, or the belief that the listener is more knowledgeable than the

speaker, or that there is nothing new to learn from the speaker’s ideas.

 People with this kind of close minded attitude are very poor listeners.

4. Wrong Assumptions:

 The success of communication depend on both the sender & receiver.

 It is wrong to assume that communication is the sole responsibility of the

sender or the speaker & that listener have no role to play.

 Cont.…
5. Cultural Barriers:
 Accents can be barriers to listening, since they interfere with the
ability to understand the meaning of words that are pronounced
differently.
 The problem of different accents arises not only between cultures, but
also within a culture.
6. Gender Barriers:
 Studies have revealed that men & women listen very differently & for
different purposes.
 Women are more likely to listen for the emotion behind a speaker’s
words, when men listen more for the facts & the content.
 Cont..

7. Lack of Training: Listening is not an inborn skill.

 it is developed through practice & training.

 Lack of training in listing skills is an important barrier.

8. Bad Listening Habits:

 some people have the habits of “faking” attention, or

 trying to look like a listeners, in order to impress the speaker

and to assure him that they are paying attention.

 Others may tend to listen to each & every fact &, as a result,

miss-out the main point.

 Unit two: Listening strategies & skills
2.1. Listening for Meaning

 To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four

basic steps, They should:
I. outline the purpose for listening.
II. attend to the parts of the listening input that are important to the
identified purpose & ignore the rest.
III. select top-down & bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the
listening task & use them flexibly & interactively.
IV. check knowledge while listening & when the listening task is ended.
 This helps students to detect comprehension failures, directing
them to apply other strategies.
 2.2. Listening for Gist, & Details/Specific Information

2.2.1 Listening for Gist

 It is akin to aural skimming of input to determine a text’s general

topic, theme, & main points (Field, 2008).
 Since listening for gist does not require listeners to collect specific
details it does not involve focused or intense attention.
 Rather, it is often done at a shallow level of attention,
 In real life, we often listen for gist simultaneously with other
activities.
 We may not listen carefully & try to get a general idea of what is
being said.
 Gist. Coned…

 Real life situations often do not allow for repetitions or clarification.

 In these cases it is essential to decide whether listening for gist is
enough, or more careful listening is
 In the learning situation, where input texts are mostly listened to
more than once, listening for gist is frequently made use of to
prepare you for more careful listening.
 This may be done by making the listeners look for the main
message,
 2.2.2. Listening for specific information/detail

 Specific information is often factual in nature, for example, a

name, a place, a profession, an object, a number or a quantity.
 When you listen for specific information, you need to have some
idea of what you’re listening for before you listen and while
you’re listening.
 As you listen, you need to recognize when the information is
about to be given, and pay particularly close attention at that
point.
 Sometimes, listening for specific information also involves
listening to determine whether information is stated or not.
 Cont.…
 Keeping in mind the information we are seeking, we choose
to listen to certain specific details & ignore the rest.
 When we listen to news on the radio or television to learn
about events in different parts of the world. In this case, we do
not listen to every news item for the full details.
 For instance: you may know the result of the football match
that was played yesterday, but don’t know who won the man
of the match award. (Therefore, one may listen to the news on
the radio or TV only for that piece of information).
 2.3 Principles for Predicting Strategies & Developing
Listening Skills

 Predicting the themes & vocabulary of a lecture before you listen can help

to improve your comprehension of difficult listening segments.

 First, look at the title of the lecture & any other clues you have (photos,

maps, charts, outlines, etc.), and

 think of specific questions you think might be answered in the lecture.

 Next, think about possible answers to each of your questions.

 Creating these prediction questions will help you maintain your focus

during lectures.
 Strategies…cont…

 Are techniques/actions that provide directly to the comprehension &

recall of listening input.
2.3.1 Guessing Vocabulary from Context:
 Those who are successful at this skill usually use many of the other
strategies to help them in guessing vocabulary:
 they make predictions & prepare themselves before they listen.
 they pay attention to the repetition of key words.
 they use their intuition to make inferences.
 they pay attention to discourse markers.
 Cont.…
 In addition, here are some strategies that will help you make
better guesses about the meanings of words you don’t know.
 Use the words & phrases surrounding the unknown word to
make quick guesses about its general meaning.
 Recognize when the speaker offers a definition or an
explanation of an unknown word.
 Pay attention to body language. A speaker’s gestures often
provide obvious clues to the meaning of words or phrases.
 2.3.2. Using Prior Knowledge

 PK is abstract, generalized mental representations of our experience

that are available to help us understand new experiences.
 The idea of pk is one part of the cognitive model of language
processing.
 That model says when we listen or read, we process the information
we hear both top-down & bottom-up.
 Top-down means using our prior knowledge & experiences; we know
certain things about certain topics/situations & use that information to
understand the text.
 We can help students comprehend what they hear by activating their
prior knowledge.
 Cont.…
 Below are some basic techniques used in active listening.
 Stop talking,
 Prepare yourself to listen,
 Put the speaker at ease,
 Remove distractions,
 Emphasize,
 Be patient, Avoid personal prejudice,
 Listen to the tone,
 Listen for ideas-not just words
 Wait & watch for non-verbal communication
 2.3.3 Making Inference

 It is an interpretation/conclusion based on the information we hear.

 Making inferences is a critical skill because not all important
information is clearly or explicitly stated;
 even if we understand all the words in a listening segment, we still
may not have complete comprehension.
 How can we make inferences successfully?

1. Review your pre-listening strategies carefully & apply them

 Inferences are largely based on background knowledge.
 The more you know about the subject & the more you have
predicted about the listening text, the better you make inferences.
 Cont.…
2. Trust your instincts & don’t be afraid to guess!

 If you guess wrong, try to determine why you were wrong & move on.

 The information is never clearly stated.

 Speakers give you hints/clues that help you "listen between the lines.“

 Using these clues to understand your listening is called inferring.

 There are several ways to help you draw conclusions:

1. General Sense:

 The meaning of a word may be implied by the general sense of its context.

2. Antonyms & Contrasts:

 The meaning of a word may be implied by an antonym or by a contrasting

thought in a context.
 2.3.4. Identifying Paralinguistic Features

 People express meaning not just in what they say but in the way they
say it.
 The paralinguistic features employed by a speaker provide nuanced
meaning, communicate attitudes & convey emotion.

A. Vocal Paralinguistic Features

 Vocal paralinguistic features relate to how we say something.

 A high tone of voice can indicate nervousness or a question and even

anger in some people.
 A low tone indicates doubt or authority in some people.

 All of these features convey intention and are influenced by

circumstance
 B. Body Paralinguistic Features

 Is about how we communicate meaning through the use of our

bodies.
 When we frown, smile, raise our eyebrows, etc. these all share
different forms of information.
 Shrugging our shoulders in the US context indicates that the
person does not know or does not care.
 Scratching our heads indicates confusion or lack of understanding.

 Proximity is how close two people are when communicating.

Normally, the closer two people are the more intimate. The further
 2.3.5. Understanding Intonation and Stress

A. Stress

 Is amount of volume a speaker gives to a particular sound, operates

at two levels: word and sentence.

 stressed syllables are longer & louder than unstressed syllables.
 Within words, specific syllables are stressed.

 Incorrect stress can alter/change the meanings of words.

E.g. désert noun, “dry region”
dessért noun, “sweet foods after the main meal”
Breakfast, decide, Atlantic, university,
 Stress cot…
PRE-sent (Noun)pre-SENT (Verb)
RE-cord (Noun) re-CORD (Verb)
CON-duct (Noun) con-DUCT (Verb)
 Stress can further be used at the sentence level to vary emphasis.

 For example, the following sentences all carry different emphases:

Kimberly walked home. (It was Kimberly who walked home.)

Kimberly walked home. (She walked; she did not ride.)

She walked home. (She walked home, not to Grandma’s house.)

• In some cases, the wrong stress on a word completely undermines
comprehension.
 B. Pitch

 Pitch at the word or sentence level is a phonological component of

language that plays a key role in determining meaning.
 “Eva is going,” as a statement, is said with a rise on the syllable
“go,” followed by “-ing” with a falling pitch;
 but said as a question, the pitch rises at the end. E.g. Eva is going?

We are having a test tomorrow. (say it as a statement and as a

question).
C. Intonation
• The use of pitch to modify sentence meaning is called intonation.
• Each language has a distinctive sound flow across the sentence.
 Unit Three: Learning To Listen
 Listening is a skill that requires the constant application of certain
principles until they become habitual.
 Here are some suggestions:
• Be prepared to listen, read the chapter before the lecture!
• Determine the main idea & all important details that were given in
connection with it.
 Learn to recognize that the speaker is making an important point by:
• Pausing -giving examples
• repeating what has been said
• increasing volume or changing pitch of voice
• taking more time on one area
• using body language (facial expression, gestures, posture, pace)
• using direct statements (this is very important) or signal
words(examples: significant, most)
 Ten Ways to Improve Listening

• Find area of interest - maintain eye contact even if the subject

appears boring. There will be some information that will be useful.
• Judge the content, not delivery. Find out what the speaker knows,
not how he presents it.
• Withhold evaluation until comprehension is complete – don’t
become preoccupied with rebuttal before idea is completely
presented. Don’t listen defensively.
• Listen for ideas - main ideas, central facts, organizational patterns.

• Be flexible in note-taking.
 Cont.…
• Work at listening - spend energy to give conscious attention.

• Resist distractions - a matter of concentration.

• Exercise your mind - develop an appetite for hearing a variety of

presentations difficult enough to challenge your mental capacities.
• Keep your mind open - be careful of emotional impact of certain
words - don’t listen defensively composing a rebuttal.
• Capitalize on thought speed. Speech speed - 100-200 words per
minute , Thought speed - 400-500 or more words per minute.
• Take advantage of differential - do not allow distractions during
this time.
 Questions to Ask Yourself While Listening

1. What is he/she saying; what does it really mean?

2. How does that relate to what he said before?

3. Where is he going; what’s the point he’s trying to make?

4. How is that helpful; how can I use this?

5. Does this make any sense?

6. Am I getting the whole story?

7. How does this relate to what I already know?

8. Do I understand what he’s saying or should I ask for
clarification?
 How to Take Good Lecture Notes?

 Note taking is one crucial aspect of listening.

 Good lecture notes are important in getting ready for an examination.
 If we have the facts in readable form, we do the necessary reviewing.
 Note-taking helps you to listen to lecturers attentively.

1. Before the Lecture

I. Be prepared
 Know what the lecture will be about,
 Do any required pre-reading,
 Review notes from previous lectures,
 Set up notebooks/documents for note-taking,
 Arrive on time and sit near the front
 2. During the lecture:
A. Concentrate and pay attention

B. Don’t try to write down everything being said

 Be selective, listen for the overall argument and note the main points and key

information.

How can we recognize what is important?

 Distinguish main points from elaborations/details, by listening for:

 Introductory remarks (Lectures highlight main points when they begin

lessons)
 verbal ‘signposts 'that indicate something important like: “There are 4 main
aspects”, “This is important…”
 Repetition: important points will often be repeated, especially in
introductions and conclusions.
 Cont..

 phonological cues (voice emphasis, change in volume, speed,

emotion) often indicate important information.
 final remarks. (summaries, restatement of main ideas)

 Look non-verbal cues (facial expressions, hand and body

signals) that indicate something important

3. After the Lecture

 Review your notes while the lecture is fresh in your mind.

 Reviewing helps you to remember what was said, and to identify

gaps in your knowledge.

 To review:

 Read your notes & make sure they are clear and legible (fix spelling errors,

use abbreviations, tidy up handwriting)

 Fill in missing words or information and add anything extra

 Code your notes: use color & symbols to mark structure and emphasis,

highlight major sections, etc.

 Use different colors to emphasize main points, classify different topics

and link concepts or information.

 Explain and clarify diagrams by writing a simple version of their meaning.

 Identify anything that needs further clarification.

 Suggestions For Taking Notes:

 The 1st step in note taking is to identify the main ideas and the
supporting details.
1. USE INK! Notes in pencil will smear and are hard to read.
2. Date your notes for reference in test preparation.
3. Leave wide margins and don’t crowd your lines together.
4. Use note-taking shorthand to reduce as many ideas as possible: don’t
use complete sentences, Use symbols instead of words, use abbreviations
5. Don’t take too many notes. Do more listening than writing.
6. Don’t try to take down everything the lecturer says.
7. Read your notes over as soon after class as possible to fix d/t errors
 Unit Four: Interpretive Listening
• The student will be able to understand and
interpret information, concepts, and ideas
orally from a variety of culturally authentic
sources on a variety of topics in the target
language.
 Interpretive Listening
• The student will be able to understand and
interpret information, concepts, and ideas
orally from a variety of culturally authentic
sources on a variety of topics in the target
language.
• According to research in Second Language
Acquisition;
Language learning takes place in stages.
Interpretive skills (listening, reading) develop
much more quickly than expressive skills
(speaking, writing)

Question: How much opportunity is there for

interpretive listening in your classroom?
• Listening is the language modality that is used
most frequently. It has been estimated that
adults spend almost half their communication
time listening.
• Listening and Speaking go hand in hand!
• Often, however, language learners do not
recognize the level of effort that goes into
developing listening ability.
 Two-Way Communication

• In authentic two-way communication, the

listener focuses on the speaker's meaning
rather than the speaker's language. The focus
shifts to language only when meaning is not
clear.
• Note the difference between the teacher as
teacher and the teacher as authentic listener
in the dialogues that fol
 Authentic two-way communication
Teacher as Teacher
T: Hello, Sam! We missed you in class yesterday. What happened?
S: I go to doctor for my tooth.
T: Oh, you WENT to the DENTIST? A doctor for teeth is called a dentist.
S: Yes, dentist.
T: What happened at the dentist?
S: He have to take out tooth. After my mouse hurt too bad.
T: Oh, he HAD to take out your tooth? Remember, the past of "have" is
"had." And it wasn't your mouse that hurt, it was your mouth.

Is this how we communicate in the “real world?” How would a student

feel after having this conversation?
 Goals for Interpretive listening
• We want to produce students who can fend
for themselves in communication situations,
even if they do not have complete control of
the grammar.
 Focus: The Listening Process
• To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on
the process of listening rather than on its
product.
 Best Practices in Teaching Listening:
 Teachers develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think
and talk about how they listen in their native language.

 They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.

 They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.

 When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening
purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.

 They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening
assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape
assignments.

 They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an
assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically
review how and when to use particular strategies.

 They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language
to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format
of tests.
 Listening for Meaning
• To extract meaning from a listening text,
students need to follow four basic steps:
 Step 1-What is the Purpose?
• Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate
background knowledge of the topic in order
to predict or anticipate content and identify
appropriate listening strategies.
 Step 2: Selective
• Attend to the parts of the listening input that are
relevant to the identified purpose and ignore
the rest. This selectivity enables students to
focus on specific items in the input and reduces
the amount of information they have to hold in
short-term memory in order to recognize it.
• Example: listening to see what to wear tomorrow
versus listening for weather in specific location
for sightseeing purposes
 Step 3: Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are
appropriate to the listening task Select Strategy

• Top-down strategies
Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps
into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or
context, the type of text, and the language. This
background knowledge activates a set of expectations that
help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate
what will come next. Top-down strategies include
listening for the main idea
predicting
drawing inferences
summarizing
 Bottom-up strategies

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the

listener relies on the language in the message,
that is, the combination of sounds, words, and
grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up
strategies include
listening for specific details
recognizing cognates
recognizing word-order patterns
 Step 4: Comprehension Checks
• Check comprehension while listening and
when the listening task is over.
• Monitoring comprehension helps students
detect inconsistencies and comprehension
failures, directing them to use alternate
strategies if necessary.
Let’s Plan a Listening activity about weather
• Novice Mid: Demonstrate understanding of simple information supported by visuals through a
variety of media.

• Novice High: Demonstrate understanding of key points on familiar topics presented through a
variety of media.

• Intermediate Low: Identify key points and essential details on familiar topics presented in a
variety of media.

• Intermediate Mid: Identify essential information and supporting details on familiar topics
presented through a variety of media.

• Intermediate High: Confirm understanding of the message and purpose of a variety of authentic
sources found in the target culture such as TV, radio, podcasts, and videos.
•
• Advanced Low: Demonstrate understanding of information obtained from authentic sources such
as TV, radio, interviews, podcasts, and videos in order to function for personal needs within the
target culture.
 Step 1: Activate Background
Knowledge/Purpose
• What is the PURPOSE of this listening activity?
• What pre-listening activities would you do?
• How would students participate in this process?

• May include:
• looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs
• Watching something similar in native language
• reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
• reading something relevant
• constructing graphic organizers
• predicting the content of the listening text
• going over the directions or instructions for the activity
• doing guided practice
 Step 2: Selective Listening
• What would you want students to Focus on?
• How will you help them focus on these key topics and ignore the
rest?
• Sample while-listening activities
• listening with visuals
• filling in graphs and charts
• following a route on a map
• checking off items in a list
• listening for the gist
• searching for specific clues to meaning
• completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
• distinguishing between formal and informal registers
 Step 3: Strategies
• What top-down or bottom-up strategies
would you recommend students use?
 Step 4: Comprehension Checks
• In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening
proficiency, a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life
uses to which students might put information they have gained
through listening.

• It must have a purpose other than assessment

• It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening
comprehension by completing some task.

• Example Task: Pack a suitcase with appropriate

clothing for the weather.
 Authentic Materials
• What do the standards mean when they say
• “authentic materials?”
• In pairs, Come up with a Definition of
“authentic”
• Brainstorm Ideas for Authentic Listening Experiences

• What could you use and for what purpose?

 stress

 Is amount of volume a speaker gives to a particular sound,

operates at two levels: word and sentence.

 stressed syllables are longer and louder than unstressed
syllables.
 Within words, specific syllables are stressed.

 Incorrect stress can alter/change the meanings of words.

E.g. désert noun, “dry region”
dessért noun, “sweet foods after the main meal”
Breakfast, decide, Atlantic, university,
 Cont..
 Stress can further be used at the sentence level to vary
emphasis.
 For example, the following sentences all carry different
emphases:
Kimberly walked home. (It was Kimberly who walked home.)
Kimberly walked home. (She walked; she did not ride.)
She walked home. (She walked home, not to Grandma’s house.)
• In some cases, the wrong stress on a word completely
undermines comprehension.
 Pitch and Rhythm

 Pitch at the word or sentence level is a phonological component of

language that plays a key role in determining meaning.

 “Eva is going,” as a statement, is said with a rise on the syllable “go,”

followed by “-ing” with a falling pitch;

 but said as a question, the pitch rises at the end. E.g. Eva is going?

We are having a test tomorrow. (say it as a statement and as a question).

Intonation

• The use of pitch to modify sentence meaning is called intonation.

• Each language has a distinctive sound flow across the sentence.

E.g. We are having a test tomorrow.

 Characteristics of listening: 1. Active and Passive Listening

Active Listening Passive Listening

 A dynamic interactive communicative process  The process of just
in which listener pays attention; shows interest absorbing the message
in speech & speaker; takes note .. encoded in the spoken word
 Doing something that demonstrates without any involvement.
understanding & attention like giving non-  The listener plays no role.
verbal clues; reflecting back the main points...  Without reacting; it allows
 Involves engaged focus and concentration. speaker to speak without
 Effective listening. interrupting.
 Includes not just the sensory perceptions but  Mechanical and effortless.
also the heart and the mind in the process.  Not effective listening.
 Involves active mental participation: active  Primarily involves the senses.
filtering of excess information; actively  Uninvolved & involuntary;
checking for understanding before responding. dependent on external factors
 Listening with a purpose: like comprehension  Any learning is incidental.
or criticism.  No non-verbal cues and
 Promotes more effective listener-speaker responses are directed to
relationships. speaker.
 2. Subjective and Objective Listening

 Subjective listening:
 listening only for what we want to hear,
 what may be important to us, and focusing on what we are
going to say next.
 As objective listeners we are fully present for our companion
and are focused on receiving the message the way it was
intended, rather than on what it might mean to us.
 To engage our companion in the conversation even deeper,
approaching the message from a perspective of pure curiosity
can help us form the right questions.
 3. Empathetic and Objective Listening

 Empathy: is the ability to put you in another person’s shoes;

 To project yourself into the personality of another person in order to better
understand that person’s emotions or feelings.
 You must ignore your own perception of the situation for the moment, and
accept the speaker’s feelings, thoughts, and ideas about the situation.
 It does not mean that you agree with the other person—it just means that
you understand them.
 Using empathy is not always the best; though, there are situations that you
will need to use objective listening.
 This is where you go beyond empathy and measure the feelings and
messages against an objective reality.
 Suggestions: Punctuate the message from the speaker's point of view;
 engage in equal, two-way conversation;
 seek to understand both thoughts and feelings; and strive to be objective.
 4. Nonjudgmental and Critical Listening
Nonjudgmental listening:
 you listen to understand while not making any judgments.

Critical listening:
 you listen with a critical mind to analyze and evaluate the information.

 Suggestions:

 Always keep an open mind and avoid quick judgments and premature
evaluations
 Strive to not filter out difficult materials or simplify complex messages

 Recognize your own tendency to interpret through personal biases

 Avoid Sharpening: the tendency to increase importance of some parts of

messages
 Be alert to information or circumstances that require critical listening
 5. Surface and Depth Listening

 If there is an obvious, literal meaning to the message, you are

looking at the surface.
 However, if there is a deeper meaning that reveals a more important
message, you are listening with depth.
 For example, Betelhem asks you if you like her new haircut.
 On the surface, it simply requires a yes or no answer.
 However, on a deeper meaning, it could be that she is looking for a
positive statement about her appearance. As a result, you cannot just
use surface listening.
 Suggestions: Focus on verbals and nonverbals
 Listen for both content and relational messages
 Take special note of statements that refer back to the speaker
 Balance your listening between surface and underlying messages