Active Listening

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TESL 0120

 Listening is definitely not a passive skill! This is a myth that was explored in Unit 3, Approaches to Listening Instruction. One key idea that resonated with me from the readings and activities this week is that context is vitally important in listening. As Wilson stated, "Listeners guess, predict, infer, criticize, and above all, interpret." (2008, p. 22) Active listeners need to be critical thinkers and infer and interpret what a speaker is trying to say based on the context of the situation.

There are a multitude of contextual factors for a listener to consider when people are speaking, including the location of the conversation, the relationship between the speakers, and the purpose of the conversation. Not only does a listener have to hear and understand the words spoken, they often have to read between the lines to find out what the speaker is actually trying to say. As Wilson put it, "people do not always say what they mean or mean what they say." (2008, p. 22) We can teach phonemes, words, stress and intonation in fairly straightforward ways, but how do we teach our students to 'fill gaps?" The act of listening is very active and complex, and the skills and strategies involved are not as easy to “teach” as some other skills.

Wilson, J. J. (2008). How to teach listening (pp. 21-24). Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education, Ltd. 


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