Listening Skills

Listening Skills UNIT – 1

FACE TO FACE INTERACTION

Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Face to face listening. 1.2.1 What is listening? 1.2.2 Difference between listening and hearing. Check your progress - 1 1.3 Global listening and listening for detail. 1.3.1 Listening and reading: Are they really passive skills? 1.3.2 Short listening exercises for global and detailed listening Check your progress - 2 1.4 Effective listening 1.4.1 The importance of listening. 1.4.2 Listening in real life. 1.4. 3 Casual listening and focussed listening. Check your progress - 3 1.5 Where does face to face listening take place? 1.5.1 Interviews 1.5.2 Shops and stores 1.5.3 Tourism related centres 1.5.4 Transport and travel agencies 1.5.5 The workplace 1.5.6 Others Check your progress - 4 1.6 Let us sum up 1.7 Key words 1.8 Suggested reading 1.9 Answers Workbook-1

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Listening Skills 1.0

OBJECTIVES

In this introductory unit on listening skills, we are going to discuss the different types of listening skills and sub-skills. The focus in this unit will be on face to face listening, in real-life situations. We will also be discussing the difference between hearing and listening and between casual and focussed listening. The unit will also provide practice in listening activities with the help of worksheets and a CD. 1.1

INTRODUCTION

In this unit, we will be discussing the basics of listening. We will be defining the skill of listening - "What is listening"? We will then be elaborating on the difference between listening and hearing. Later, we will be looking at global listening and listening for details and also casual and focussed listening. We will also be discussing Face to Face listening and the various places where face to face listening takes place. Listening, in many cases, is described as a passive skill (like reading). But in reality, it is not. People feel that while listening, we are passively "hearing" what others are saying and then responding mechanically. Listening is a very active skill. The listener might appear to be passive physically, but mentally, the listener is active. The listening process is quite complex and we will be discussing this complex process in the next sub-unit. 1.2

FACE TO FACE LISTENING

Face to face listening is probably the most common type of listening that we experience in our day to day life. We listen to our friends speaking to us, we take part in conversations with our family members where we listen and respond then and there. We talk to so many people on the streets, in the workplace, in educational institutions, while travelling, etc. In all these conversations, we are engaged in face to face listening and responding. We will be discussing face to face listening a little later. First, let us discuss the important question: "What is listening?" 1.2.1 WHAT IS LISTENING? Listening is described as an activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear. To listen successfully to spoken language, we need to be able to work out what meaning the speaker / speakers are trying to convey. When speakers use words, they are using particular words in particular ways on particular occasions, and not simply to understand the words themselves. What the speaker means lies only partly in the words spoken, and we, as listeners must recognise and interpret the other factors which are used to convey the message to you. The speaker’s words, the context in which they are used, the pronunciation and intonation that are used - all these help the listener to listen effectively. 5

Listening Skills No one knows exactly how listening works or how people learn to listen and understand. It is a skill which seems to develop easily for mother tongue listening, but requires considerable effort where listening in a foreign language (including English) is concerned. 1.2.2 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LISTENING AND HEARING Every day, we hear a lot of things around us - at home, on the roads, at the workplace, etc. But, they are every day sounds, which do not convey much meaning. We do not pay much attention to these sounds, we only 'hear' them, we do not listen to these sounds. Many sounds keep bombarding our ear drums all the time but we do not concentrate on these sounds, they are not important to us. We are choosing or selecting what to hear with concentration and which sounds to ignore. Thus, we are hearing all the time, without paying much attention and we listen only part of the time with concentration. We hear all types of sounds - traffic noise, TV or radio in the background, so many people talking at the same time and others. On the other hand, listening is to pay attention and concentrate on what we hear - we listen to music, we listen to a lecture, we listen to an argument in a court of law, we listen to the news on TV or to the dialogues in a TV serial or in a film. By listening, we are enjoying the sounds - either musical sounds or meaningful sounds. What happens if we do not listen properly? There will, immediately, be a breakdown of communication. We will be unable to take part in oral communication. Merely to 'hear' what a speaker says is insufficient for communication to occur. When nobody listens to a speaker or when a listener fails to understand the message, we say that communication has broken down. This does not mean that the message has not been heard. The sounds have been received but not properly or fully understood. It means that the listener has either not been paying attention sufficiently or, while paying attention and trying to grasp the meaning, has not managed to understand it. Thus, hearing is to let the sounds hit your ear drum, while listening is to understand. Let us define listening and hearing in the following simple words: Listening is a conscious activity. It involves a deep understanding of meanings that are sent to us in the form of sounds, words and sentences and these have to be processed by the brain. Listening demands attention and a focus towards an action or activity which you would like to do after listening. Usually, listening is followed by a response. We listen and respond according to the purpose that we have in mind. When we listen to music, we are enjoying that music, we nod our head. When we listen to a lecture, we make notes. When we listen to instructions, we follow them. So, when we listen, there is a purpose for listening.

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Listening Skills Now, let us look at 'hearing' in a similar way. Hearing is physical in nature, the sounds just reach us mechanically and most of the time, they are ignored. Hearing is simply the act of perceiving sound by the ear. Hearing simply happens. Listening, however, is something you consciously choose to do. Listening requires concentration so that our brain processes meanings from words and sentences.

Check your progress - 1 1 Make a list of the face to face interaction situations that you experience every day, as part of your social life and your working life.

2 Complete the table below about the differences between hearing and listening: Hearing

Listening

1 2 3 4 Workbook for listening: Along with this booklet, we have also provided you a workbook and a CD containing some listening activities. Now, go to Workbook Lesson-1, Activities 1, 2 and 3 1.3

GLOBAL LISTENING AND LISTENING FOR DETAIL

As the title suggests, broadly, there are two reasons or purposes of listening. One is listening to the overall text, like a lecture, which we call global listening. And the other is to listen to the details. For example, names, numbers, figures, etc. In the first type of listening, we are interested in the 'whole' that is the listening item in its entirety, like a song, like a complete lecture. We do not listen word by word. We are interested in the overall impact of what we listen to, not the minute details. This type of listening is comparable to non-detailed or supplementary reading. On the other hand, when we listen to the news, for example, we are interested in the details. During election results, we are interested in the number of votes, the name of the candidate who won, or when we listen to the weather forecast, we listen for temperatures, time of the day when it is going to rain, rainfall in centimetres, etc. This is listening for details.

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Listening Skills We are doing both these types of listening all the time, according to the purpose of our listening. A classroom lecture is a good example. The speaker gives an overall view of the topic at the beginning which sets the tone for the lecture. Later, he goes into the details and the listeners start listening more carefully. Here, the speaker also uses what are called "Signpost" words. For example, firstly, secondly, or "In the first part", "in the second part" "the most important point is...", "finally", "to conclude", and many others. If we are listening in detail and for details, we have to follow these signpost words for effective listening. Good public speakers and lecturers indicate the stages of their talk through the use of these signpost words. These words direct our listening. They warn us that more information is coming and suggest what kind of information this may be. Signpost words prepare us to listen in detail.

1.3.1 LISTENING AND READING: ARE THEY REALLY PASSIVE SKILLS? In most language-related books and courses, listening and reading are described as passive skills because, people think or assume that since there is no physical activity involved in listening and reading, they are passive skills. On the other hand, people argue that because speaking and writing involve some kind of physical activity, they are called active skills. We must clarify here that listening and reading are NOT passive skills. Yes, there is no physical activity involved (perhaps), but mentally, the listener and reader are really alert and active. Although we may appear to be inactive while listening, we are actually engaged in the activity of constructing a message in order to be described as a good listener. While hearing can be thought of as a passive condition, listening is always an active process. In unit-3, we will be discussing how reading also is an active process, in which the reader is interacting with the text he / she is reading and trying to negotiate the meaning in it. It has also been noted that listening actively involves three processes. In simple words the process is somewhat like this: Stage-1:Aural reception. Here, the sounds enter the ear and the brain and are organised into meaningful units. Stage-2:Here, the sounds, words and sentences are checked, compared and matched with information that is stored in our memory. After this, the meaning is taken out from what we hear; in other words, the meaning is extracted. Stage-3:Once the meaning has been understood, it is seen in the context in which it was used, by whom and thus the real meaning of the utterance is arrived at. Thus meaning and context are very important in the process of listening. Now, would you say that listening is a passive process or skill?

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Listening Skills 1.3.2

SHORT LISTENING EXERCISES

Now, let us turn to the workbook. Lesson-1, Activity-4 entitled "Facing an Interview" will give us some practice in both global and detailed listening. Please do this activity. If necessary, play the CD twice. The first time will be useful for global listening and the second time can be used for listening to the details to fill the form. To practise further in the area of listening for details, please go to Lesson-8 Activities 1-5. Here, you will listen to all kinds of details, like names, numbers, dates, amounts, currencies, spellings, etc.

Check your progress - 2 1 What is the difference between global listening and listening for details? 2 How would you say that listening is not a passive skill? 3 List out the three stages of listening and what happens in each stage.

1.4

EFFECTIVE LISTENING

In this section, we will be discussing effective listening, what it means and what a listener should do to listen effectively. Learning how to listen effectively in the mother tongue comes naturally. The child listens to many of his relatives and friends speaking around him and starts listening and understanding at a young age. There is no shortage of exposure to the spoken aspect of the mother tongue. But listening effectively in English is altogether different. First of all, the exposure to the language is limited. Not many people speak good English around us, unless we are in a city and in a good college. The media, for example, the TV, radio, CDs and movies are a good source for exposure but listeners will have to make an effort to sit down and listen to English on the media. By listening effectively, we mean that our listeners should pay attention to what they hear, process it, understand it, interpret it, evaluate it and also respond to it. Our listeners should become involved and active listeners. Only then can listening become effective. Effective listening is not easy. Speaking and listening is a joint game between a speaker and a listener and both should ensure that there is no confusion between them in the communication process. Unless both make the effort, good inter-personal communication may not be possible. Effective listening can be obstructed or hindered both by internal factors and external factors. These are sometimes referred to as external barriers and internal barriers. We will be discussing these barriers to effective listening in unit-3.

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Listening Skills 1.4.1

THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

Listening is an important receptive skill. That is, one of the important ways of receiving information is through listening. The other important source, of course is reading. But, in the modern, world, there seems to be greater emphasis on listening rather than on reading. In this modern era of mobile phones and computer and internet information, the listening skill has become that much more important. In language learning also, listening is regarded as a very important skill. Through active listening, it is thought, students acquire vocabulary and grammar as well as better pronunciation. The speaking skill also depends on listening because interaction involves both listening, and responding. To go back to listening and the media, with increased use of mobile phones, ear phones, internet downloads and of course with the rise of the BPO and Call-centre industry, the importance of listening has increased many fold. Whether we are at home, while travelling, at the workplace, while using the media, at the cinema or at a disco, we are engaged in listening. In a conversation, we are listening and responding while in some other occasions like watching TV or waiting at the airport/railway station we do listen attentively but we do not take part in this interaction. According to our reason or purpose of listening, we interact, or respond or react. So, in all the above situations, the listening skill plays a very important role. Let us now go on to listening in real life. 1.4.2

LISTENING IN REAL LIFE

Till now, we have been discussing the importance of listening and the process of listening. Now, let us turn our attention to listening in real life: what we listen to and why we listen to different utterances. Basically, we listen because we want to exchange information - we listen and respond and that is how information is passed on from one individual to another. We also listen to share feelings - our joys and sorrows - and of course we also listen to enjoy ourselves. We listen to music, poetry, rhymes, jokes and movie dialogues in order to enjoy and gain pleasure. In real life, listening can be divided into: a) Conversations and interactions where we take part - that is the listener is actively involved in this process. In this category, we can include conversations, discussions, arguments, seminars, conferences, classroom interaction, dialogues and interviews. In all these interactions, the participants - listeners and speakers - switch roles alternately and listen and speak according to the situation. Here, both the parties participate fully and comfortably. But most of the time, conversations do not take place in ideal conditions and so it might be difficult to understand each other. So, we must train ourselves to listen effectively even in such bad and inconvenient situations. The best way to do this is to use our predicting skills. We must fill in the gaps and also try to make out what others are saying by guessing and predicting.

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Listening Skills b) Listening to live conversations and utterances where the listener does not take part: This might sound a little strange - how can a listener not participate? - but there are several situations where we listen but do not participate. Sometimes, your friends might be talking but since you are not interested in the topic, you might not want to participate. We also have situations where we listen to announcements in the airport, railway stations, banks, exhibitions, classrooms, examination hall, etc where we listen intently but do not respond orally. But we do certain things and follow the instructions. We also listen to the news, weather forecasts, etc on the radio and on TV, watch dramas and movies at home or in a theatre, follow a college lecture or a lesson, listen to speeches, addresses, etc. In all these situations we as listeners are involved but do not participate in the conversations or utterances. 1.4.3

CASUAL LISTENING AND FOCUSED LISTENING

We have already talked about global listening where we listen to the overall message and listening for detail where we listen for the details or for specific information. Now, let us look at another distinction between casual listening and focussed listening. Sometimes, we are just listening, with no purpose in mind nor any particular aim. We do not pay much attention and we are listening without much concentration. This is what we call casual listening. Examples of casual listening include listening to the radio while we are doing other household work; chatting with a friend without any purpose or aim in casual talk, listening to TV news or other programmes without paying much attention to what we are listening to, and many others. While we are listening casually, we do not listen very closely, unless we hear something that particularly interests us, and afterwards, we may not remember much of what we hear. Much of casual listening does not register in the mind. On the other hand, there is also something called focussed listening, which is listening with concentration. At times, we listen for a particular purpose, to find out information we need to know. For example, we might be listening to a piece of important news on the radio or TV about election results, or the sensex rising or falling, etc. We might also be listening to someone explaining how to operate a machine, or the teacher giving important instructions about an examination. In all these situations, we listen much more closely and we also try to listen for the most important points or for particular information. In this kind of listening, we know beforehand what we are listening for (the things we want to know- names, figures, numbers, amounts, etc). This helps us to listen in a more focussed manner.

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Listening Skills Check your progress - 3 1 What is effective listening?

2 Why is listening an important skill?

3 Fill up this table about casual and focussed listening and the difference between the two: Casual listening Focussed listening 1 1 2 2 3 3 Examples: Examples:

1.5

FACE TO FACE LISTENING:

Where does it take place? In this section, let us discuss the different locations and situations where face to face listening takes place. Face to face listening is 'live' listening, then and there, without the use of media. Though the use of the media has reduced the amount of face to face listening we do, it still is an important aspect of listening. In this type of listening, the speaker is near us and we hear naturally. So, it is possible to hear more clearly, we can clarify doubts then and there and we can respond / react / interact more easily. For our purpose here, the following six situations and locations are very relevant: a) Interviews b) Shops c) Tourism centres d) Travel and travel agencies e) Workplace f) Others Let us discuss each of them and see what kind of interaction takes place, who the participants are and what topics are involved.

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Listening Skills 1.5.1

INTERVIEWS

Here, the main interaction is between the candidate / student or applicant on one side and the panel of experts or academicians on the other side. Interviews could be for admission to educational institutions or for jobs. In both these cases, the atmosphere is very often formal. The topics discussed are academic or work-related in nature. Here, most of the time, focussed listening takes place. 1.5.2

SHOPS AND RETAIL STORES

Shops and stores have a large variety of people coming and interacting with the shop assistants, managers and the shop owner. Here, both casual and focussed listening take place and the atmosphere on the whole will be formal though some friendly shop assistants can make it a little informal. The interactions are mostly about the products, prices, discounts, special offers and about business transactions. In this category of places, we can include hotels and restaurants where people go to get good service. Here, the interaction is between customers / guests and the hotel and restaurant staff. The atmosphere is formal and the topics are related to accommodation, rooms, facilities, transport, food and drinks. 1.5.3

TOURISM RELATED CENTRES

Tourism related centres include tourism offices, tourism information centres, guide and sight-seeing services, coach and other tours, facilities for tourists, beach and other holiday resorts, etc. Here, the interaction is between tourists, tour agents, tourism centre staff members, tour guides (who are also called couriers), transport staff, sight-seeing organisers, etc. The atmosphere is generally informal and relaxed, and both casual and focussed listening take place.

1.5.4 TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL AGENCIES Transport refers to travelling by bus/coach, train, plane, taxi, etc. So, here, passengers are interacting with the crew members of the transport vehicle which includes the driver, the conductor, the cabin crew, flight attendants, baggage staff, airline staff, etc. Here again the atmosphere is formal to informal because most of the interaction is with strangers which might include co-passengers. Most of the time, it is focussed listening and passengers are listening to announcements, arrival and departure timings, routes, fares, instructions, and other topics. In a travel agency, the prospective travellers are talking to the travel agency clerks, assistants, managers, cashiers, etc and are in a formal atmosphere. The type of listening is generally focussed and the topics of conversation would be suggestions about mode of transport, routes to take, names of airlines and other transport companies like hiring a car, taking a coach trip, bargaining with the fares, special offers, etc.

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Listening Skills 1.5.5 THE WORKPLACE There are many different types of workplaces - educational institutions, financial institutions, government or private offices, shops, firms, hotels/restaurants where people working in the offices have to interact with: a) colleagues and b) customers. Colleagues would be seniors, juniors, bosses, sub-ordinates assistants and others. With them, depending on the situation and the relationship, the atmosphere is either formal or informal and the listening also ranges between focussed to casual listening. The topics of interaction would be workrelated, complaints, suggestions, arguments, convincing your colleagues and of course a little bit of socialising. With customers, it is a different story altogether. Customers would be different types of people: old, young, middle-aged, boys, girls, men, women, friendly, not so friendly, satisfied, angry, etc. Dealing with them satisfactorily and tactfully is very important for the organisation. The first thing one should do is to listen to the customers attentively. That is why they have come to you- to ask for and get relevant information. And they expect you to listen to them and then respond appropriately. Topics would mainly revolve around the product or service that your organisation is offering and prices, discounts, deliveries, guarantees, mode of payment, etc. And as would be natural, focussed listening is what we have to be doing with customers in a formal but friendly atmosphere.

1.5.6 OTHERS There are many other situations and locations where face to face listening takes place as part of an interaction, conversation, dialogue and other forms of communication. Further examples would be the classroom, academic discussions, the college cafeteria, at home, in a party, in a function, during religious ceremonies and festivals and many others. In all these circumstances, the type of listening will be either focussed or casual depending on the seriousness of the situation, whether it is formal or informal, whether the listening is important for our purpose and other criteria. But, the situations and places listed above in this unit give us some idea as to how our listening is influenced by the topic, our relationship with the other members in that conversation or group and by the purpose of our listening.

Check your progress - 4 1 What is face to face listening? 2 Fill up the following table about the places and type of listening: Place 1 2 3 4 5 6

Participants

Topic

Type of listening

Interviews

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Listening Skills 1.6

LET US SUM UP

In this unit we have discussed the following topics: a) an introduction to face to face listening which means the type of listening in live conversations without the use of technology; b) a brief definition of listening and the difference between listening and hearing; c) global and detailed listening and a discussion about whether reading and listening are really passive skills; d) the importance of listening and the two types of listening: casual and focussed. e) different situations and locations where face to face listening takes place. We also introduced the listening workbook where appropriate practice material for listening is provided along with a CD. Now, please go to Workbook Lesson-2 and Lesson-3 for further listening practise. 1.7

KEY WORDS

1 Face to Face listening: Listening in a real life conversation without the use of telephone or computer. 2 Global: Overall, not in detail 3 Casual: not serious, only for enjoyment 4 Focussed: with care and concentration

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SUGGESTED READING

1 Underwood, Mary (1989) "Teaching Listening" London: Longman 2 Anderson, A and Lynch, T (1988) "Listening" Oxford: Oxford University Press 3 Ur, P (1984) "Teaching Listening Comprehension", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1.9

ANSWERS

Check your progress - 1 1 Face to face interaction generally takes place at home, at work and in academics. 2 Hearing: without concentration, casual, happening all the time. Listening: selected, with concentration, focussed.

Check your progress - 2 1 Global is overall listening, listening for details is listening for specific information. 2 Listening is not a passive skill because mentally, it is a very active and interactive skill. 3 Stage-1: Listen with the help of the ear and brain; Stage-2: Sounds are checked and matched. Stage-3: Sounds are processed and meaning is understood in the context.

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Listening Skills Check your progress-3 1 Effective listening is to listen according to the context and with a purpose in mind. 2 Listening is an important skill because we are listening all the time for social, academic and survival purposes. 3 Casual listening: to listen without any real purpose; examples: listening to the radio, TV or to a friend. Focussed listening: to listen with concentration for some particular information. Examples: instructions, announcements, orders, etc.

Check your progress-4 1 Face to face listening is to listen in a live situation in a conversation without using technology. 2 1) Interviews: Candidate and interviewers talking about the job or the subject with focussed listening. 2) Shops and stores: Customers and shop assistants talking about products and prices; both casual and focussed. 3) Tourism and Travel agencies: Tourists and travellers talking to agents and crew members about travel. Focussed. 4) Workplace: Listening to colleagues and customers about work-related topics; both casual and focussed listening.

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