INTRODUCTION
You are welcome to this unit entitled Listening Enabling Skills. In this unit, you will be exposed to who a learner is, why the learner must listen and what he or she should listen to. The listening enabling skills that you need to function effectively in the programmes you enrolled in will then be unfolded to you. As you go through this unit; have with you a pen, a paper, a tape recorder and the CD sent to you in the study pack.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
state clearly who a listener is
determine the reason you must listen throughout the programme
list the listening enabling skills
apply the listening enabling skills discussed while practising some of the activities given in the unit.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Who is a Listener?
I have a simple answer for this question. You are that listener. You are a listener because listening is a compulsory day to day activity of the programme. Although, most of the time you will be reading; there will be occasions when you have to listen to a tape recorder, radio, television or video in this programme. You are likely going to attend lectures and meetings in the study centre. You need the skill of listening accurately and to comprehend what is conveyed to you as information. That is why you need to go through this unit, carefully.
As a listener, I cannot determine where you are now, studying this unit; it maybe in your home, your work place, an isolated place or even inside a vehicle taking you to a destination. Wherever you may be, there is something important about listening. We listen daily, moment by moment.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
i. Who is a listener?
ii. What do you listen to?
If you have done the above self-assessment exercise very well, you probably must have written down answers such as that indicated below.
A listener is anybody who is capable of listening to anything said, and possibly, participates in what he listened to and what is demanded to be done. In fact, as a reader of this unit you are a listener, although it is possible for you to be deaf and be doing this course. Even If you are deaf, you still listen to sign language. What do you listen to? You can listen to a tape recorder, a video, or a lecture. Did you get all the answers correctly? If you did, then fine. It means that you are following me in this study.
Let us go to the second part of our study. Can you guess the next thing to discuss? Your guess may be as good as mine: why must we all listen?
3.2 Why Must We Listen?
You as a listener must listen because listening is a day to day activity. You listen to your friends talking, may be in your language or English. You listen to directions when you are lost or new to a place. You listen to lectures, which are delivered by specialists in a field. You listen at home, at work, in the office, to a telephone conversation and so on.
GST101 USE OF ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS I
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Listening activities can therefore be divided into two major parts, namely- listening in general, social setting and listening for specific purposes.
The kind of listening we are interested in here is listening for specific purposes. That is, listening to gather information, for directions, listening to academic lectures, to process involved in doing something, or listening to critically evaluate what a speaker is saying. Your concern in this study is also listening in English. Indeed, English is the medium of instruction.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Which of the following is NOT the purpose of listening to gather information? Indicate with a tick ().
i. Day to day activity
ii. Telephone conversation
iii. Eating a delicious food
iv. Working in the office
v. Critical evaluation of what people are saying
vi. Absorbing academic lectures.
The last part of this unit is the most important. This part deals with listening enabling skills.
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