Listening in teaching and learning

The process of teaching to listen is guided by principles.

Principle 1. Teaching to listen as a communicative skill. This principle means that listening activities develop in the language learners the ability to listen to the language in the real world settings and to use this skill for receiving information from the heard discourse.

Principle 2. Teaching to listen to authentic materials. The principle implies that the discourse for listening is expected to be either “authentic made”, i.e. produced by the native speakers for the purpose of natural communication or “authentic like” i.e. produced by native/non-native speakers for teaching purposes but having all the features of the natural English discourse.

Principle 3. Teaching to listen as an integrated skill. Listening is very seldom done for the purpose of “listening only”. Usually people listen and speak, listen and write, listen and read. This is how listening is integrated with other communicative skills of reading, writing and speaking.

Exploratory task 2.1

Give examples of the tasks that would meet the principles of teaching to listen

Teaching to listen as a communicative skill	Teaching to listen to authentic language	Teaching to listen as an integrated skill

Listening can be taught as an active, extensive and intensive process.

Active listening is a serial process (done step by step) the purpose of which is to get a very accurate grasp of the information. As a result the listener can get the heard facts, summarise the information and remember it. Essentially, active listening is listening for details. Extensive listening is a holistic process with the purpose of grasping the general meaning (the gist) of the heard language. The information that is received as a result of extensive listening is usually compressed and lacks details. Extensive listening is listening for the gist. Intensive listening is a parallel process of both listening and making assumptions about the heard discourse. “Intensive listening” is task driven and purposive, because listeners have a purpose of solving a certain cognitive problem. “Intensive listeners” can be judgmental and critical (have opinions and put to doubt what they hear). Intensive listening is listening for inferences.

SAQ 2.1

Mark the following statements as “true” T, “false” F or “debatable” D.

Statements	T F D
1. Listening is taught for language build up in learners
2. Authentic texts make listening more difficult
3. Writing can come before or after a listening task
4. Active listening implies making inferences
5. Extensive listening is aimed at all sorts of small details
6. Intensive listening is a deep thought process
7. Memory matters most in listening

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