English Listening Comprehension of College Students ：Its Impedient Factors and Countermeasures

Listening is ‘Not an attempt to understand something that is being said’ but ‘Just an attention to the activity of sounds’

People often mistake listening, hearing and thinking as same but actually it is not. Hearing is basically a physiological process whereas listening is a cognitive process. We can say that, that when we choose to attach meaning to a word we call it as listening. Some other definitions of listening are described as “It is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages”.

Adler and Proctor define listening as the process of making sense of others’ messages (Adler and Proctor 245) and mindful listening as listening and giving careful and thoughtful attention and response to the messages we receive (Adler and Proctor 247). This is very similar to Shafir’s description of mindful listening. The elements in the listening process as described by Adler and Proctor, closely correlate to Shafir’s wide spectrum of listening skills that are used by good listeners. Shafir notes that good listeners have the ability to receive the spoken word accurately and interpret the whole message in an unbiased manner (Shafir 220). This relates to Adler and Proctors elements of hearing, the physiological dimension of listening that happens when sound waves strike the ear at a certain frequency and loudness (Adler and Proctor 247) and understanding, occurs when we make sense of a message (Adler and Proctor 249) because the listener must first hear what is being said and then interpret it. Good listeners retain the information for future use (Shafir 220) correlates to the element, remembering, the ability to recall information (Adler and Proctor 249) as the listener must remember the conversation in order to recall it at a later date. A good listener will sustain attention to the spoken word at will; listening is a process that occurs over time. The element of attending, the focus of

Listening – being able to listen to others, recognise emotions in others’ (tone of voice), make

The four suggestion for becoming a better listener are listening for pleasure, listening to empathize, listening to evaluate, and listening for information. Listening for pleasure is important in many ways. When a person is listening for pleasure he/she record more information than others who listen without an interest. For example, when a new song just comes out, one who listen to the song for pleasure take only a few days to know the song while it might take others who don’t like the song a week or two. Listening to evaluate and for information is also essential because put in mind the information is valuable and also important will help one to memorize the information in a better way, such as recording a date. No woman will ever forget

    What makes someone a good listener?In the textbook Looking Out Looking In, “A good listener pays attention to paralanguage, facial expression, and a host of non verbal cues”. Listening is defined as “to hear something with thoughtful attention, give consideration” (Merriam-Webster). Yet listening can also be defined

Student listening comprehension was tested. Before the study began, researches took baseline data to determine present levels of comprehension.

The different phases of listening (discriminative, comprehensive, empathic, critical, etc. … know what’s involved in each different phase)

The ability to listen well is an important tool for understanding others. Sadly, very few people know how to listen well. In fact, most people can think of only one or two good listeners in their lives. Listening is not simply agreeing - it is much more. Good listeners are able to better understand and respond to others, complete assignments accurately, settle disagreements before they escalate, and establish rapport with difficult people.

According to Boundless.com (2015) there are four major problems that are encountered when listening. Low concentration, lack of prioritization, poor judgement, and focusing on style, not substance. There are also “Listening loopholes” (McGarvey, 1996) that we fall into. We need to realize when we are doing these things so that we can raise our understanding of what is being relayed to us.

The definition of listening from dictionary.com is to give attention with the ear, to pay attention, heed or obey Listening is one of the most important skills that we possess. Your ability to listen can affect your relationships as well as your job effectiveness. Research suggest that we only retain 25 to 50 percent of what we hear. When talking to colleagues, partners or employees they only hear half of a 10 minute conversation. If we can be a better listener, productivity can increase, as well as your ability to influence, persuade and negotiate. It can also help to avoid conflict and misunderstandings.

1. The four stages of listening are phonetic identification, context words, syntax, and meaning selection. Phonetic identification is sound recognition to help understand the sounds that are spoken. Context words helps us develop a basic understanding of what is being said. Syntax is how we put our sentences together before speaking or writing. Meaning selection is how we form our on perception of the meaning of the message.

What is active listening, it the process of information, which uses all of our senses to convey a message through perceiving of sound? Our, hearing, smell, taste and touch are part of our senses that we sometimes use without knowing we are doing it. Moreover, listening correctly, can be a crucial part of encoding and decoding the message, for clarification and understanding what the message is conveying. While deciphering messages, you get a sense of understanding what the message is trying to express. Next, is trying to remember or recall what the message is so that you can retain it. Also, evaluating what you hear and decoded or deciphered it is essential to understanding what the message is. When we actively listen, there is some paraphrasing during this process, where you have to restate the information given by the speaker into your own words. Lastly, responding to the message with an answer, it could be for learning purposes, personal, enjoyment or even employment, it is important to listen to ensure understanding actively. As we respond, there is an answer and feedback given (DeVito 2016) as a response.

Listening is a vital element of communication and it is very much different from hearing sense of human. A meaningful communication requires both a good listener and a speaker. However, the effect of a listening style may vary depending on the occasions and situations a listener is in. Sometimes, speaker exhibit ineffective style such as defensiveness, ambushing, pseudo-listening, stage hogging and selective listening in their communication tracks.

Listening is more than just hearing. The process of listening involves receiving and constructing meaning, and responding to verbal and/or nonverbal messages. In other words, listening is not always easy and being a good listener is all about developing listening skills. To receive messages appropriately we have to listen actively. Active listening can be broken down into three important skills; first of all you have to reflect the feelings that the person is communicating, secondly reflect the content that they are communicating and finally ask good, meaningful questions.