by Karina Palacios octubre 27, 2020 0 comentarios

 

UNIT 7: LISTENING

 

WHAT IS LISTENING?

According to Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams (2012), listening is one of the four language skills. Like reading, listening is a receptive skill since the learner receives the language and does not reproduce it. Listening involves making sense of the different meaningful sounds. For that is needed the correct use of context (the different situations in which language is used), language and the knowledge we have of the world.

In listening skill, it is important to understand spoken language. There are some differences between spoken and written language:

WRITTEN LANGUAGE	SPOKEN LANGUAGE
It does not disappear because it is included in the page	It disappears while speaking. This can be fast or slow, with or without pauses
It is necessary to use punctuation (symbols to organize a writing) and capital letters	Meaningful words or sentences are shown with stress (strong pronunciation of a word or part of a sentence) and intonation.
Group of words, sentences, punctuation joined in some type of text.	Involves sounds, words, sentences, or incomplete sentences joined in connected speech (language in which words are joined to form sounds)
Sometimes it hasn’t visual support.	Use of body language for communication such as gestures (different movements of some parts of our body so that others understand us) as well as facial expressions (the expressions we make with our face).
It is organized with complete sentences in a logical sequence (connected ideas). The topics are separate.	It has no organization, there are interruptions and hesitations (pause the speaking when a person is not sure what he is saying)
Use of a lot of vocabulary and complex grammar	Use of simple grammar and general vocabulary.

 

Spoken language is less structured than written language. When we speak, we do not have time to organize our ideas in a good way, so we say the words as we think them. When listening we need to understand the messages in a structured way, the spoken texts must be simple and thus be able to process them (to think in new information) in the time available. With this we can realize that spoken and written language have different features (important parts).

Listening is also understanding the speeds of speech and its different accents. One of the characteristics of speech is the linking of sound (ways in which sounds and words can join) and the use of contracted forms.

We have different ways of listening. There are different listening subskills:

·         Listening for gist (To get a general idea).

·         Listening for specific information (To listen something for specific information).

·         Listening for detail (We cannot ignore anything because we do not know what part of the passage will be needed).

·         Listening intensively (To focus on a certain detail).

   

In this unit we were able to have a broader notion of what listening skills entail. Listening is a complicated process in which we must clearly understand what the other person is saying in order to know the information. Our listening skills can improve through strategies in which we can focus on the information we want to listen. Therefore, listening implies understanding the spoken language as well as the context in which the language occurs.

REFERENCES

Listening sub-skills. http://www.bchmsg.yolasite.com/listening-sub-skills.php.

Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 (Second). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139062398.003