Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614

Volume 3, No.4, April 2014

----
Listening As A Basic Skill Of Communication
_________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Kottacheruvu Nagendra, Associate Professor of English, Malla Reddy Engineering College for Women (MRECW),
Maisammaguda, Dulapally, Hyderabad, India

Abstract
Today’s world considers English as a global language because there has never been a language so widely spread or spo-
ken by so many people as English. It is most surprising that English has become the ‘top language’. It has emerged as an
important component in industries and in all the spheres of a society’s life – the press, advertising, broadcasting, motion
pictures, transport and communications. It has also become a leading language of political, academic and community
meetings. As the development of computers has been entirely an American phenomenon, the first computer operating sys-
tems used English vocabulary and syntax for instructions. Even the recent operating systems continue to use English. Thus,
a growing influence of English can be anticipated as the sophistication increases in science and society. In conclusion we
can say that English virtually holds a preponderant position amongst the world languages in all most all the human activi-
ties
Keywords: skill, acquisition, phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and curriculum

Introduction formal education. The better those learning skills are

This article explains, the nature of listening process, how
to acquire listening skill, the importance of listening as
skill, the usefulness of acquiring good listening skills,
argue how it is easy for one to speak, read and write a
language if one is exposed to listening, state how listen-
ing is not a passive skill, finally it explains how listen-
er‟s activity is very important while listening and its role.
The Emergence Of Listening As Skill And
Its Meaning
The shift of focus from the teaching of language as a
system to the teaching of language as communication
has brought the four language skills-listening, speaking,
reading, and writing- into prominence. In the last four
decades, communication and proficiency oriented ap-
proaches to language teaching placed an increasing im-
portance on listening comprehension. James Brown,
Ralph Nicholes, Carl Weaver were the eminent linguists
of 1940s who established listening as a skill and are con-
sidered to be „fathers of listening.‟ From 1950s till late
1970s the researchers focused on listening for under-
standing and listening for acceptance or rejection of
messages. Later, in 1979, the International Listening
Association was established and this brought together
various fields of study like psychology, Education, Sci-
ence, Business, Sociology etc., into the service of under-
standing listening. As a result, the focus of listening is
shifted from listening for understanding to listening for
the identification of specific listening skills. More re-
cently, the emphasis is on relational listening where the
total environment is of importance. Moreover, in the
present system of education, up to primary grades, listen-
ing is accepted as the most effective learning mode. In
colleges too the lecture system draws heavily upon lis-
tening skills. Brown states: “Listening ability lies at the
very heart of all growth, from birth through the years of
developed, the more productive our learning ef-
forts.”(1987:10). Thus listening serves as a primary
channel for learning. Yet, most of our students are not
given any training in listening. Hence this paper.
Listening is the ability to identify and understand what
others say or speak. This involves understanding a
speaker‟s accent or pronunciation, her grammar, her vo-
cabulary and gauging her meaning. It is a language expe-
rience that operates in contexts ranging from simple
conversation to academic debates.
Kinds of listening
Wohin and Coakley (1982) describe five different kinds
of listening: discriminative, comprehensive, critical,
therapeutic and appreciative.
Discriminative listening makes the listener sensitive to
arguments and language. It also enables the listener to
distinguish fact from opinion. Comprehensive listening
helps the listener to understand a message. Critical lis-
tening makes the listener to evaluate and then accept or
reject a message. Therapeutic listening enables the lis-
tener to serve as a sounding board without evaluating or
judging the message. Appreciative listening is for en-
joyment or to gain a sensory impression. Thus, whatever
may be the purpose, effective listening requires cognitive
and behavioral interaction. Listening, therefore, is a crea-
tive activity that can be analyzed and described.
Listening Skills In Question
The activities that enhance listening skills are readily
available in existing curriculum. They are only to be
practiced during the teaching of different subjects-Social
studies, Mathematics, Science etc. However, listening
for perception and listening for comprehension are the

www.borjournals.com Blue Ocean Research Journals 31

 Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614
Volume 3, No.4, April 2014

----
two broad activities under which the micro skills could
_________________________________________________________________________________
be practiced. The advanced skills could be listening for
problem solving, summarizing, answering questions,
interpreting information, filling gaps, paraphrasing etc.
Besides, as our main aim is to prepare the students for
real-life social interaction, social listening could also be tained in the message. We listen to stories either for en-
one of the skills.
Need For Listening Skills
We have earlier considered listening as the foundation of
formal education and language acquisition. At birth, we
know nothing about language, and yet we complete
much of the first language acquisition process with in the
first five years, depending exclusively on listening. The
process includes discovering the rules of phonology,
syntax, semantics and pragmatics, or what we under-
stand as second language acquisition. Therefore, the im-
portance of listening as skill in the teaching/learning of a
second language. There is also a need to learn how to
think about and respond to what we listen to; because we
often take part in social interaction and face-to-face con-
versations. Therefore, and direct teaching of the skill
followed by organized, sequential practice has to be in
corporate in the language curriculum.
ing on in this world. We listen to people to share their
experiences. We listen to commentaries if we are inter-
ested in games and sports. We listen to interviews to
know the people and their interests. We listen to the tel-
ephone messages to make a note of information con-
tertainment or perhaps to retell. We listen to discussions
to know how opinions differ or agree. Thus, listening
forms one of the major activities in our life. A proper
training of this skill naturally benefits all our students.
Conclusion
This article has dealt with „listening‟ from a new per-
spective. It has explained how listening has gained its
importance in teaching and how listening has to be ac-
quired. Lastly, it has related effective life to real life sit-
uations.
Reference
[1] Bansal, R.K. and J.B.Harrison. “Spoken English for
India”, Orient Longman, 1972.
[2] Bode, Sharon and Charles G. Whitley. Listening in
and Speaking Out. New York: Longman Inc., 1981.

Acquisition of Listening Skills [3] Broughton, Geoffrey. Teaching English as a For-

The process of teaching a listening skill directly, along eign Language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
with practice throughout the communication provides a 1978.
sound basis for the students to learn how to listen and
experience when a listening exercise is identified as an [4] Brown, G. “Twenty Five Years of Teaching Listen-
ongoing part of the curriculum. In this way listening ing Comprehension,” English Teaching Forum,
becomes infused into the curriculum and the opportuni- 25(4), 1987, pp.11-15.
ties for regular practice are easily created. The students
[5] Brown, Gillian. Listening to Spoken English. Lon-
require teacher‟s assistance just to make the transfer
don: Longman Group Ltd., 1977.
from the direct lesson to the integrated lesson. The
teacher, here, has to help the students with an explana- [6] Brown, Marvin J. and Adrian S. Palmer. The Listen-
tion of the concepts along with definitions and examples. ing Approach. New York: Longman Inc., 1988.
With the help of these-direct instruction, role-play and
modeling- by the teacher, the student gears up to critical [7] Byrne, Donn. Listening Comprehension, Teaching
listening. Here, we should note that the modern tech- Oral English, New York: Longman, 1976.
niques of teaching a language are involved in practicing
the interactive listening. The conventional listening [8] Ellis, R. The Study of Second Language Acquisition.
comprehension hardly helps. The teacher, hence, has to Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
plan very carefully to help the students overcome their
short comings. Therefore the need for relating listening
activities to real-life situations.

Effective listening is just one way to achieve success in

life. It is a natural process of the human behavior. We
listen for various purposes. At the airport, perhaps, we
would like to know when the flight would take off, how
long we would have to wait. At the railway station we
listen to the announcements which would give the in-
formation about the number of the platform on which the
train arrives, the time of the departure/arrival of the train
etc. We also have a general interest to know what is go-

www.borjournals.com Blue Ocean Research Journals 32