Materials for Enhancing Listening and Speaking Skills

In a world full of noise,conscious listening becomes very

important. Studies show that typically a person spends at least
70-80% of his time in some form of communication_ With this
time, a person spends at least 40-45% listening. and 30-35%
speaking.However, even though we listen more frequently, we
are rarely taught how to listen consciously. Listening is a pre-
requisite of speaking and a foundation to effective
communication. In leaming a language, listening is very vital as
this is one's access to information and understanding- a source
of input.

There are varied sources of inputs on listening which

IN LISTENING ,

you can use to enhance listening skills.Listening materials that

most tcachers use are from coursebooks that provide activities
like dictation,cloze,listening then rewriting,pronunciation
practice,input from recorded scripted dialogues and
monologues through recordings
 listening to the teacher reading poems, short stories,
Another is

extracts from novels at the beginning of every lesson and

another is listening to their classmates and peers reading
poems, telling jokes and anecdotes.

The goal of developing materials for listening skills is to be able

to provide students with varied listening practice and listening
opportunities. According to the study of Tomlinson (2013) he
provides "a framework for developing materials for spoken
language" namely:“

(a)conceptualizing learner needs, it is important to gain

baseline data as to student's needs, interests, proficiency level.

(b) identifying subject matter and communication situations,

the learning materials needs to suit to the profile or
background of the students.

(c)identifying verbal communication strategies, that provide

practice and opportunities where students act upon their
interlocutor's speech, employing different communicative
strategies.

(d) utilizing verbal sources from real life and "unscripted" and
"unstructured" materials that provide FOR authentic, use of the
language.
 (e)designing skill-acquiring activities." Like. Providing effective
communicative tasks is very important to help students acquire
the target skill.

The teacher creates relevant, appropriate, authentic and

contextualized speaking tasks in help the learners achieve their
goal-to become effective communicator. Providing effective
communicative tasks is very important to help students acquire
the target skill.