The Importance Of Listening Comprehension

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Theoretical Part

The importance of listening comprehension

Listening comprehension is an important receptive skill and also a useful preparation for listening in real life.

The importance of listening has changed over the past years. Listening used to be defined as the ignored skill. Listening skills were believed to be learnt automatically through the practice of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. It was very amazing as listening played a very important life (Hedge 2000). According to Scott and Ytreberg (1994) the first skill that children achieve is listening, mainly if they have not learnt to read yet. Listening is the activity in which students concentrate and trying to obtain meaning from something they can hear. To listen successfully to spoken language, we should understand what speakers mean when they use some words in particular ways on especial occasions, and not simply to understand the words themselves (Underwood 1989). The result of language learning depends on the learner's listening skills. As Pokrivčáková (2010, p.61) claims listening is "a receptive communicative skill. It provides the aural input as the basis for development for all remaining language skills. By developing their ability to listen well, learners become more independent, as by hearing accurately they are much more likely to be able to interact in a foreign language effectively."

Listening is a conversable process. In this process the student should be able

to comprehend the oral message,

to comprehend the situation,

to identify the speaker's feelings, ideas, purpose,

to identify the context,

to identify relationships between speakers (Pokrivčáková, 2010).

Learners also need to learn its phonology and syntax. Not only their knowledge of the structure of the language. If they are able to listen successfully, they need to learn to establish the context to which it relates (Underwood, 1989).

To sum up listening is a communicative process, in which the learners should be able to understand the verbal message, the situation and the context.

Extensive and intensive listening

Listening of both types is very useful because can help students to correct their listening skills (Harmer, 1991). Listening, in which a person may listen to something for comfort and don't have to concentrate on every word is called extensive listening. It takes place when students are on their own, often for pleasure. This type of listening has many pros (Rixon, 1993). One advantage is that students can elect what they are going to listen to, which can be very interesting for them (Harmer, 1991). It usually appears outside the classroom. It is necessary to give learners to keep their motivation and interest and also giving them extra contact with English (Rixon, 1993). Another advantage is that students can be asked to do various exercises, such as writing reports, writing essays or summarising (Harmer, 1991).

However the same person has to listen with enormous attention. He is trying to learn and remember important instructions. The speaker may be using unfamiliar language. This second  kind of listening is called intensive listening (Rixon, 1993). Is more concentrated, often dedicated not to pleasure but to the achievement of a study goal. Rixon (1993) claims, that intensive listening is the more widely-used form in modern classrooms. Students are asked to listen to a text with the reason of collecting the information that is contains. The type of text is usually different from that used for extensive listening. It includes more concrete information and it is difficult for the listeners to take in on first hearing. Passages for this type of listening should't be long, because they should be played more that once. Hard concentration on a long passage would be exhausting, would result in making learners dislike the experience rather than finding it challenging but rewarding (Rixon, 1993).

In conclusion extensive and intensive listening is very important because it provides the opportunity to hear a variety of different voices, authorize students to obtain good speaking habits and it helps to improve their own pronunciation.

The pre-listening stage

The first of three stages of listening comprehension is the pre-listening stage, which contains things or activities that learners are asked to do before the listening. It should help learners to obtain the most out of what they are going to do. This stage is usually used before the students listen to a text (Rixon, 1993). According to Pokrivčáková (2010, p.64) „a pre-listening stage must be sufficiently detailed and long." Students must be motivated and it is enevitable to help them adapt to listen. Students need to know the reason to listen and see the listening material. The teacher should debate with students their background knowledge of the topic and linguistic aspects of the text (Pokrivčáková, 2010). The pre-listening stage is used for activating previous knowledge. It is also used to help students to prepare for the listening process (Underwood, 1989). As Rixon (1993) claims, in the pre-listening phase, it is useful to evade pre-teaching the language of the listening text, or telling learners as much as possible about the topic or the instruction included in it, as this removes the challenges and interest. Pre-listening work should be achieved in a kind of ways and appears quite naturally when listening forms part of an integrated abilities course. When planning listening lessons, it is necessary to allocate time for pre-listening activities and these activities shouldn't be attacked (Underwood, 1989).

To sum up, the pre-listening stage is primary and needful part of listening comprehension, which could help learners to adapt for the listening.

2.1 Types of pre-listening activity

The word „activity" used in this chapter to cover all kind of things that should be done, in or outside the room. Some pre-listening activities are clearly preparation for listening, such as reading about a topic, while others may appear to be no more than the setting up of the while-listening activity (Underwood, 1989). According to Pokrivčáková (2010, p.64) „ pre-listening activities should make students aware of the type of text, provide them with knowledge necessary for comprehension of the text, and clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the text." Students should be arranged with maps, diagrams, graphs, pictures. They should be able to foresee the content of the listening passage or revise vocabulary or grammatical structures (Pokrivčáková).

Pre-listening work may consist of a complete of activities, including:

- the learners reading something appropriate,

the teacher giving background knowledge,

the learners looking at pictures,

a question and answer session,

discussion of the topic,

written exercises,

attention of how the while-listening activity will be done,

resulting the instructions for the while-listening activity (Underwood, 1989).

These activities helps to focus the learners' minds on the topic by narrowing down the things that the learners expect to hear and activating appropriate prior knowledge and already known language. Pre-listening activities are needed just as much when the teacher is going to speak or read the listening passage, though the mind and expanse of the activities may be distinct in this case, and the difference between pre- and while-listening work less clearly defined (Underwood, 1989).

In conclusion, pre-listening activities should make learners informed about the kind of text and clear any information inevitable to embrace the text.

2.3 Necessity of clear instructions in the pre-listening stage

In the pre-listening phase it is important to give learners clear instructions about what to do during the listening. The students need to know what is requested of them. It is necessary part of the pre-listening stage. All the learners should comprehend what they have to do before the teacher start to play, speak or read the listening passage (Underwood 1989). As Rixon (1993) claims teacher must be sure if students have comprehended the point of listening tasks. According to Pokrivčáková (2010) clear information must be given to the learners before listening. Students have to have a reason to listen.

Commonly listening books produced for learners have clear printed instructions. What is more it is careful to check that everyone has understood and is ready to start, and to add more instructions that might be demanded. The teacher might decide, to break an activity down into smaller steps and would then need to tell this to the classroom (Underwood, 1989). In other words, each learner must be clear what to do during the pre-listening phase and the teacher has to be sure that learners understand what to do.

2.4 The pre-listening activities

In this type of listening stage it is posssible to use a wide variety of the pre-listening activities, which generate interest, build confidence and facilitate comprehension.

Looking at pictures before listening. Learners are asked to look at a picture or a set of pictures. Learners can be required to name the items on the pictures. The items will feature in the listening passage (Underwood, 1989).

Looking at a list of items before listening. This kind of activity is helpful for practising newly learned vocabulary with early learners. The list should not include words which might prove difficult, but should have some purpose of its own in the total listening activity (Underwood, 1989).

Making lists of possibilities or ideas. When a listening passage includes lists of possibilities or ideas it is a good idea to use list-making as the pre-listening activity. The learners can use their own lists as the basis for a while-listening activity. The advantage of this is that learner's lists can only contain words which they know (Underwood, 1989).

Reading a text before listening. Learners can be asked to read a text before listening and then to check certain facts while listening (Underwood, 1989). Furthemore learners might have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their confidence for dealing with a listening. This could be done by giving a text to read or a little more fun (Rees, 2003).

Reading through questions. A number of listening activities ask learners to answer questions based on information they hear. It is useful for the learners to see the questions before they begin listening to the text (Underwood, 1989).

Labelling a picture. This type of activity can be used to revise already known language. It is suitable for pairwork and can generate lots of discussion. Students are required to label as many items on the pictures as possible (Underwood, 1989).

Completing part of a chart. This kind of activity is popular, since students have opportunity to compare their views and judgements with other people's (Underwood, 1989).

Generating interest. Motivating learners is very important. In this pre-listening activity we can use role play to activate vocabulary and prepare learners for listening (Rees, 2003)

Predicting. Learners can be told something about the speaker and the topic and then asked to suggest what they are likely to hear in the listening passage. This activity is useful with advanced or adult learners who are more interested in speculating on the likely behaviour of individuals in particular situations (Underwood, 1989). In this type of activity students need to have plenty background instruction (Rees, 2003)

Previewing the language which will be heard in the listening text. This activity can be done through discussion initiated by the teacher or by using prompts in the form of a written text (Underwood, 1989).

Activating current knowledge – what do you know about...? In this sort of activity we can ask questions to activate learners previous knowledge about the topic (Rees, 2003)

Informal teacher talk and class discussion. This is a very common pre-listening activity. Teacher gives their learners some background instruction, begin to talk about the topic and indicate what the learners should expect to hear (Underwood, 1989).

To conclude, in this kind of listening phase we can use a range of different the pre-listening tasks and their main aim is to make interest, raise confidence and help understanding.

The while-listening stage

The second necessary part of listening process is the while-listening stage, includes exercises that are used while the students listen to the passage. This type of stage follows the pre-listening stage. According to Pokrivčáková (2010) the while-listening is the stage in which student's observation is focused on the listening topic. Rixon (1993, p.68) claims that, „the sort of exercise that is often used during the while-listening phase helps students by indicating the overall structure of the argument." In the while-listening stage students should be given to listen to a text at least twice. Occasionally students will need three or four listenings to understand it. The first listening should allow learners an universal imagination about the text. They shouldn't be inquired to complete any understanding exercise before their first listening (Pokrivčáková, 2010). In conclusion, the while-listening stage is the next, considerable part of listening process in which, the teacher checks the listening activity and learners concentrate to the listening passage.

The purpose of while-listening activities

During the while-listening stage learners do the while-listening exercises during or proximately after the time they are listening, so it is important to choose appropriate exercises. While-listening activities are what learners are requested to do during listening to the passage. The aim of while-listening activities is to help students develop the skill of eliciting messages from spoken language (Underwood, 1989).

There are other reasons why learners need to listen to the language they are studying. The main aim being to learn to recognise how it sounds so that they are able to use what they hear as a model for their own speech (Underwood, 1989). According to Rixon (1993) necessary aim of while-listening activities is to take in the important notice contained in the passage of the listening. While-listening activities have to be chosen carefully, when developing the skills of listening for comprehension is the aim. On the other hand activities for instance producing of right or wrong answers can discourage all but the most enthusiastic student. Underwood (1989, p.46) claims, to help non-native listeners learn to apply these skills, which they have and use when listening in their own languages, we must have listening activities which give practice in prediction, interpretation and matching.

While-listening activities, which are good, help students find their way through the listening passage and construct on the expectations raised by pre-listening activities (Underwood 1989). Hence, in the while-listening stage students are asked to do the while-listening activities during or directly after the time they are listening, due to it is considerable to prefer suitable activities.

3.2 The while-listening activities

This chapter presents a selection of ideas for while-listening work such as:

Marking/checking items in pictures is the first of a number of activities in while-listening stage. Students can identify people and things, marking items mentioned by the speaker, marking errors, checking details, marking choices (Underwood, 1989).

Which picture? It is the second while-listening activity in which learners hear a description or a conversation and have to decide, from the selection offered, which picture is the right one. The most common pictures used are drawings or photos of people or scenes, indoors or out of doors (Underwood, 1989).

Storyline picture sets is the third activity. In this activity are presented several pictures to the learners. They listen to the story, either read by the teacher and try to decide which set of pictures represents the story (Underwood, 1989).

Putting pictures in order. In this type of activity a number of pictures are presented to the learners. They listen to the story and they have to put the pictures into the right order (Underwood, 1989).

Completing pictures. Having looked at the basic outline of the picture, the learner is asked to follow the instructions and draw in various items (Underwood, 1989).

Picture drawing. Teacher can describe a room to his students for instance the tables, chairs, how many windows and doors there are. Learners can be asked to draw the room as was described by the teacher (Underwood, 1989).

Carrying out actions. „Simply instructing the class to do a series of actions produces good listening practice, and this can be made more motivating by turning in into some sort of game." (Underwood, 1989, p.55)

Making models items in patterns. Each learner is given items with which to build the model or make the pattern. Teacher can then give the instructions and play them from a tape and the learners have to try to produce the model (Underwood, 1989).

Following a route. Students listen to directions from point A to point B and they mark the route on a map (Underwood, 1989).

Completing grids. The teacher provides learners to draw, a grid with each column and row labelled. Learners then enter their answers in the correct boxes on the grid, depending on what they discover from the listening passage (Underwood, 1989).

Form completion. The students have application forms which they complete according to what they hear. For example someone giving their address, date of birth (Underwood, 1989).

Labelling. Learners label diagrams to enable them to learn and remember the various parts of leaf (Underwood, 1989).

Using lists. A popular while-listening activity consists of making a list, often a shopping list or a list of places to visit (Underwood, 1989).

True/false. It is important that this type of exercises are designed in such way as to avoid the dangers. It is also important that the teacher check through true/false activities in published materials carefully before using them with classes, noting particularly any where responses can be a matter of interpretation rather than fact (Underwood, 1989). In this kind of activity students are asked to choose whether the narration are true or false (Ur, 2007).

Multiple-choice questions can cause the same types of problems as true/false exercises. However, well-designed multiple-choice questions can help guide learners through the text just as ordinary open questions can (Underwood, 1989).

Text completion – gap-filling is another variety of information transfer exercise. It is harder activity as learners often have difficulty in keeping up because they are not able to read as fast as the speaker speaks (Underwood, 1989).

Spotting mistakes. Activities centred round identifying the criminal by the mistakes he makes when giving evidence can be devised by teachers or learners (Underwood, 1989).

Predicting is much more accurate activity, concerned with predicting the exact words to be spoken or the type of response which might be expected (Underwood, 1989).

In brief, this part shows a wide range of while-listening exercises which can be used in the while-listening stage.

The post-listening stage

The post-listening stage is the last stage of listening comprehension, following earlier two stages, is achieved proximately after listening to the passage. Pokrivčáková (2010, p.65) claims that „the teacher can use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate development of listening abilities or the practical use of selected listening strategies." According to Underwood (1989) activities in the post-listening stage cover all the work described to a special listening text. They are done after the listening is finished. Rixon (1993) claims that in this type of stage, learners grasp the information they have achieved from the listening text. They improve it for another intention. It means that learners having taken notes from a passage, they can re-form their notes into a written description, they can summarize the information orally (Rixon, 1993). In other words, this final listening stage, attending previous two stages, is completed directly after listening to the text.

4.1 Purpose of post-listening activities

The post-listening stage is the last stage of listening comprehension, in which the post-listening work must be done immediately after learners finished a listening activity. The general form of post-listening activity has, in the past, been the answering of multiple-choice questions or open questions based on a spoken text. On the other hand it is quite difficult activity and depends not only on listening ability but also on reading skills, writing skills and memory (Underwood, 1989).

Pokrivčáková (2010, p.65) claims that „the teacher can use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate development of listening skills or the practical use of selected listening strategies." After finishing a listening activity by learners it is important to check the response (Lindsay and Knight, 2006). There are several purposes of post-listening work. One of these is checking if the learners have understood what they needed to understand and whether they have completed whatever while-listening task has been set successfully. The teacher should give the responds orally, by pairs checking each other's responds, by the teacher showing the answer on the overhead blackboard, by group discussion or by asking the learners to check against responds given in a book. It should be done proximately without paying attention to precisely how many responds learners have got correct or incorrect (Underwood, 1989). According to Underwood (1989) while-listening activities shouldn't generally be used for giving marks as this discourages learners from making guesses.

Underwood (1989, p.75) claims that "another purpose of post-listening work is to reflect on why some students have failed to understand or missed parts of the message."

A third aim is to give learners the chance to consider the attitude and manner of the speakers of the listening text. At this stage, learners can attend the attitudes of the speakers and what it is that has conveyed those attitudes. All listening texts don't arrange the chance for this type of activity.

In post-listening work is important to develop on the topic or language of the listening text, and also transfer things learned to another context. Indeed, many activities which purport to be post-listening activities are of this type. They are not only speaking and listening activities. They are activities that can be linked to listening and are more general language learning activities.

Teachers should choose input that is easily handled by the group. The listening activity takes up too much time and effort from the main activity (Underwood, 1989). In short, post-listening activities need to be done proximately after students end a listening work.

4.3 Ideas for post-listening activities

This part offers a selection of ideas for post-listening work, for instance:

Form/chart completion. It is best if post-listening chart completion does not depend on large quantities of information from the listening passage. Actually, a chart can have a section which provides a post-listening opportunity for the learners to respond to something noted in earlier sections at the while-listening stage (Underwood, 1989).

Extending lists. The learners are requested to make a list while listening, and then to add to it after the listening is finished. It provides a way of collecting word sets and extending word sets already known to the learners (Underwood, 1989).

Sequencing. The learners attempt to sort out the various items as they listen and then to complete the activity after they have heard the whole story. A list of more than about seven or more items is difficult and frustrating to handle as the learners have to make lots of alternations to their ordering (Underwood, 1989).

Matching with a reading text. Firstly, it is best to start from the written word and use reading as the pre-listening activity. The obvious source of material for this is the news from radio and from newspapers (Underwood, 1989).

Extending notes into written responses. The written text which is required can be anything from one-sentence answers to specific questions to long pieces of prose. It is a good idea for the students to listen again after the post-listening writing stage to check their work, as this helps them to make connections between how the language looks and how it sounds (Underwood, 1989).

Summarising. This type of activity can be done by extending notes made at the while-listening stage. If learners are to depend on memory, it is generally best to use a story as the listening text, as the sequence of a story, and one hopes, the interest, make remembering easier (Underwood, 1989).

Using information from the listening text for problem-solving and decision-making activities. Learners can be asked to collect information from a listening text, and other sources as well and apply the information to the solution of a problem or as the basis for a decision (Underwood, 1989).

Jigsaw listening. In this activity a class of learners is divided into a small number of groups and each group listens to a different listening text, though all the texts are on the same topic and then the groups exchange information to build up the complete picture (Underwood, 1989). In the same way learners do not hear the complete information so they try to solve the problem (Rixon, 1993).

Role-play and simulation are activities which can be based on a number of different stimuli. For instance role cards, stories etc. as well as listening passages. The attraction of using listening as an input is that it can provide the learners with a selection of language appropriate to the roles and situations which are to be developed (Underwood, 1989). This chapter shows a number of post-listening activities, which can be used in the post-listening stage by the teacher.