When learning a language,there are four skills that are needed for complete communication. These are;
When we learn our native language,we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write. They are called the "four language skills."
I would be taking them one by one for four days so that you can also learn from them.
THE FIRST IS LISTENING
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What is listening? This is a process which involves hearing and understanding of a spoken message. Listening is different from Hearing. Hearing on the other hand is the physiological process of registering sound waves as they hit the eardrum. We don't have power to control what we hear. The sound we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in comtext.
Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages. It also involves a lot of interpretations by the listener to reconstruct a message that is like the one that the speaker intended to speak. Like any other skills,the more you practice listening,the better you get at it.
There are three primary elements that comprises active listening. Comprehending, Retajning, Responding.
Comprehending is a shared meaning between parties in a communication transaction. This is the first step in the listening process. The first challenge for the listener is accurately identifying speech sound,understanding these words as sounds.
Retaining is the second step in the listening process. Memory is important and crucial to the listening process because the information we retain when involved in the listening process is how we create meaning from words. However,our memories are fallible and we cannot remember everything that we listened to. Retention is lessened when we engage in mindless listening,where little effort is made to listen to a speaker's message.
Responding is unlike an interaction between speaker and listener. It adds action to normally passive process.
THE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS
Maintain a eye contact with the speaker.
Focus on content,not delivery. Have you ever counted the number of times a teacher clears his/her throat in a twenty minutes period? If so,you weren't focusing on content. Focus more on the content of the discourse.
Avoid distractions
Stay active by asking mental questions.
Use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought.
Types of Listening
1 Active listening: This is a communication technique that need the listener to understand,interpret and evaluate what they hear.
2 Passive listening: Here the learners are genuinely interested in hearing and understanding the other speaker's point of view. They passively listen to speaker.
3 Critical listening: The learner listen attentively here in order to make value judgement of lecture he/she has listened to. Having listened carefully,he/she will be able to take a critical assessment of what is being said thereby enabling the learners to distinguish between facts and opinions.
4 Appreciative listening: This type of listening requires the ability of the learners to pay attentively in order to appreciate and admire the lecture being passed by the speaker.
5 Listening to take note: Learners should pay attention in order to take good note down. There are many reasons for making note. Personal notes are usually easier to remember than the text.
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To be continued
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