ALIGARH COLLEGE OF ENGNEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

(ACET)

NAME – AKSHAT GUPTA

ROLL NO - 7

SUBJECT- BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

COURSE - BBA

SEMESTER- 2nd

TOPIC OF PRESENTATION - LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

 PREFACE

As a part of the BBA Curriculum and in order to gain practical knowledge in the field of

management, we are required to make a presentation on “Listening and Speaking skills”.

The basic objective behind doing this project report is to get knowledge tools of different toll

s of marketing.

In this presentation we have included various concepts effects and implication regarding

importance of listening and speaking skills.

Doing this project helped us to enhance our knowledge regarding the work in the different

skill set one has to acquire in order to master the skills involved in the listening and speaking

aspect. Through this report we come to know about importance of team work and role of

devotion towards the work.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Nikhat mam as well as

our HOD Dinesh Kumar Sharma who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful

project on the which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and i came to know about so

many new things.

I am really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing

this project within the limited time.

I am making this project not only for marks but to also increase my knowledge.

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED ME.

 CONTENT

 Preface

 Acknowledgement

 Listening skills

 What is Listening?

 Objectives of listening

 Principles of listening

 Types of listening

 Traits of a god listener

 Process of listening

 Importance of listening

 Barriers of listening

 Improvement in listening

 Speaking skills

 Why speaking skills should be in national curriculum

 Elements of speaking skills

 Importance of speaking

 5 Qualities of a good speaker

 How to develop ESL with students.

 Conclusion
 LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a message from the speaker

No communication process is complete without listening

Listening is an important skill. Listening is quite similar to reading as it involves reception

and decoding of the verbal message from the other person. the following ex illustrates

importance of listening

In a biology class teacher asked the students to refer to a book titled “Origin of species”.

One of the Student sincerely went to library searched to the catalogue of library, looking for

book named orange and peaches but to his utter dismay could not find it. When he

approached the teacher he found that the book was entitled Origin of species. This is what

happens when there is lack of concentration in listening.

 LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is all about the capability to receive and then interpret the message in the process of

communication accurately. It will be right to say that listening is the key to all kinds of

effective communication. Without this ability of listening to the messages effectively, they

are usually misunderstood. The communication breaks down and the person sending the

message can be irritated or frustrated easily.

Listening is just not the same as hearing. Hearing simply refers to the sounds that we usually

hear while when it is about listening, it requires more than just hearing. It requires us to

focus, paying attention not only to the story but how the story has been told, language usage

and voice, and also that how the other person makes use of his or her body. It will be very

right to say that effective listening largely depends on the degree to which one perceives and

understands the messages.

 What Is Listening?

• Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication

process. • Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen

effectively messages are easily misunderstood. • Listening is one of the most important skills

you can have. • An active process of getting information, ideas. • “Listening is the process of

receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken.

Listening is not just about being Quiet while someone else is speaking. • Listening is with the

Mind. • Hearing with the senses. • Listening is conscious. • To improve our interpersonal &

oral exchange. Just Listening to words is not enough; a good Listener has to pay attintion to

the non-verbal communication of the speaker

OBJECTIVES OF LISTENING

 To learn

 To increase one’s understanding

 To advise or counsel

 To relieve one’s boredom.

 PRINCIPLES OF LISTENING

1. Mark Twain very well said, "If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we

would have two tongues and one ear." You should not talk but listen when someone

else is talking. Just do not interrupt, finish their sentences or talk over them.

2. 2 All your focus should be on your speaker. You must put all the other things out of

your mind so that your mind is not distracted.

3. Make use of the gestures to encourage the speaker to continue talking. It is suggested

to maintain the eye contact but not to stare at all. Just show that you are listening and

understanding what is being said.

4. You should not doodle, shuffle the papers, and look out of the

window or anything similar. Try to avoid unnecessary interruptions.

This kind of behaviour disrupts the process of listening.

5. Have patience and let the speaker complete what he wants to communicate. It is

because at times it takes time to formulate what is to say and how to say. Don't interpret or

finish a sentence for anyone

6. A good speaker is the one that makes use of both the tone and e volume to take their

advantage and this is what keeps the audience attentive and alive. Almost everybody makes

use of the tone, pitch and volume in certain situations. Let all this facilitate you in order to

understand what is being emphasized.

7. One of the most difficult parts of listening is the capability to bulk up the information

pieces in order to reveal the ideas of other people. It can be done easily by paying proper

concentration, and letting go off the distractions.

8. We do not listen with ears only but we also pay attention to

the nonverbal communication as well. You should wait and try to

sake sense out of what is not said.

 TYPES OF LISTENING

1) ACTIVE LISTENING - also called as attentive listening. Active listening involves

attention, careful consideration, concentration of the speaker’s ideas. The listener

participates in communication process actively and attentively.

The listener nods his head, leans forward or show positive body language, which

supports and encourages the speaker to communicate more enthusiastically.

This is a positive type of listening.

2) Passive listening is very stern, rigid and orthodox type of listening. This type of

listening may create confusion in the mind of the speaker about true intention of the

listener. The listener wears a ‘flat’ face serious expression, surrounding all gestures

that are used in active listening. Some times passive listening is used to show status of

the listeners.

3) CRITICAL LISTENING - The definition of critical listening is actively listening to

what the speaker is saying, while analysing , judging, and forming an individual

opinion on the information that is being presented.

Critical listening is not appropriate for every situation, but it is used in scenarios where an

opinion needs to be developed on a particular topic. The person who is listening will have to

evaluate the claims that the speaker is making.

Critical listening is used in several communication situations. It is used in the workplace to

help develop problem-solving, encourage divergent thinking, and welcome innovative ideas.
It can also be used in research and academia. This application, helps scholars develop their

hypotheses and create counterarguments to ideas.

Critical listening has many day-to-day applications as well. It is used to help a person analyse

the information they are being presented with, to form their own opinion. So, this can be used

when a person is making an important medical decision. Or, if they are at a car dealership

deciding between cars and loans. When a person is viewing houses and speaking to a realtor,

critical listening helps them decide on what is the most appropriate decision for them.

4) ' Selective Listening: In This type of listening the listener listens to only important

and specific information. The listener does not pay need to other topics or issues in

the speech Biased Listening: ' In this type of listening, the listener is biased and

prejudiced against the speaker. The listener has preconceived notion about the speaker

and the speech. He is already made not to trust , The listener shows lack of respect for

the listener.
 TRAITS OF A GOOD LISTENER

Being non evaluative: ' If you are an active listener your verbal and non- verbal behaviour

should suggest the speaker that he is being properly heard and understood. It should not

indicate what you think about a person. The purpose is to communicate overlooking the

qualities of the speaker. The behaviour of the listener should convey the impression that you

accept the person without making judgment of right or wrong, good or bad, suitable or

unsuitable.

• Paraphrasing (summarize) • If you wish to clarify a point, you can simply summarize what

the speaker has said and enquire the speaker whether you have heard it accurately or not.

Reflecting Implications (suggestions) • In order to per sue the speaker (to motivate the

speaker) to extend his ideas, the listener has to reflect eagerness and willingness to learn more

by using expressions like nodding or through verbal means, thereby giving positive feedback.

• This technique is can used by listener to get more information from the speaker in the area

of interest of the listener. • i.e.to divert the speaker from his main topic.

Reflecting Hidden Feelings • Sometimes the listener has to go beyond the general feeling and

contents of what is being said to unravel the underlying feeling, intentions, beliefs that may

influence the speaker’s words. This would make the speaker evaluated. • Acceptance is

conveyed more by listeners manner and tone than by the words.

Responding Non-Verbally • Listener can portray his image as that of a active listener by

adopting certain postures, and sending nonverbal signal which communicates the listeners

interest in what the speaker is saying. This may include eye contact, Leaning forward towards

the listener, head nodding. • Listener can also use some receptive utterances like ‘yes’ ‘un-

hum’ to indicate that message of speaker is being understood.

Inviting Further Contribution • In a situation where listener haven’t heard or understood

enough. The listener can respond with empathy and understanding, prompt the speaker to

give more information • The idea here is to get a better understanding of the subject by asking

questions. But the questions should be for seeking information not to interrogate or challenge

the speaker.
 PROCESS OF LISTENING

1-Receiving • Is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s message. • This stage is

represented by the ear because it is the primary tool involved with this stage of the listening

process.

2- Understanding • In the understanding stage, we attempt to learn the meaning of the

message, which is not always easy. • Deciding what the message means to you

3- Remembering • Remembering begins with listening; if you can’t remember something that

was said, you might not have been listening effectively. • However, even when you are

listening attentively, some messages are more difficult than others to understand and

remember. Highly complex messages that are filled with detail call for highly developed

listening skills.

4- Evaluating • The fourth stage in the listening process is evaluating. • evaluations of the

same message can vary widely from one listener to another. • The stages two, three, and four

are represented by the brain because it is the primary tool involved with these stages of the

listening process.

5- Responding • Responding—sometimes referred to as feedback—is the fifth and final stage

of the listening process. • Your reaction to the message. It can be emotional and intellectual •

For example, you are giving positive feedback to your instructor if at the end of class you

stay behind to finish a sentence in your notes or approach the instructor to ask for

clarification. The opposite kind of feedback is given by students who gather their belongings
and rush out the door as soon as class is over. • This stage is represented by the lips because

we often give feedback in the form of verbal feedback; however, you can just as easily

respond nonverbally.

IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

•We show that we are serious

•We display respect to other’s view point

•Helps us to learn

•Helps us to adapt and understand

•Empathise
 WHY LISTENING IS IMPORTANT?

•To avoid communication errors.

•Helps to learn something new.

•It is the key to success.

BARRIERS OF LISTENING

There are many things that get in the way of listening and you should be aware of these

barriers many of which are bad habits, in

When we hear, we only perceive sounds, but when we listen, this hearing is accompanied by

a deliberate and purposeful act of the mind. To listen means to get meaning from what is

heard. One may hear the words another person utters, without really understanding them. Let

us look at some of the factors that impede effective hearing. Figure 3.1 outlines some of

these.

Physiological Barriers

Hearing impairment
Sometimes poor listening can be traced to hearing deficiencies. However, once these

deficiencies are detected, they can usually be treated.

Speaking-Thinking rate 

According to an estimate, we speak at an average of 125 to 150 words a minute. Our mind,

however, can process nearly 500 words per minute. This gives listeners a good deal of spare

time, which is often used for mental excursions ranging from daydreaming to thinking about

the speaker’s hairstyle. Spending this time for analysing the message would make for better

listening.

Environmental Barriers

Physical distractions

Distracting sounds, poor acoustics, uncomfortable seating arrangements can all hamper

effective listening. But then it is not impossible to counter these distractions through

concentration.

When all your attention is focused on what is being said, the other noises take backseat in

your consciousness.  Unless of course, the noises are too powerful.

Message overload

When you are forced to listen to a quick succession of messages, then after a point your

receptivity dulls. You find it gets impossible to listen attentively. Coping with a deluge of

information is like juggling – you can keep only a few things going at a time.

Attitudinal Barriers

Prejudices 
Sometimes our prejudices and deep-seated beliefs make it impossible for us to be receptive to

the speaker. For instance, when two politicians who belong to, say the BJP and the CPI(M),

argue over a political issue, they are not likely to give each other’s views a fair hearing,

because of their preconceived attitudes. To break down this barrier, we must achieve some

control over our instinctive responses and learn to postpone judgement until we

have listened to exactly what is being said.

Preoccupation

Sometimes we are preoccupied with other concerns.  As students, all of you must have had

days when you registered nothing of what was said in class, because your thoughts were on

the freshers‟ party you had to arrange the next evening.

A casual attitude

Because hearing is relatively easy, we assume that we can do it without much concentration

and effort.  This attitude is often a major barrier to listening.

Egocentrism

Many people are poor listeners, because they are overly concerned with themselves.

Three personal concerns dominate their listening behaviour. These can be summed up in

three sentences:

o I must defend my position.

o I already know what you have to say.

o How am I coming through?

 Techniques to Improve listening skills

• Motivate yourself to listen

• Listeners should motivate their mind to listen to the speaker carefully. They should prepare

themselves to listen to others willingly. Listening can’t be forced or imposed on the person.

Individual should know the value and importance of listening.

• Respect the speaker: Listeners should have respect for the speaker. They should not

underestimate the speaker’s ideas and thoughts.

• Even if, the listener disagrees with some of the ideas of the speaker, they should show their

disagreement positively

• Remove Horn effect:

• Do not underestimate a person because he has couple of flaws in his behaviour.

• Many people are like rough diamonds. They need to be understood carefully. The speaker

ideas can be rejected or doubted by the listeners. However listener should nor insult or dislike

the speaker.

• Positive body language:

• Listener should maintain positive body language like nod of head, leaning forward,

maintain erect postures, during communication.

• More over listener should not create any type of distractions by using unnecessary body

language. Many listeners revolve pen, notebook, or any other object in their hand.

• Do not Interrupt: Listeners should not interrupt the speaker unnecessarily. Many listeners

have tendency to make remarks or comments during speech. More over many listeners repeat

the words and expression of the speaker loudly

• Improve your listening span:

• Listeners should get training for enhancing their span of active listening. Many a times, we

have to listen to speeches or lectures for long duration.

• Speaker’s use of appropriate body language: Speaker should use positive body language

Otherwise Listeners will be observing these body movements and thereby neglect ideas and

expressions of the speaker.

• Voice modulation: The speaker should modulate his voice and use different tones while

speaking. It creates interesting atmosphere in the audience and they pay more attention to the

speaker. It creates an environment for effective listening

• Use Simple style: Speaker should use simple expressions that can be understood easily by

the listeners. The speaker should keep one thing in mind that he should speak to ‘express’ and

not impress. Use of heavy technical words, may distract the speaker and affect the process of

listening.

• Listening should be taught as a skill:

• The art of listening should be given importance in school and college curriculum. The skill

should be taught to students just like, speaking, reading and writing skills.

• There should be sufficient practice and opportunity to enhance their listening ability.
 WHAT ARE SPEAKING SKILLS

The ability to speak confidently and fluently is something which children will develop during

their time at school, and something that will help them throughout their life.

Speaking skills are defined as the skills which allow us to communicate effectively. They

give us the ability to convey information verbally and in a way that the listener can

understand.

Children will learn English speaking skills as well as speaking skills in other languages, in

primary and secondary school. Learning how to develop English speaking skills is so

important for ESL students and EAL students too. It's one of the most important parts of

language learning as speaking is how we tend to communicate in everyday life.

Speaking is an interactive process where information is shared, and if necessary, acted upon

by the listener. So, it’s important to develop both speaking and listening skills in order to

communicate effectively.
 FOUR ELEMENTS OF SPEAKING SKILL

1)Vocabulary:

To develop our speaking skills, we first need to know the right words. Vocabulary

development begins when we are infants, as we learn to describe the world around us and

communicate our needs. This progresses from single words to sentences when children are 2

or 3, at which point they will normally have a vocabulary of 150-300 words.

Vocabulary development is where students understand the meanings and pronunciations of

words necessary for communication. When they understand what a word means, they can

check what the word or sentence means. This is so important so they can keep up a

conversation. If they understand what the other person is saying and they know what

vocabulary to say back, they are halfway there to communicating effectively.

Did you know that to be considered fluent in a language, you need to have a vocabulary of

around 10,000 words?

Grammar:

You may think that grammar is something we only need for written language. But grammar

includes lots of important areas for spoken language such as an understanding of tenses and

the correct way to structure sentences. Grammar helps us to convey information in a way that

the listener will recognise and understand.

Pronunciation:

Understanding how to correctly pronounce words is another important element of speaking

skills. We learn how to pronounce words by listening to those around us, such as our parents,

friends and teachers. Pronunciation varies from country to country, and even city to city!

A lot of this comes from phonemic awareness. This involves understanding the small units

that make up spoken language. English can differ quite a lot compared to other languages.

Some phonemes might not be in ESL students' native languages and children's minds are

trained to categorise phonemes in their first language, so it can become confusing.

Developing this ability in English can come from playing language games and using songs

and poems to reiterate rhythm and repetition. Phonics is where students start to see the

relationship between the sounds of spoken language and graphemes which are the letters and

spellings representing sounds in written language.

Fluency:

Fluency in spoken language is something that naturally develops as children go through

school, as they are using and practising speaking skills every day. Reading widely (and out

loud) is a good way to improve fluency as it introduces children to new vocabulary and

reinforces their knowledge of spoken language.

Fluency is the ability to hear words and understand them straight away. If they see a word

written down, they can read it aloud and pronounce it properly. Ways to develop this include

guiding your students to read passages out loud. You could also get your students to read

aloud in front of the class. This builds their confidence and also helps them to annunciate

better.
The more fluent your students are in English, the more interesting, exciting and insightful

conversations they can have.

WHY ARE SPEAKING SKILLS IMPORTANT TO LEARN

Speaking skills are one of the most important skills we learn, as they allow us to

communicate with others and express our thoughts and feelings. Speaking skills can be

separated into formal and informal speaking skills, and we use both types of speaking skills

in a variety of contexts throughout life.

Informal speaking skills are important for conversations with friends and family, helping us

to form emotional connections. Formal speech, on the other hand, is necessary for

workplaces, in presentations or for conversations with people you don’t know. Formal

language is important as it helps us to make a good impression on people and communicate

politely.

As an ESL or EAL student, speaking skills are considered the most important part of learning

a language. In fact, many language learners measure their performance by how well they can

speak it. As most effective foreign language learning takes place through interaction, it's a

skill that can be honed to really build an understanding of the language and culture of

English-speaking countries.

Yet it can be so easy to find speaking daunting or challenging. It isn't as straightforward as

we may like. Teachers need to encourage students to speak as much as possible. They can
make it as fun as the structure of their lessons will allow. This might be through role-play,

group work or even projects.

SPEAKING SKILLS ON NATIONAL CURRICULUM

The National Curriculum states that spoken language is a crucial part of learning English in

schools. Throughout primary school, children will learn to:

 Listen and respond to teachers and classmates

 Build their vocabulary

 Use spoken language to express feelings, give explanations and describe

 Ask questions to increase their understanding

 Participate in drama, conversations, role play, discussions and debates

 Understand formal and informal speech

 Listen and understand different points of view

 Hold the attention of the listener

 5 Qualities of an Effective Speaker

Confidence. Confidence is huge when it comes to public speaking. Being confident in your

delivery will allow you to be seen as an expert on your topic. Your audience will be more

likely to trust you and therefore, trust the material that you are putting out there. Confidence

makes you credible, knowledgeable, and believable. In order to truly show confidence, you

have to be confident enough to be yourself during your presentation. If you can be yourself in

front of an audience, they are going to be more likely to feel like they can relate to you. If you

try to act differently than you usually do, you may come off as insincere, and the audience

will be less likely to feel connected to you or your information.

Passion. Why would an audience want to hear about your story if you yourself don’t seem

passionate about it? Let your audience know why you do what you do. Why do you love what

you do and why do you want to share your message? If an audience can see and feel your

passion, they will be more interested in hearing what you have to say.

Ability to be succinct. Even if you’re one of the most entertaining and engaging public

speakers, it’s important to keep your presentation short and to the point. The attention span of

your audience isn’t long. You have to get their attention fast and keep their attention by
moving through your presentation smoothly and effectively. If your presentation is longer

than twenty minutes, you may want to consider breaking the presentation into smaller

segments. Each segment can be a little different or involve audience interaction so that you

are keeping them on their feet.

Ability to tell a story. A presentation is more effective and engaging when it doesn’t feel

like a presentation. Know how to tell your story to your audience. Give them the context for

all of the information you are sharing. Rather than simply sharing facts and formal pieces of

information, share your experiences and your stories that have to lead you to where you are.

If it isn’t your own story, share other stories or experiences from history or from people that

you know. Stories help people retain more information because they are more engaged with

your presentation.

Audience awareness. Make sure before going into your presentation that you know the

audience that you’re presenting to. You should know who they are and what they do. By

knowing this information, you’ll be better able to connect to them and present to them in a

way that you feel they would respond to and learn from best.
 HOW TO DEVELOP ESL WITH STUDENTS

Practice makes perfect when it comes to developing English speaking skills. Listening to

English, understanding grammar and reading can all help slightly, but they're never going to

improve English speaking skills to the extent it is possible. Your class need to actually speak.

As ESL students, understanding the nature of English can be a real struggle. Students with

different native languages can be at a disadvantage because of the nature of English.

Here are some helpful tips on how to develop English speaking skills:

 Learn new vocabulary in phrases - although learning new words and their

pronunciation is always beneficial, some words need to be learnt in phrases to

be of much use when speaking in English.

For example, a cup of coffee might be more useful than just learning "coffee"

 Focus on pronunciation. Although learning lots of vocabulary can boost English

skills, if these words aren't pronounced correct it can be easy to misunderstand

what the student is saying. A top tip to ensure students pronounce the words

they've learnt correctly could be to try some tongue twisters. For

example would be really useful to get your class practising.

 Ensure they understand how English flows. With ESL students, an important

focus on how to develop English speaking skills is to get them into the flow of
 how English is usually spoken. This is because often their native language has a

very different flow. Native speakers of English link words together, often

resulting in a sound disappearing, or a new sound being made. There are often

some syllables stressed that wouldn't be in other languages or a different

rhythm overall.

 Get them to practice self-talk. This involves getting them to talk loudly in

English to themselves. This could be before completing a task, such as "shall

we go and grab a coffee?" to "I need to go to the gym tonight."

 Encourage your students to download practice apps. This can break down

difficult language into manageable chunks that can be practised on the go at

regular intervals.
 RESOURCES TO IMPROVE CHILDREN SPEAKING SKILLS

We have a wealth of resources designed to support your children’s learning and improve their

speaking skills.

One great idea is to hold a No Pens Day, which encourages children to communicate verbally

and listen actively. This ready-to-use will introduce your class to No Pens Day and explain

why it's useful.

Develop speaking and listening skills with this handy set of posters. which include helpful

tips on how to have engaging conversations with others. And, for children who are struggling

with speaking skills and need a little extra help, including a range of activities to bring

children up to speed. Perfect for small group interventions.

What’s more, you can help children develop their speaking and listening skills through drama

activities. Try out this fun improvisation activity to improve fluency and spoken language

skills in a fun way.

 CONCLUSION

Admittedly, this discussion of listening may add a layer of intimidation for public speakers.

After all, it can be daunting to think of having to get an audience to not only hear, but also

truly listen.

Nevertheless, once we recognize the difference and become aware of Listening and Speaking

skills, we can better tailor our spoken words to captivate and engage an audience. A broader

awareness of the importance of effective listening and speaking skills is another weapon in

your arsenal as a public speaker. At the same time, building up your own communication

skills can enhance your academic, professional, and personal success. Being heard is one

thing, but speakers need listeners to complete the communication loop. Reap the rewards:

Instead of saying “I hear you,” try out “I’m listening.”