Listening Enabling Skills

Listening Enabling Skills
No matter where you are, you need the following requirements for active listening:
 functioning ears
 concentration
 ability to think along with the speaker
 ability to anticipate what the speaker is about to say
 ability to note important signposts that keep the listening activity going.
Anybody with a functioning ear can listen. Indeed, this is the attribute common to many people. Even the deaf listen by means of signals from sign language. Of course, if you have listening defects, listening ability will be difficult.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Listen to the first passage on the CD in your study pack. Test the functioning of your ears by listening to the passage and filling the gaps indicated below. You need to listen attentively before you can complete this activity.
Our aim is to analyse the 1._______that the 2.________of conflict resolution has had in coming to 3._________with conflicts between social 4.__________. We explore the 5._________between dispute 6.__________and conflict 7.__________.
If you allowed your functioning ear to be active, you would have been able to fill in the gaps. Now rewind the CD to the passage to mark this exercise. Were you able to fill all the gaps correctly? Congratulations, if you did. If you could not do so, more practice activities in this module will assist you to utilise your functioning ear well.
The next listening enabling skill you need is CONCENTRATION. Effective listening is difficult in the midst of interruption, when there is lack of interest in the topic, noise and when a speaker speaks above your head by using difficult words.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Listen to the second passage on your CD. Put down in any order what made listening and understanding of the passage difficult for you.
You probably may have listed some of the following as what made listening and understanding of the passage difficult for you.
 The language is complex and full of difficult words
 Noise coming out of the environment you are in
 The uninteresting nature of the topic
 Difficulty in following the speaker
The point for you to note here is that concentration is an important component of effective listening.
The third listening enabling skill is ability. Think along with the speaker and anticipate what the speaker is about to say. You cannot think along with the speaker if your mind goes astray. You cannot anticipate the next thing, if your attention is not there. There are some signals in listening that can facilitate anticipation. Some of these are put in the box below.
GST101 USE OF ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS I
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Indeed, ability to anticipate can assist you in good listening.
The fourth listening enabling skill is relationship. That is, your ability to relate or connect what was said before with what the speaker is saying now. Relationship comes into listening when expressions such as “as I said before”, “on the one hand”, “consequently”, “in other words”, etc., are said by the speaker.
Lastly, ability to pay attention to significant sign posts such as “firstly”, “secondly”, “lastly”, “now”, “next”, “where”, “when”, “who”, and so on, is an important listening enabling skill. These signs tell you the important points that the speaker is making.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Listen to the third passage on your tape recorder and perform the following activities. Fill in the gaps as you listen to the passage.
1. ____________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________
Passage for self-assessment exercise (to be recorded on a CD)
Passage 1.1
Our aim here is to analyse the difficulty the field of conflict resolution has had in coming to terms with conflicts between social classes. We explore the distinction between dispute settlement and conflict resolution
Passage 1.2 (To be recorded on a cassette)
The areas covered include generic theory and practice, concepts and aspects of resolution process, and the practice at different levels, the relevance of theory to the practitioner, and applications of the various contributions to South-Africa. Class, intercultural, public policy, environmental and international recession and possession all featured prominently in the discussions.
The speaker says… You anticipate…
First of all… Secondly
In the past… Now…
Areas of strength… Areas of weakness
The most important… The less important…
Passage 1.3 (To be recorded on a CD)
Listen to what I have said before, relate it to what I am saying now and anticipate what I am about to say.
Write down what you predict I am going to say next.
1. You can hardly say you know something until you can do it. This takes quite a bit of practice. Furthermore learning is an active rather than 1._____________
2. You must understand first before you can learn well. It means therefore that if you are listening t lecture, the first thing you should do is to strive for 2._____
3. Many students think it is a waste of time to leave their books and go to the field, swimming pool courts. This is absolutely 3.___________ .A good deal of mental fatigue is removed through 4.__________________.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Now that you have completed the study of this unit, I think you can start to put into practice what you learnt in your day to day contact with people and in your academic pursuits.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, we studied who a listener is, why we must listen and the listening enabling skills of listener. As indicated in the unit, you are the listener. You listen day by day and moment by moment. The listening enabling skills you need are- functioning ears, concentration and ability to think along with the speaker and relate or connect ideas together. Anticipation and important signposts facilitate effective listening.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Answer the following questions.
i. Who is a listener?
ii. Why do we have to listen?
iii. List possible listening enabling skills that you know.
iv. Listen to three important talks on your radio or TV. Briefly outline the major points of the talks.