Lesson 3
Developing Listening Proficiency
The Listening Process
Stage 1 Receiving
Stage 2 Understanding
Stage 2 Remembering
Stage 2 Evaluating
Stage 5 Feedback
Listening is the main way of acquiring linguistic
skills and knowledge (Strickland and Feely. 2003) it
is the process by which spoken language is converted
to meaning Hearing is the physical ability, while
listening is a skill Listening skills allow one to make
sense of and understand what another person is
saying. In other words, listening skills enable people
to understand what someone is talking about, which
is the meaning behind the words. The listening
process
involves
five
stages
receiving,
understanding, evaluating. remembering and
responding Active listening is a particular
communication technique that requires the listener to
provide feedback on what they hear to the speaker.
Receiving. Complementary to hearing, receiving is
the other half of the receiving stage in the listening
process Receiving is the process of accurately
identifying and interpreting particular sounds we
hear as words. The sounds we hear have no meaning
until we give them their meaning in context.
Listening is an active process that constructs
meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages.
Understanding. The second stage in the listening
process is the understanding stage. Understanding or
comprehension is shared meaning between parties in
a communication transaction and constitutes the first
step in the listening process. This is the stage during
which the listener determines the context and
meanings of the words they hear. Determining the
context and meaning of Individual words and
assigning meaning in language is essential to
understanding sentences. This, in tum, is essential to
understanding a speaker's message. Before getting
the big picture of a message, it can be challenging to
focus on what the speaker says. In the Writing
Center, you and your consultee may have trouble
understanding each other if you have different
accents, if the consultee is struggling with language
fluency, or if the space is very noisy.
One tactic for better understanding a speaker's
meaning is to ask questions. Asking questions allows
you to fill in any holes you may have in the mental
reconstruction of the speaker's message.
Remembering. Remembering begins with listening
if you cannot remember something that was said, you
might not have been listening effectively Wolvin and
Coakley note that the most common reason for not
remembering a message after the fact is because it
wasn't really learned in the first place. However,
even when you listen attentively, some messages are
more difficult than others to understand and
remember. Highly complex and detailed messages
call for highly developed listening skills
Moreover, if something distracts your attention even
for a moment, you could miss out on information that
explains other new concepts you hear when you
begin to listen fully again it's also important to know
that you can improve your memory of a message by
processing it meaningfully-that is, by applying it in
ways that are meaningful to you Instead of simply
repeating a new acquaintance's name over and over,
for example, you might remember it by associating it
with something in your own life. "Emily," you might
say, "reminds me of the Emily I knew in middle
school," or "Mr. Impian's name reminds me of the
Impala my father drives."
Finally, if understanding has been inaccurate, the
recollection of the message will be inaccurate too.
Evaluating. During the evaluating stage, the
listeners determine whether or not the information
heard and understood from the speaker is well
constructed or disorganized, biased or unbiased, true
or false, significant or insignificant. They also
ascertain how and why the speaker has come up with
and conveyed the message that they delivered. This
may involve considerations of a speaker's personal or
professional motivations and goals. For example, a
listener may determine that a coworker's forgetting
to clean off their table is factually correct but may
also understand that the co-worker's child is sick and
that may be putting them on edge. A voter who
listens to and understands the points made in a
political candidate's stump speech can decide
whether or not those points were convincing enough
to earn their vote. The evaluating stage occurs most
effectively once the listener fully understands what
the speaker is trying to say. While we can sometimes
form opinions of information and ideas that we don't
fully understand-or even that we misunderstanddoing so is not often ideal in the long run. Having a
clear understanding of a speaker's message allows a
listener to evaluate that message without getting
bogged down in ambiguities or spending
unnecessary time and energy addressing points that
may be tangential or otherwise nonessential.
Responding. The responding stage is the listening
process stage in which the listener provides verbal
and/or nonverbal reactions. A listener can respond to
what they hear either verbally or non-verbally.
Nonverbal signals can include gestures such as
nodding, making eye contact, tapping a pen,
fidgeting. scratching or cocking their head, smiling,
rolling their eyes, grimacing, or any other body
language. These kinds of responses can be displayed
purposefully or Involuntarily Responding verbally
might involve asking a question, requesting
additional information, redirecting or changing the
focus of a conversation, cutting off a speaker, or
repeating what a speaker has said back to her to
verify that what was received matches the intended
message.
Nonverbal responses like nodding or eye contact
allow the listeners to communicate their level of
interest without interrupting the speaker, thereby
preserving the speaker/listener roles. When listeners
respond verbally to what they hear and remember-for
example, with a question or a comment-the speaker
listener roles are reversed, at least momentarily
Responding adds action to the listening process
Often, the speaker looks for verbal and nonverbal
responses from the listener to determine if and how
their message is understood and/or considered.
Based on the listener's responses, the speaker can
choose to either adjust or continue with the delivery
of her message For example, if a listener's brow is
furrowed and arms are crossed, the speaker may
determine that he/she needs to lighten the tone to
communicate his/her point better. If a listener is
smiling and nodding or asking questions, the speaker
may feel that the listener is engaged and her message
is being communicated effectively
Types of Listening
There are five different ways we listen. Here are the
five listening styles.
1. Appreciative listening is listening for enjoyment
when one goes to a concert, listens to an audiobook,
or attends church. When you practice appreciative
listening, you simply sit back and absorb. You
appreciate what's happening around you. You are not
analyzing; you are not evaluating. You are enjoying
the experience: that's appreciative listening.
2. Empathic listening is listening to the hurts or pains
of another individual and providing support and
understanding. This is how we would listen to a
friend who is grieving the loss of a loved one or some
other heartbreak This is also how counselors listen.
It's a passionate, heartfelt style of listening where
your attention and body language create an
emotional bond. When you are being one with the
person you are listening to, that's empathic listening
3. Discerning listening is used when you want to
gather information. You are looking for memorable
nuggets in the volume of information that is being
communicated to you. Each time you hear a relevant
nugget of information, you store it away for another
time. Often pieces of information are stored by
taking notes When you are collecting nuggets of
information, that's disceming listening.
4. Comprehensive listening is a style that goes
beyond just collecting nuggets of information. The
comprehensive listener seeks to understand and
organize the nuggets into useful information. Often,
a dialogue is necessary to deepen the understanding.
When you are understanding and organizing
information, that's comprehensive listening.
5. Evaluative listening is the process of assessing
information for the purpose of making a decision.
Nuggets of information are compared against known
facts and historical experience to determine your
course of action. When you are listening to decide,
that's evaluative listening.
Your style of listening will change from time to time
As a teacher, it is essential to discem the type of
listening you'll need to employ. When your listening
style is unsuitable for the occasion, problems may
occur. You must learn to listen appropriately in the
given moment and change selective hearing into
selective listening
How do we teach listening?
According to Jack Richards (2016). Successful
listening can also be looked at in terms of the
strategies the listener uses when listening. Does the
learner focus mainly on a text's content, or do they
also consider how to listen? A focus on how to listen
raises the issue of listening strategies. Strategies can
be thought of as the ways in which a learner
approaches and manages a task and listeners can be
taught effective ways of approaching and managing
their listening. These activities seek to involve
listeners actively in the process of listening.
Buck (2001) identifies two kinds of strategies in
listening:
Cognitive strategies: Mental activities related to
comprehending and storing input in working
memory or long-term memory for later retrieval
Comprehension processes: Associated with the
processing of linguistic and nonlinguistic input
Storing and memory processes Associated with the
storing of linguistic and nonlinguistic input in
working memory or long-term memory
Using and retrieval processes: Associated with
accessing memory, to be readied for output
Metacognitive strategies. Those conscious or
unconscious mental activities that perform an
executive function in the management of cognitive
strategies
Assessing the situation: Taking stock of conditions
surrounding a language task by assessing one's
knowledge, one's available internal and external
resources and the constraints of the situation before
engaging in a task.
Monitoring: Determining the effectiveness of one's
own or another's performance while engaged in a
task.
Self-evaluating: Determining the effectiveness of
one's own or another's performance after engaging in
the activity.
Self-testing: Testing oneself to determine the
effectiveness of one's own language use or the lack
thereof Goh (1997, 1998) shows how the
metacognitive activities of planning, monitoring and
evaluating can be applied to the teaching of listening.
Here are some metacognitive strategies for selfregulation in learner listening (Go 1997, 1998)
Planning is a strategy for determining learning
objectives and deciding the means by which the
objectives can be achieved.
Here are some examples of the general listening
development: Identity learning objectives for
listening development.:
 Determine ways to achieve these objectives.
 Set realistic short-term and long-term goals.
 Seek opportunities for listening practice. are the
specific listening tasks for planning
 Preview main ideas before listening.
 Rehearse language (e.g., pronunciation)
necessary for the task.
 Decide in advance which aspects of the text to
concentrate on.
Monitoring is a strategy for checking the progress in
the course of leaming or carrying out a learning task.
General listening development:
 Consider progress against a set of predetermined
criteria.
 Determine how close it is to achieving short-term
or long-term goals.
 Check and see if the same mistakes are still being
made.
General listening development:
 Assess listening progress against a set of
predetermined criteria.
 Assess the effectiveness of learning and practice
strategies.
 Assess the appropriateness of learning goals and
objectives set.
Specific listening tasks
 Check the appropriateness and the accuracy of
what has been understood
 Determine the effectiveness of strategies used in
the task.
 Assess overall comprehension of the text
Another approach to incorporating listening
strategies in a listening lesson involves a cycle of
activities, as seen below Steps in guided
metacognitive sequence in a listening lesson from
Goh and Yusnita (2006).
Step 1: Pre-listening activity
In pairs, students predict the possible words and
phrases that they might hear. They write down their
predictions. They may write some words in their first
language
Step 2: First listen
As they listen to the text, students underline or circle
those words or phrases (including first-language
equivalents) that they have predicted correctly. They
also write down new information they hear.
Step 3 Pair process-based discussion
In pairs, students compare what they have
understood and explain how they arrived at the
understanding. They identify the parts that caused
confusion and disagreement and note the parts of the
text that will require special attention in the second
listen. Step 4 Second listen
Students listen to those parts that have caused
confusion or disagreement and make notes of any
new information they hear.
Step 5 Whole-class process-based discussion
Specific listening tasks:
 Check understanding during listening.
 Check the appropriateness and the accuracy of
what is understood and compare it with new
information.
 Identify the source of difficulty.
Evaluating is a strategy for determining the success
of an attempt to leam or complete a leaming task.
The teacher leads a discussion to confirm
comprehension before discussing the strategies they
reported they are using with students