Notes: Role of Listening & Speaking | English Language & Pedagogy for CTET & TET Exams - CTET & State TET PDF Download

In the language learning process, listening serves as the initial step and is fundamental to effective communication. It involves accurately receiving and interpreting messages within the communication process. Speaking is equally essential in learning and teaching a second language as it assists learners in organizing their thoughts in a coherent and meaningful manner.

Listening

Listening is the foundational skill in learning a language and is essential for communicative competence. It involves receiving language through the ears, processing sounds into words and sentences, and understanding speech, rhythm, and pronunciation.

According to the International Listening Association, "Listening is the process of receiving and constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or non-verbal messages."

Types of Listening

Main types of listening include:

1. Discriminative Listening: Recognizing different sounds without understanding their meaning.
2. Comprehensive Listening: Understanding the messages being communicated, fundamental to all other types.
3. Informational Listening: Listening to learn something, such as news or technical information.
4. Critical Listening: Evaluating a message and forming an opinion or solving a problem.

Aims of Listening Skills

The primary aims of developing listening skills are:

• Provide listening practice.
• Understand and infer concepts, ideas, and facts by listening.
• Identify the speaker’s purpose and tone.
• Engage in verbal interaction after listening.
• Learn a language properly through careful listening.

Strategies to Focus on Listening Process

Effective strategies to enhance listening during the teaching-learning process:

1. Integrative Meta Cognitive Strategies:
   • Before Listening: Set a purpose, determine linguistic background needed, decide top-down or bottom-up approach.
   • During Listening: Verify predictions, decide what is important, check comprehension, ask for help.
   • After Listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategies used, modify strategies if necessary.
2. Using Authentic Materials and Situations:
   • One-Way Communication: Radio, television, public announcements, speeches, and customer service recordings.
   • Two-Way Communication: Focus on speaker’s meaning, shift to language when meaning is unclear.

Speaking Skills

Good speaking skills involve the ability to generate words clearly and informatively, conveying thoughts and feelings effectively in spoken language. Skills such as pronunciation, enunciation, clarity, pace, projection, expression, and the use of eye contact are important in communication.

Types of Speaking Situations

There are three types of speaking situations:

1. Interactive: Face-to-face conversations, telephone calls, where there is an alternation between listening and speaking, and the opportunity to seek clarification or repetition.
2. Partially Interactive: Public speeches where the audience does not interrupt, but the speaker checks for understanding from the audience’s reactions.
3. Non-Interactive: Situations like recording for radio, performing in a play, or reciting a poem where there is no interaction with the audience.

Aims of Speaking Skills

The primary aims of developing speaking skills are:

• Develop the habit of speaking sentences clearly and comprehensibly.
• Express feelings and emotions effectively.
• Critically evaluate ideas and beliefs, and draw logical conclusions.
• Use correct words, spellings, stress, rhyme, fluency, pause, and appropriate phonetic transcription.
• Become a confident and proficient speaker.

Using Minimal Responses

Sometimes learners are encouraged to use minimal responses to build confidence in oral interaction, allowing them to focus on listening without needing to immediately respond.

Recognising Scripts

Many communication situations follow predictable scripts based on social and cultural norms, such as greetings, apologies, and transactions. Understanding these scripts helps in anticipating and responding appropriately.

Using Language to Talk About Language

Language learners may hesitate to admit when they don't understand or when they need clarification. Instructors can help overcome this by assuring students that misunderstandings are normal and encouraging them to seek clarification.

Suggestions for Developing Speaking Skills

• Divide the class into small groups to encourage interaction.
• Teachers should serve as good models for learners, as learners often imitate their teachers.
• Focus on pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation in the teacher's speech.
• At the primary level, include speaking activities such as greetings, informal requests, asking for personal information, sharing stories, experiences, and interests.
• Provide individual attention to learners.
• Allocate one or two periods per session exclusively for oral conversation.
• Teachers should have a sympathetic outlook towards the speaking and listening shortcomings of learners.
• Language is the ultimate means of communication, and there exists an agreed code in all languages according to the culture of their country.

Various Uses of Listening and Speaking Skills

Children use their listening and speaking skills in various ways:

• Improve their understanding of concepts, facts, ideas, and feelings by focusing on and comprehending the speaker's meaning.
• Understand particular sounds connected with certain objects and learn correct pronunciation of words.
• Understand the characteristics of English speech and sounds, including stress and intonation patterns.
• Describe the world, make sense of life's experiences, and accomplish tasks through language.
• Use language as a tool for collective and independent thinking, and express feelings and emotions with a diverse vocabulary.
• Learn to use language effectively for communication and thinking under the guidance of teachers.

Some scholars advocate for directly teaching speaking language skills to children, believing that the subtle skills of active listening and reasoned speaking will develop through involvement in whole class and small group dialogues.

All children benefit from exposure to good models for speaking and listening, and therefore, it is essential to provide listening practice in authentic situations.