The Theory of Teaching Listening

• Gebhard (2000: 143) - listening is not a passive skill but an active one because we need to be receptive to others, which include paying attention to explanations, questions, and opinions.

• Gebhard (2000:144) states that listening comprehension activity involves two distinct processes, bottom-up and top-down processing.

• Similarly, Brown (2001:249) also defines that listening is an interactive process involving a number of different cognitive, psychomotor, and affective mechanisms.

The Theory of Teaching Listening

Two purposes of listening (Gebhard)

• There are two purposes of listening: - Interactional function which is

focusing on creating harmonious interaction among individuals, and transactional function which is focusing on transferring information and it is important for the listener to comprehend the content of the speaker’s message. 

• Gebhard (2000: 147) states that we can provide the students with a variety of listening activities. The following are some of the listening activities for EFL students as suggested by Gebhard:

(a) identifying linguistic feature(b) a stress and rhythm listening

activity(c) a minimal pair listening activity(d) responding to request and

commands(e) interacting as a listener(f) eavesdropping and(g) comprehending extended speech.

Listening in language learning and teaching

• Listeners use metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to make their learning more effective. Metacognitive strategies are important because they oversee, regulate or direct the language learning process. Cognitive strategies manipulate the material to be learned or apply a specific technique to a listening task. Socio-affective strategies describe the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety. Research shows that skilled listeners use more metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990, Vandergrift, 1997a).

When listeners know how to

• analyse the requirements of a listening task;• activate the appropriate listening processes

required;• make appropriate predictions;• monitor their comprehension;• andevaluate the success of their approach,

>they are using metacognitive knowledge for successful listening comprehension. This is critical to the development of self-regulated learning (Wenden, 1998).

The Listening Process

Hearing

HEARING • it refers to the response caused by

sound waves stimulating the sensory receptors of the ear; it is physical response; hearing is perception of sound waves; you must hear to listen, but you need not listen to hear (perception necessary for listening depends on attention

Hearing

Attention

ATTENTION• brain screens stimuli and permits only select few to

come into focus- these selective perception is known as attention, an important requirement for effective listening ; strong stimuli like bright lights, sudden noise…are attention getters; attention to more commonplace or less striking stimuli requires special effort;

• the action of dealing with or taking special care of someone or something.

Hearing

Attention

Understanding

UNDERSTANDING• to understand symbols we have seen and heard, we must analyze the meaning of the stimuli we have perceived; symbolic stimuli are not only words but also sounds like applause… and sights like blue uniform…that have symbolic meanings as well;

• the power of comprehending; especially :  the capacity to apprehend general relations of particulars

Hearing

Attention

Understanding

Remembering

REMEMBERING• it is important listening process because it

means that an individual has not only received and interpreted a message but has also added it to the mind's storage bank; but just as our attention is selective, so too is our memory- what is remembered may be quite different from what was originally seen or heard

Hearing

Attention

Understanding

Remembering

Evaluating

EVALUATING

- it is a stage in which active listeners participate; at these point the active listener weighs evidence, sorts fact from opinion, and determines the presence or absence of bias or prejudice in a message; the effective listener makes sure that he or she doesn’t begin this activity too soon ;

Hearing

Attention

Understanding

Remembering

Evaluating

Responding

RESPONDINGthis stage requires that the receiver complete the process through verbal and/or nonverbal

feedback; because the speaker has no other way to determine if a message has been received , this stage becomes the only overt means by

which the sender may determine the degree of success in transmitting the message.