Listening is the active and dynamic process of
attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering and responding to the
expressed verbal and non-verbal needs, concerns, and information offered by
other human beings.
This definition is more specific, emphasizing
the need for attention, perceiving and interpreting and remembering. In
addition it focuses our attention on the all important needs and concerns of
real people .English language learners often say” Listening is easier than
speaking” and they may be right to think that because listening is a receptive
skill, not a production one. Listening involves factors that can affect
comprehension, sometimes in circumstances that they cannot control is when they
listen to the radio, and they cannot tell the speaker to slow down, to repeat
or to explain things for them. So it depends on their language proficiency to
understand what he or she talking about.
There are many factors which affect listening;
some of them are hot words, Environmental factor, rehearsing a response, person
bias, daydreaming, a short attention use
of filtering, clustering, redundancy, reduction, variables, speed, prosodic
elements and lack of interaction. I will explain those factors as follows;-
First of all the presence of hot words
can affect listening due to, all human being have certain words that we react
to, sometimes when a speaker uses a hot word in his or her message we will
concentrate more on the meaning of the word or its implication for us. Consequently
we tend to lose sight of what is being said by the speaker.
Secondly, listening can be affected by environmental factor such as
noise, temperature and uncomfortable seating can cause us to focus our attention
on other factors besides what the speaker is saying. We must try to control environmental
factors whenever possible. We must try to adjust the thermostat and finding
another seat or moving to a quite place to continue the conversation. It is
hard to focus attention when we are constantly distracted by outside forces.
Thirdly, rehearsing a response
also can be a factor that affect listening, you know many times we catch the
drift of what the speaker is saying and we begin to rehearse a response, there
by missing parts of the message. Other times we may be anticipating our turn to
speak and will spend time mentally or physically reviewing notes and will miss
what the speaker has said.
Not only that but also person bias can
affect listening. Bias can take on many forms, person prejudice can affect how
well we listen and how we perceive what the speaker is saying. Anger can also
cause distortion of the message. Be willing to listen to new ideas, make eye
contact with the speaker use non-verbal communication such as nodding your head
or smiling to show what you are interested. Even if you do not agree with the
speaker’s message showing acceptance will left the speaker know that you have
received their message.
In addition to that short attention
also can affect listening, as we receive a message we must attend to it or we
will lose it .Some people have trouble remembering points to discuss when the
speaker is talking. Try taking notes as the speaker talks or use of cue to help
your remember what you were going to say. If you find your attention wandering,
concentrate on what the speaker is saying and rehearse how you will answer or
what you are going to say to keep your mind on the task at hand .Ask grist’s to
clarify and to become involved in the conversation. Concentration helps you to
receive correct information and indicates that you are interested in what the
speaker is saying.
Daydreaming is also affect listening
in one or another way. We are capable of receiving and processing information
more rapidly than a speaker can deliver it. This causes us to have spare time
to think or daydream and if we don’t concentrate on the message being delivered,
we will find ourselves drifting or daydream.
Also filtering can affect listening, you
know many times we will be asked to attend a seminar where we exhibit little or
no interest in the topic. As listeners, we tend to listen to get an overview of
what is going to be presented and then simply tune out the rest of the message.
Not only that but also Clustering can affect
listening. Clustering refers to people's predisposition for breaking down
speech into smaller groups of words. English language learners need to learn
how to pick up manageable clusters of words and not try to take in several
sentences or to understand every single word in an utterance.
Redundancy is another element that affects listening.
Rephrasing, repetitions, elaborations and insertion of repetitive words like
"you know" or "right?" can distract the listener from the
content of the message. Learners need to acknowledge that these repetitions
actually work to their advantage, as they give them more time to process the
real information.
Another factor which affects listening
is Reduction; this is natural to native speakers, that's why learners of
English may find it difficult to "catch" the sense of the words even
during a normal speech process. Assimilation and elision, elliptical answers for
example;"Where are you going?" "Home." for "I'm going
home." or contractions for example; "I'll" for "I
will" are hard to understand the idioms and colloquial elements that native
English speakers normally use some
examples may be the very frequent forms for example; 'wanna,"
"gonna'" or "y'all.
Variables also can affect listening,
this point touch all people except for lectures or speeches that are planned
forms of speaking discourse, natural spoken language has several elements that
change the message unintentionally. Learners should be able, with practice, to
ignore them and to focus on the real content. Hesitations, pauses, false starts
and self-corrections are variables that native speakers are used to hearing and
can separate from the message.
Rate of delivery of the message (speed)
is another element that affects a proper listening . While a native speaker
believes he is speaking at a normal speed, language learners think they speak
too fast, especially because they need more time to "weed out"
variables while paying attention to the message as it flows.
Stress, rhythm and intonation are prosodic
elements that can affect listening. The way words are stressed differ from
other languages and the rhythm in English might not resemble the learner's
first language, so he will find it difficult to master. Intonation may also
differ; learners should become familiar with discriminating between the rising
pitch ("Ready?") and the falling pitch ("Yes.").
Lack of interaction is another
negative element that affects listening comprehension. Even if, as a principle,
listening does not require speaking, interaction can help learners practice
negotiation, taking turns, starting, maintaining and ending a conversation.
CONCLUSION
Listening is an important part of
effective communication. We need to concentrate on encouraging none only
student, but ourselves, to exhibit good listening behaviors and strategies. Listening
is a process that involves actively hearing what another person is
communicating and attending to that communication. Listening is how we receive
the verbal portion of a person’s message. By listening, we can show concern and
interest in understanding both the person and the situation.
Listening and
comprehension can definitely benefit from some basic training in the skills
used. There are four basic steps to help improve comprehension of the
information being presented. First, determine your reason for listening to the
information. Being able to anticipate what information will be presented can
help improve comprehension. Second, be selective. Focusing on the information
important to your purpose and ignoring irrelevant information will maximize
comprehension. Third, be flexible in the use of top-down and bottom-up skills;
being able to switch from one skill set to the other as necessary will improve
comprehension. Fourth, if you are aware of a failure to comprehend some of the
information, review it using a different ski
REFERENCE
Brain Training Gamswww.lumosity.com
English Grammar
checkerwww.Grammar.com
http://www.ehow.com/info_8255075_listening-comprehension-skills.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8255075_listening-comprehension-skills.html
Paraelink.org/7s2c/c7s2c-7html
Speech therapy at
homewww.rose-medical.com
Wiki Answers.com
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