Notes: The Listening Skill | English Language & Pedagogy for CTET & TET Exams - CTET & State TET PDF Download

Introduction

• Listening is the act of hearing attentively. It is also a process similar to reading, which should possess knowledge of phonology, syntax, semantics and text understanding. Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. It provides input that can be very significant for second language acquisition, in general, and for the development of the speaking skill, in particular. Listening is key to all effective communication, as without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. This is an important skill because one can learn new information by paying attention to the person speaking, thereby picking up on body language, gestures, expressions, and other non-verbal clues to help understand what they are saying. There are different types of listening, depending upon the situation and the environment, where the listening takes place. Whole-person listening refers to understanding the speaker, his words, thought, motive and so on.
• Appreciative listening is listening for appreciation and pleasure. Attentive listening means attentively listening to each and every word. Casual listening is not very attentive, but listening casually without any interest and Evaluative listening means listening to evaluate or judge something. The three main listening types in interpersonal relationships are Informational listening (listening to learn) which means you listen to learn something; Critical listening (listening to evaluate and analyse) is when the goal is to evaluate or scrutinise what is being said; Therapeutic or Empathetic listening (listening to understand feeling and emotion) involves attempting to understand the feelings and emotions of the speaker.

Methods to Teach Listening Skill

• Make A List
  Objective: To develop the listening skill, through categorization.
  Method: Ask learners to make columns in their note books for adjectives, proper nouns, verbs, adverbs and so on. A learner reads aloud a paragraph from the text book and the others have to categorize the words, accordingly.
• Odd Word Out
  Objective: To learn accuracy of speech sounds.
  Method: Make word sets. (steal /meet /cord/free). Ask learners to spell all the words and choose the odd word out.
• Catch Me

  Objective: To listen with concentration.

  Method: Distribute pictures in jumbled order. Relate the story and ask learners to arrange the picturres in the right order, as the story is being told. Re-read the story.

• Voiceless Verse
  Objective: To enable learners to improve their speech.
  Method: Record a paragraph from the lesson which has words that have sounds that the learners have problems with. Ask learners to move their lips silently, while listening to the words they have problems pronouncing.

• Fastest Finger First
  Objective: Recognising sounds
  Method: Ask learners to make two columns in their notebook for the /v/ and /w/ sounds. Give the learners a list of words with both sounds. The learner who says all the words correctly, in the shortest time span, is the winner.