What Is Listening Comprehension

Listening, quite possibly, is the most important of the language skills, since people spend approximately 60% of their time listening. The most important first step in listening a foreign language is to make an effort to listen. This is much like the process you followed as a child. You listened for a long while before attempting to speak. In addition, listening will give you an opportunity to get a ‘feel’ for the language and will help you improve your overall ability in it. If you don’t learn to listen effectively, you will not be able to participate in conversation in the foreign language.

Interactive Listening

Most listening occurs in the course of conversations. This kind of listening is referred to as interactive because participants alternately play the role of speakers and listeners. In interactive listening, one can intervene by asking additional questions and seeking clarification, repetition, or rephrasing. If you are studying a foreign language in a classroom, you will undoubtedly have a chance to practice interactive listening in typical classroom conversations, which will help you get started in acquiring this important skill.

However, classroom listening won’t be enough, since a lot of class time is dedicated to explaining grammar in your native language or performing other activities that do not involve listening. In the real world, listening occurs in many kinds of different speakers, sometimes under less than ideal acoustic conditions. Think of all the different people you have talked to in the last 24 hours. You will probably find that you have listened to quite a few individuals, all of whom spoke somewhat differently. Given this variety of real-world listening, you will need additional practice to prepare yourself to do the same in the foreign language.

Noninteractive Listening

There are other listening situations for which you will need to be pre­pared. These include instances in which you will not be able to intervene by asking questions or seeking clarification. This type of listening is called noninteractive. For instance, you may overhear conversations in which you have no part; listen to lectures, speeches, and radio; or watch TV, films, or live plays. Think of all the kinds of material you have listened to in the last week. You may have to learn to listen to just as many different kinds of material in the foreign language.

How to Practice Listening?

To prepare for the many kinds of real-world listening, we suggest that you embark on a listening program right from the very start. Here are a few suggestions for how you might go about it:

Listen regularly. In addition to language tapes specially prepared for your textbook or your course, make a regular effort to listen to the foreign language outside the classroom. You can engage in conversations with native speakers of the language you are studying (interactive listen­ing) as well as listen to the radio, attend lectures, and watch TV and films in the foreign language (noninteractive listening).

Choose appropriate materials. For most people, the easiest way to start listening is in interactive face-to-face speaking situations, because you can exert some measure of control over the speaker. If you don’t have that opportunity or aren’t comfortable with it, find materials that were specially prepared for teaching listening comprehension. Many modern language textbooks contains materials that structure the listening tasks for you. Check if video materials at different difficulty levels are available in the language you are studying.

Once you have become comfortable with face-to-face listening to the above materials, you can try finding your own authentic listening materials. Authentic listening materials abound in real life. They include radio and television programs, lectures, speeches, films, and plays. They range from relatively easy to quite difficult. Many universities receive foreign news broadcast via satellite and offer films and other materials on videocassettes through language labs, media centers, foreign language departments, and language clubs. In addition, for­eign rums are available in many larger video stores or can be purchased from distributors.

Find the right level of difficulty. If you are a beginning or intermediate learner of the language, start with video rather than audio mate­rials, since the former provide listeners with visual support that often makes it easier to follow what is being said. Start with very short TV seg­ments on familiar topics that are amply supported by visuals and that are spoken clearly and deliberately—for instance, ads, announcements, weather reports, interviews, or short news reports. You may also try watch­ing longer segments, such as parts of movies with strong visual clues that will help you understand what is being said. If you are ah advanced learn­er, you can listen to more complex materials, such as lectures, speeches, professional discussions, movies, and any program on radio or TV.

Choose materials that you will enjoy. People listen for information or entertainment; therefore, choose materials that you think will be informative or entertaining. If you do, your attention will be greater and you will probably understand more. For instance, if you are interest­ed in sports, watch sports on TV or listen to sports reports on the media. If you enjoy comedies, watch them in the foreign language.

STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

In this section, we list some common problems in learning to listen to a foreign language and provide some practical, strategy-based solutions. Experiment to find out which ones are most helpful to you.

PROBLEM 1: People talk too fast.

If you feel that you cannot follow your conversational partner, try some of the following techniques, which will allow you to take charge of the situation. It is always best to specify the problem so that you conversational partner will know what to do to help you understand.

Let the speaker know that you are not following. If you don’t understand a word or phrases, ask the speaker what it means. Learn how to say such phrases as “What does ... mean?”, “I don’t know what.. means” and “I don’t know the word for ...” in the foreign language.

Ask for repetition. Ask your conversational partner to repeat what he or she just said. Learn phrases such as "What did you say?" and "Please repeat" in the foreign language.

Ask your conversational partner to slow down. Ask your part­ner to speak more slowly. Learn how to say "Please speak more slowly and "Could you speak more slowly, please?" in the foreign language.

Seek clarification. If you did not get part of the message, ask addi­tional questions. For instance, if you did not follow directions, ask your conversational partner if you should turn left or right, how far you have to walk, or what the name of the street is.

Rephrase. If you are not sure that you have correctly understood what someone said, rephrase the speaker's message as best you can—for instance, "Do you mean...?"

Repeat. Repeat the part of a sentence you didn't understand, using a questioning intonation. For instance, if you heard a word that didn't make sense, you can repeat it. The speaker will probably then confirm or correct you.

Pay attention to Intonation and tone of voice. Intonation may give you clues as to whether the utterance you heard was a statement or a question. On the other hand, tone of voice can tell you whether the speaker is pleased, angry, or happy.

PROBLME 2: I am not getting anything out of foreign language TV and movies.

If you feel that the sound track of TV goes right by you, you should try to take control of your listening by trying to actively anticipate what you are likely to hear. The key word is prediction. Try some of the following prediction strategies, and decide which most hop you understand.

Use visual clues. Try watching with the sound off. This will allow you to concentrate on the visuals, noticing such clues as the setting, the action the interaction, facial expressions, and gestures. These, in turn, will help you get a general idea of what is going on. Watch the segment again with the sound on to verify if your guess was correct

Use your background knowledge. Anticipate information in a segment by relying on your knowledge of what such a segment is likely to contain. For instance, if you are watching an interview with a violin­ist, you may predict that the questions will have to do with the artist's training, favorite composers, engagements, future plans, etc. If it is a com­mercial, then it will probably contain information about the product and its qualities. After deciding what information the segment might address, watch it the second time to find answers to these questions. This will also help you anticipate specific words/phrases that might be used.

Use Information from the segment itself. What you already know about the characters, the setting, and/or the story line of an episode may help you predict what is likely to logically happen next. In turn, this will help you anticipate what is likely to be said. For example, if you are watching a drama about a warrior and he hits his opponent, what do you think will happen next?

Determine the genre of the segment. Knowing the genre of a seg­ment will help you determine how best to approach it. For instance, if it is an interview, then concentrate on the questions. If it is a news report, a who, when where strategy will work best If it is a drama, look for the story line.

Listen to familiar elements. In listening to individual words, it may help if you first watch to determine the subject. Then your ability to hear individual words will grow. For example, if you know that a pro­gram includes a travel segment, you may find yourself recognizing the names of countries.

Listen to and jot down repeated words/phrases. Unfamiliar words or phrases may be repeated several times. Sometimes, repeated use will help you infer a word’s meaning from context. At other times, repetition will allow you to remember the word or phrase long enough to ask someone what it means or to jot it down so that you can look it up in a dictionary.

Learn to recognize numbers. Think of numbers in your life and how many times a day you hear them. This will tell you how important they are in listening. Getting a telephone number and an address over the phone, a price in the store, and the temperature on the weather report are things we routinely do. Play number recognition games with a friend, e.g., using lotto or bingo numbers.

Learn to recognize proper names. Most news reports contain references to people and places. It helps to know what some "typical" first and last names of people are in the language you are studying. In addition, it helps to know what some geographical names sound like in that language.

When listening to sports news, assume that some of the names are ones you already know. For example, if a soccer match is discussed, you may recognize the name, of Diego Maradona, a world-famous player, or if the announcer is talking about basketball, then the name of Michael Jordan may be mentioned.

PROBLEM 3: I tend to stop listening when I hear an unfamiliar word or phrase.

Many learners, particularly in the early stages of language learning, panic and lose their concentration when they hear an unfamiliar segment. As a result, they miss portions of the passage that might have helped clarify the unfamiliar word or segment.

Concentrate on familiar elements. There is a certain degree of redundancy in almost any message; therefore, unfamiliar portions may become clear if you concentrate on those portions that you can follow.

Keep listening. Understanding something is better than getting nothing at all. If you continue listening, chances are that you will com­prehend at least some parts of the message. It is possible that the por­tions you missed were not very important after all. If that is not the case, you are probably listening to something that is too difficult for you.