The Teaching of Listening
Arif Saricoban

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This involves understanding a speaker`s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howatt and Dakin). An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously. Willis (1981:134) lists a series of micro-skills of listening, which she calls enabling skills. They are:
predicting what people are going to talk about
guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic
using one`s own knowledge of the subject to help one understand
identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information
retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing)
recognizing discourse markers, e. g. , Well; Oh, another thing is; Now, finally; etc.
recognizing cohesive devices, e. g. , such as and which, including linking words, pronouns, references, etc.
understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc. , which give clues to meaning and social setting
understanding inferred information, e. g. , speakers` attitude or intentions.
According to Bulletin (1952), listening is one of the fundamental language skills. It`s a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their education--their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. In this day of mass communication (much of it oral), it is of vital importance that our pupils be taught to listen effectively and critically, he says.
Listening to and understanding speech involves a number of basic processes, some depending upon linguistic competence, some depending upon previous knowledge that is not necessarily of a purely linguistic nature, and some depending upon psychological variables that affect the mobilization of these competence and knowledge in the particular task situation. The listener must have a continuous set to listen and understand, and as he hears the utterance, he may be helped by some kind of set to process and remember the information transmitted. His linguistic competence enables him, presumably, to recognize the formatives of the heard utterance, i. e. , to dissect out of the wave form of the morphemes, words, and other meaning-bearing elements of the utterance.
Listening is a receptive skill, and receptive skills give way to productive skills. If we have our students produce something, the teaching will be more communicative. This brings us to the must of integrating language skills. There are two reasons for using integrating activities in language classrooms:
To practice and extend the learners` use of a certain language structure or function
To develop the learners` ability in the use of two or more of the skills within real contexts and communicative frame work.
Integrated activities, on the other hand, provide a variety in the classroom and thus maintain motivation and allow the recycling and revision of language which has already been taught separately in each skill.
How can we be certain that listening experiences will become more productive? Wittich tells us to distinguish the four levels existing in listening to radio or recordings:
Level 1. This mood is listening. Here, the sound remains in the background - there is usually limited comprehension, and, indeed, limited attention. One becomes directly aware of sounds only when they stop. Nevertheless, a certain amount of learning may take place.
Level 2. Here the purpose is relaxation, escape, getting your mind off something rather than on it. The material is comprehended but usually not analyzed for its value. This listening may result in useful ideas, but they are usually peripheral and/or accidental.
Level 3. On this level, answers are sought as a key to action. One listens to weather reports, traffic information from a plane-temporarily useful but what we might call forgettable transient information. This form of listening does not require long, sustained concentration.
Level 4. This is the stage of analytical and critical listening. The listener not only seeks a serious answer to a serious question but evaluates the quality of the answer. Round-table discussions, serious listening to talks, spirited conversation, symphonic music are at the fourth level. At this stage, listening to music is in the foreground of attention not in the background as on previous levels (Wittich and Schuller, 1962).
It is listening on the fourth level that primarily concerns us in our teaching. Such listening may add an emotional and dramatic quality. Radio and recordings highlight the importance of listening. Listening is as active as speaking (the other receptive skill), and in some ways even more difficult. It well requires attention, thought, interpretation, and imagination. To improve our learners` listening skills we should let them (Austin Shrope, 1970):
Adopt a positive attitude.
Be responsive.
Shut out distractions.
Listen for the speaker`s purpose.
Look for the signals of what is to come.
Look for summaries of what has gone before.
Evaluate the supporting materials.
Look for non-verbal clues.
We can call listening a decoding -making sense of the message process