Module 7

IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF LISTENING

The four fundamental language skills- Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW) are
interconnected, though each skill has specific roles in language acquisition. Speaking and listening,
together with reading and writing, are prime communication skills that are central to children’s
intellectual, social and emotional development.

The four language skills are again classified into receptive and productive skills. The
receptive skills viz listening and reading, are used for language comprehension or to extract meaning
from the discourse, whereas the productive skills, speaking and writing, are the skills produced by
the learners themselves as result of language acquisition. While the receptive skills provide the input
for language learning, the productive skills are the visible output of language learning. The output is
heavily influenced by and depends on the kind of input received.

Listening is defined as a passive, receptive, casual, cognitive and emotional skill that
involves receiving, interpreting and responding to the message. It is a receptive skill and as we
learned in the last module on reading skill, the receptive skills are used in language acquisition.
Listening and reading enable the productive skills, namely, speaking and writing. The receptive skills,
listening and reading, are used for language comprehension or to extract meaning from the
discourse, whereas the productive skills, speaking and writing, are produced by the learners
themselves as a product of language acquisition. While the receptive skills provide the input for
language learning, the productive skills are the visible output of language learning. The output is
heavily influenced by and depends on the kind of input received. Developing receptive skills is
therefore, challenging for many learners as they appear to be passive and implicit. Unlike productive
skills, the acquisition of receptive skills is difficult to measure.

Though Listening and reading skills is evaluated using comprehension questions in some
language testing examinations such as TOEFL and IELTS, it is not given as importance as that of
speaking and writing skills in academic circles. In most of the competitive examinations, the two
main levels to clear before getting selected are written examination and face-to-face interview. As a
result, receptive skills are undervalued and downgraded mostly. Receptive skills play in fact a
pertinent role in the enhancement of productive skills. According to John Field, author of the book
“Listening in the Language Classroom “ Communication requires a two-way traffic, and unless the
non-native speaker has a moderate level of listening competence as developed as his/her command
of speech, it will simply not be possible to sustain a conversation” . Listening is an indispensable skill
for the development of receptive skills as the language production is entirely based on the kind of
language comprehension one achieves. While listening competence is essential for speaking, reading
competence enhances writing skills.

According to Rebecca Peterson linguistics scholar and author “Listening is the primary
channel for language input and acquisition”. It is a prerequisite for oral proficiency as it is via
listening that learners can establish a base for more fluent production skills. It is also a significant
predictor of reading comprehension and finally it can promote accuracy and extend learner’s
vocabulary.
 Listening is the primary source of language. It is the foundation on which all the other
communication processes develop. Listening is the first mode of language that children acquire in
the process of language learning. The very young child is channelled to speech, reading, and writing
through listening. Studies of physical disabilities such as hearing disorders and brain damage, have
pointed to the interdependence among the various language processes with listening at the base.

The four fundamental language skills- Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW)- are
interconnected, though each skill has specific roles in language acquisition. According to Eli Hinkel a
professor in Anthropology at Seattle University “in meaningful communication, people employ
incremental language skills not in isolation, but in tandem” . When we are engaged in oral
communication we have to listen to , as well as to speak back for interaction to take place, and in
written communication, both writing and reading happen though not as simultaneously as during a
listening and speaking sequence.

As we know, Listening is a receptive or passive skill and it is the most frequently used
language skill of all the four skills. Listening is a key component in teaching and learning. The
International Listening Association defines listening as `the process of receiving, constructing
meaning from external stimuli or messages in order to respond meaningfully .The word ‘listening’ is
defined as making an effort to hear something; to pay attention or to take heed. Though the words
“hearing” and “listening” are often used interchangeably, there is a lot of difference between
hearing and listening. Hearing is one’s physiological ability to perceive sounds through ears. It is a
passive process that occurs at the subconscious level where the person involved is neither aware of
nor has any control over the sounds that he/she hears. On the other hand, listening is a
psychological process where the person consciously analyses and understands the sounds that
he/she hears to interpret the message. It is an active mental process where knowledge is acquired
and the information is received consciously. While hearing is an ability, listening is a skill and “the
difference in terms reflects a degree of intention”. It is the intention or the purpose of listening that
motivates the individual to pay attention to the speaker and involve in the conversation or to
organize the information and assimilate it.

The process of listening:

The process of listening involves the speaker and listener. While listening competence is
essential for speaking, reading competence enhances writing skills. Hence, it is imperative to
develop receptive skills properly as the language production is entirely based on the kind of
language comprehension one achieves.
The process of listening is an auditory and an active process by which the listeners receive,
construct meaning from, and respond to, spoken or non-verbal messages. The listening process is a
combination of four sub-processes. (a) hearing: the auditory reception of an acoustic signal
(perception). (b) categorisation of sounds: categorising incoming sounds in terms of the sound
categories of the language. (c) word recognition: breaking up the stream of sounds into linguistic
units and retrieving their meaning from long term memory. (d) comprehension: integrating the
meanings of the words in their sequence into an interpretation of the entire utterance.

Katherine Ronald, Professor in English at Miami university defined listening as an active

process requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and generalizing as
any complex process. William C. Purdy defined listening as “the active and dynamic process of
attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the expressed needs, concerns,
and information offered by other human beings”. Listening in a foreign language is a task at a high
level of difficulty in cognitive terms and therefore demands full attention. The activity of listening
plays an important role in the process of acquiring or learning a language, whether it is the first or
the second language as any impediment in the listening activity, will affect the development of other
modes.

According to D.Nunan,author and professor at Cambridge university listening involves the

ability to identify the purpose and scope of lecture, identify the topic of lecture, identify
relationships among units within discourse, infer relationships, and recognize marks of cohesion.
Listening also Involves intrinsic actions such as : (a) receiving the systematic sounds of the language,
(b) processing and constructing sounds into words, (c) giving meaning to the words and getting
meaning from the words received and, (d) ability to interpret and comprehend the speaker's
utterances, and so on.

Diana Bonet in her book : “ Business of Listening: A Practical Guide to Effective Listening
describes the process of listening as a chain of cognitive actions such as: hearing, interpreting,
evaluating and responding while Sanda Collins in her book : “Interpersonal Communication:
Listening and Responding.” categorize listening into 5 steps: They are: 1. Sensing or the physical
processing of sound selected from the environment ..during this action the person listens to
something, the sounds out of the environment are first selected and taken through the senses. 2.
Interpreting the sounds and assigning meaning to them ..during this process the meaning of words
are subjected to interpretation, and interpretations are highly individualized because the meaning
assigned to what is heard depends on education, upbringing and culture. It depends even on
temporary influences such as mood and mindset of the listener 3. Evaluating the message .. at this
point the listener is deciding whether or not to agree with or believe the speaker. 4. Responding
..The response to a message is the action taken or not taken as a result of hearing it. The response
can either be a positive one which leads to further interaction or a negative one which ends it. 5.
Remembering – is the last step of listening process according to Ms.Collins as the information or the
message received may stay in the short-term memory while actively thinking about it and then be
transferred to long-term storage, or may be even lost.

Listening is the primary source of language and its growth is in tandem with the overall
growth of a child. A child with listening deficit will undergo difficulties in developing the other
language skills as well …. as listening is the foundation on which all the other communication
processes is based on. The development of listening skills starts at a very early age, since it is by
listening effectively that the child develops adequate speech and language function. A child develops
its language skills in first language as it is the natural way to receive linguistic inputs from the
external world. Out of the four language skills, listening is the first stage in the process of language
acquisition. A child develops the faculty of speech through the initial imitations of the adult
speakers, its parents. That is why the ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat) specialists always advice parents
to inspect if their babies’ sense of hearing at its optimum. According to Liz Spooner,an English
language therapist, listening underpins all language development . Development of early listening
skills in the first few months of life is necessary for children to develop their language proficiency.
Therefore, learning to listen is vital in developing the ability to play and interact with others
successfully. It underpins the development of understanding language and talking.
 Listening skills are imperative to acquire all the speech sounds and language skills. Poor
listening affects children’s ability to learn across the whole curriculum .No communication is possible
without effective listening and the spoken competence of an individual depends on his/her exposure
to the speakers of the target language and their speech. Listening should be the preferential mode
as it lays proper foundation for the development of communication skills.

Therefore, Listening is neither a simple nor a passive process, but a dynamic and complex
process that plays a crucial role in making any oral communication effective by enabling the person
involved to receive and interpret messages accurately in the communication process. Hence, an
individual with poor listening skills fails not only to understand the meaning conveyed but also to
reciprocate appropriately.

However, Listening is an often-neglected element of language learning as children are

expected to acquire the ability to listen critically by the time they enter formal schooling without
receiving any special instruction in this area as it is often treated as a passive skill which is
automatically acquired in the process of language learning.

Teaching listening is often ignored for three main reasons. (1) Its complex and dynamic
nature is overlooked by taking it as a simple affair and believing that listening skills can be acquired
easily without any deliberate effort or conscious planning. (2) The result of teaching listening would
not give immediate result as it requires time and prolonged experience to become automatized in
listening. (3) There is a practical difficulty of giving training in the classroom due to lack of
infrastructure and overcrowded classrooms. Therefore, listening skills development, in spite of being
an essential requirement in language acquisition, is not treated in the way it has to be in ESL
classrooms.

Jeremy Harmer, an English author and teacher explains the aims of teaching the skill of
listening as Listening is a skill and any amount of practice given to students in performing that skill
will help them to be better listeners. Therefore, in order to develop the listening skills of the
learners, frequent and proper exposure to target language is very crucial to become not only better
listeners but also for gaining a confidence and fluency in the second language.

The challenges of listening skill.

Unlike productive skills like speaking and writing, the acquisition of receptive skills is difficult
to measure and evaluate as done through the oral and written examination. Listening is the primary
source of language and its growth is in tandem with the overall growth of a child. and face-to-face
interview. The need of receptive skills is undermined and regarded as passive skills which would
develop in tandem with the active skills without further preparation and practice. Developing
receptive skills is challenging for many learners as they appear to be passive and implicit.

I hope it is very clear that listening is the base for not only language learning but also for
acquiring language fluency. Lack of listening will affect the learner’s understanding of grammar,
pronunciation, linguistic features and language in its totality. Therefore, listening skill has a decisive
role in language acquisition. The adage “we have two ears but only one mouth” states that listening
can be twice as significant as speaking.
Listening is not a passive skill which develops by its own. According to John Robert Anderson the
author of the essay “The Architecture of Cognition” listening is a complex cognitive process which
involves perceiving words, recognising it, decoding it and utilising the decoded information
depending on listeners’ prior knowledge as well as the knowledge of the context. Moreover, in the
case of interactive listening, listeners have to hold words for a longer time so as to respond
appropriately. Teaching of listening, therefore, requires greater awareness of the process involved in
listening, planning and organising listening inputs, giving frequent exposure with proper monitoring
using various strategies, and finally giving proper evaluation and feedback to the listeners.