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Lesson-1 - Enhanced Communication Module 1
BS in Nursing (University of the Cordilleras)
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lOMoARcPSD|43983307
Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
College/ Department
Course Code
Course Title
Place of the Course in the
Program
Semester and Academic Year
College of Nursing
En+
Enhanced Communication Skills
General Education
First Semester A.Y. 2022-2023
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course aims primarily to provide students with basic skills in the use of
English language as a tool for learning and for communicative competence. This
specifically includes listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production and
writing. At the end of the course, the students are expected to become B2 level
which corresponds to a more advanced and more independent level.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the main ideas of both concrete and abstract topics;
2. To include technical discussions in his/her field of specialization;
3. To interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular
interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party;
and
4. To produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain
viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of
various options.
LESSON 1: DEFINITION AND NATURE OF LISTENING
Objectives
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Explain the nature of listening and its importance
Explain the listening process
Give reasons why people listen
Identify listening purposes and listening problems
Differentiate the types of listening suited to varied speech events
Explain the value of effective listening
INTRODUCTION
Listening is the neglected communication skill. While all of us have had
instruction in reading, writing and speaking, few have had any formal instruction in
listening. It is sad to note, however, that this skill has been observed to be the most
neglected area in teaching English towards communicative competence. This is
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lOMoARcPSD|43983307
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President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
lamentable considering that we spend most of our waking hours communicating,
the greatest portion of which is spent in listening.
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A study by Wilt (1950), found that people listen 45 percent of the
time they spend communicating, is still widely cited (e.g., Martin,
1987; Strother, 1987).
Wilt found that 30 percent of communication time was spent
speaking, 16 percent reading, and 9 percent writing.
People spent 70 percent of their waking time communicating and
that three-fourths of this time was spent listening and speaking.
Burley-Allen (1982) found the classroom emphasis on language
modes to be inversely related to the time people use them: students
get 12 years of formal training in writing, 6-8 years in reading, 1-2
years in speaking, and from 0-1/2 year in listening. Swanson (1984b)
calls this the "inverted curriculum."
Most of us spend seven of every 10 minutes of our waking time in some form of
communication activity. Of these seven minutes (or 70% of the time we are awake),
10% is spent writing, 15% reading, 30% talking and 45% listening.
LISTENING DEFINED
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Listening may be defined as the activity of paying attention and trying to get
the right meaning from what one hears (Salazar, CONSTEL English)
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Listening plays a very important role in the communicative situations.
Without effective listening, communication may bog down and
misunderstandings can occur. It is more than merely hearing words. It is an
active process by which students receive, construct meaning from, and
respond to spoken or non-verbal messages (Emmert, 1994; Tomlinson,
1984).
Real listening, as an active process, has three basic steps:
1. Hearing - Hearing just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is
saying. For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras and the
speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact, then you
have heard what has been said.
2. Understanding - The next part of listening happens when you take what you
have heard and understand it in your own way. Let’s go back to the report on
zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that might
mean. You might think, “Maybe this means that the pattern of stripes is
different for each zebra.”
3. Judging - After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think
about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? You
might think, "How could the stripes to be different for every zebra? But then
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lOMoARcPSD|43983307
Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
again, the fingerprints are different for every person. I think this seems
believable."
COMPONENTS OF LISTENING (Rost, 1990)
1. Perception Skills
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Discriminating sounds
Recognizing words
2. Analysis Skills
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Identifying grammatical groupings of words
Identifying expressions and sets of utterances which function as
whole units to create meaning
3. Syntactic Skills
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Connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation, stress
and its non-linguistic cues like gestures and relevant objects in the
situation in order to construct meaning
Using background knowledge (what we already know about the
content and the form) and context (what has been already said) to
predict or confirm meaning
STAGES OF LISTENING PROCESS
The process of listening can be described as a series of five steps: receiving,
understanding, remembering, evaluating and responding (Devito, 1997). These
stages occur in sequence, but they are generally performed with little awareness
and often rapid succession.
1. Receiving – receiving the message the speaker sends. Messages are both
verbal and non-verbal. They consist of words as well as gestures, facial
expressions, variations in volume and tone. The listener takes note of both
the verbal and non-verbal elements of the message.
2. Understanding – determining what the speaker means. Understanding
takes into consideration the thoughts that are expressed as well as the
emotional tone that accompanies these thoughts. It likewise includes
establishing links between what the listeners know about the topic and the
new information given by the speaker.
3. Remembering – retaining messages for at least some period of time. What
you remember is actually not what was said but what you think (as recalled)
was said.
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Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
a. Short-term memory – The information is used immediately. It has rapid
forgetting rate and is very susceptible to interruption. The amount of
information that can be retained is quite limited.
b. Long-term memory – It allows us to recall information, events, hours,
days, weeks-even years later.
4. Evaluating – weighing what was said. The listener judges the worth of the
ideas shared by the speaker. He assesses them in the light of what he knows
about the topic taking into account the logic of the presentation.
4. Responding – sending signals while the speaker is talking to let him know
that he is understood and responding after the speaker has stopped talking.
Strictly speaking, therefore, this marks the start of a new cycle where the
listener now takes his turn as a speaker.
TYPES OF LISTENING
1. Marginal/Passive listening. Also called hearing since the listener in this
type hears the sounds, often in the background and ignores them. He/she is
concerned with what he/she is doing at the moment, e.g. reading a book and
pays only half-attention to the sounds he hears. It is only when something
catches his/her attention that he/she listens more closely, attends to what is
said and ceases to listen passively or marginally.
2. Attentive listening. The listener focuses attention on what is being said
and is interested in it. He/she takes notes of the specifics mentioned and how
these specifics relate to the main points made by the speaker. Attentive
listening is called for when directions and instructions are given and when
one listens to an informative talk such as lectures or oral reports in school.
3. Critical, Analytical listening. The listener decides on the true worth of the
ideas mentioned, passes judgment on the claims made and makes decisions
on whether to accept what is said at face value or take it with a grain of salt.
This type of listening is called for when viewing advertisements, listening to
political speeches and debates and in problem solving situations.
4. Appreciative listening. Listener derives pleasure at what he/she hears.
5. Sympathetic listening. The listener cares about the other person and
shows this concern in the way he pays close attention and expresses his
sorrow for the ills and happiness for the joys of the others.
6. Empathetic listening. The listener listens to understand the feelings and
emotions of others. This means giving attention to the sentiments of the
person. Thus, the listener does not only absorb the words but also the
emotions of the speaker in order to understand and feel with him.
WHY, WHEN & HOW PEOPLE LISTEN
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Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
Depending on the communicative event, there are five reasons why people
listen. In fact, it is the speech event as well as one’s purpose for listening that
determines how he/she listens to what is said.
1. To be able to engage in social rituals – Man is a social being and so he
engages in social rituals now and then. When meeting persons for the first
time, he has to listen attentively to get information about them in
introductions. He likewise has to listen attentively when exchanging
pleasantries and engaging in small talk while attending parties.
2. To get information – In school, students have to listen attentively to get
important ideas from a lecture or from class discussions. There is also need
for one to listen closely to questions asked so he/she can make sense of what
is said and respond correctly.
3. To be able to respond to “controls” – Directions and instructions given in
school, in the workplace and elsewhere call for attentive listening. This entails
noting the specifics in instructions and executing them as directed. An
example of this would be listening to directions on how to cook a certain dish.
4. To respond to feelings – To understand what a person means and how
he/she feels, it is necessary to listen to him/her with empathy. To empathize
with others is to feel what they feel. This occurs when one listens to
complaints or secrets.
5. To enjoy – Listening affords people a chance to share a good laugh with
other as when they swap jokes. It could also serve as a source of pleasure
when they listen to music and oral interpretations of literary pieces.
PURPOSES OF LISTENING
Listening requires conscious mental effort and specific purpose. The purposes
for listening relate to “types of listening”.
Types of Listening
Purposes of
Listening
Discriminative Listening
Information
Comprehensive/Information
al
Instruction
Critical/Evaluative
Evaluation
Appreciative Listening
Pleasure
Therapeutic/Empathetic
Support/Empathy
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President Ramon Magsaysay State University
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Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
Students should be able to determine what their purpose should be in any
given listening situation.
Listening Comprehension Skills or Enabling skills include:
1. Listening for detail – involves listening for specific information
2. Listening for gist – listen for main ideas
3. Drawing inferences – ability to fill in gaps in the input
4. Listening selectively – listen only to specific parts of the input
5. Making predictions – ability to anticipate before and during listening what one
is going to hear
BARRIERS TO LISTENING
When students perform poorly in listening comprehension, the teacher should
examine the probable causes. The common barriers to listening are as follows:
1. Physical barriers – To comprehend the message, the students should hear
it. But reception may be blocked by noise in the room or outside the room;
poor acoustics; impaired hearing of the students; tiredness, sleepiness and
hunger; or plain inattention.
2. Psychological barriers – These are preconceived beliefs about the subject
being discussed that prevent the hearers from receiving the speaker’s
/teacher’s ideas; the negative attitude towards the subject which to the
hearer is difficult, uninteresting or unpleasant; or antagonism towards the
speaker.
3. Language barriers – Is the level of language too high for the students? The
teacher’s/speaker’s pronunciation and grammar could also be a distraction to
the hearer.
HOW TO BECOME AN ACTIVE LISTENER?
Listening is effective only when the hearer becomes involved, not when he is
passively sitting down, pretending to understand or listen when he does not. Below
are some techniques to become an active listener.
1. Stop talking. This is the first step in becoming a good listener. Students
should be reminded not to talk with their neighbor and to concentrate instead
on what the speaker is saying.
2. Control the surroundings. Competing sounds (noises) should be removed.
A quiet time and place are conducive to listening.
3. Establish a receptive mind set. A positive attitude that there is something
to learn from the speaker; that the subject is easy and interesting, useful and
essential. Attention wanders when at the outset the student convinces
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Republic of the Philippines
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Zambales
Telefax : 047-8111683/email address: prmsu.edu.ph
himself that the subject is difficult and uninteresting or that he already knows
the subject.
4. Listen to main points. The speaker usually gives clues on the main points
by repetition and by means of introductory phrases and transition words.
Listening is enhanced and becomes pleasurable when the message of the
speaker is understood. Listening for the structure of the message helps in the
understanding of its meaning.
5. Make effective use of lag time. This is an opportunity for the hearer to
review mentally what has been said or even to anticipate what the speaker
will say.
6. Listen between the lines. Developing the skill for listening for the
underlying feeling behind words, often communicated by non-verbal methods
(gestures, facial expressions), enhances listening comprehension.
Judge ideas not appearances. The content of the message should be the focus of
concentration, not the speaker’s physical appearance, voice or mannerism. Listen
objectively and discard preconceived beliefs and biases that prevent a fair reception
of the message.
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