What is listening?
Which activity involves the most amount of listening? Students spend 20 percent of all school related hours just listening. If television watching and one-half of
conversations are included, students spend approximately 50 percent of their waking hours just listening. For those hours spent in the classroom, the amount of listening time
can be almost 100 percent. Look at your own activities, especially those related to college. Are most of your activities focused around listening, especially in the classroom?
How well do you really listen? Take this test to find out.
If you ask a group of students to give a one word description of listening, some would say hearing; however,
hearing is physical. Listening is following and understanding the sound---it is hearing with a purpose. Good listening is built on three basic skills: attitude, attention, and
adjustment. These skills are known collectively as triple-A listening. Listening is the absorption of the meanings of words and sentences by the brain. Listening leads to the
understanding of facts and ideas. But listening takes attention, or sticking to the task at hand in spite of distractions. It requires concentration, which is the focusing
of your thoughts upon one particular problem. A person who incorporates listening with concentration is actively listening. Active listening is a method of responding to
another that encourages communication. Listening is a very important skill, especially for tutors. Many tutors tend to talk too much during a tutorial session.
This defeats the purpose of tutoring, which is to allow students to learn by discussion. Rather than turning the session into a mini-lecture, tutors must actively listen and
encourage their students to become active learners. Giving a student your full attention is sometimes difficult because you start to run out of time, or you find yourself thinking
about your next question; however, the time you spend actively listening to your student will result in a quality tutoring session. Remember it is important for you to encourage your
students to practice good listening skills. One way to accomplish this task is by sharing with them this simple mnemonic device on how to learn to Listen. Active listening
is a very demanding skill that requires practice and perseverance; however, active listening is also very rewarding. Review Questions for this module are here Click here for a printer-friendly
version of this module |
