Teaching and

Assessment of
the Macro Skills
SEEN 208

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Overview:
Macro skills refer to the primary, key, main, and largest
skill set relative to a particular context. It is commonly
referred to in the English language. The four macro skills
are listening, reading, speaking, and writing. You have to
perfect them in order to use your English language
properly. Listening and speaking are brain input skills but
reading and writing are brain output skills.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 MODULE 1
An Introduction: Listening
Topics
•Definition
•Why People Listen
•Listening Process
•Classifications of Listening
• Guidelines for Listening Well
•Activities in Integrating Listening with other Macro Skills

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Objectives:
• identify the consequences of
the misunderstanding
• state ways on how to improve
listening
• reflect on their own listening

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 INTRODUCTION
Language teaching covers four macro-
skills needed for communicating –
listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Good language teachers plan lessons,
and sequences of lessons, which
include a mixture of all the macro-skills,
rather than focusing on developing only
one macro-skill at a time.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Listening
This basic skill is about hearing and perceiving other
people's opinions, and absorbing facts and emotional
intelligence derived from the spoken word. However, not
every person must hear to listen. For example, deaf
people can use sign language or lip-reading to "listen", and
they can, in their own way, be excellent listeners. Without
good listening skills, it can be difficult to get a grasp of new
topics; building meaningful relationships can also be
problematic.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Why People Listen
1. To be able to engage in social rituals
2.To get information
3.To be able to respond to “controls”
4. To respond to feelings
5. To enjoy

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Listening is a communication technique that
requires the listener to understand, interpret and
evaluate what he or she hears. Listening
effectively improves personal relationships through
the reduction of conflict and strengthens
cooperation through a collective understanding.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Listening Process

Receiving is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s

message, we filter out other sources to isolate the message
and avoid the confusing mixture of incoming stimuli. At this
stage, we are still only hearing the message.

Understanding- In the understanding stage, we attempt to learn

the message’s meaning, which is not always easy. For one
thing, if a speaker does not enunciate clearly, it may be difficult
to tell the message—did your friend say, “I think she’ll be late
for class,” or “My teacher delayed the class”? The
consequences of ineffective listening in a classroom can be
much worse.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Remembering begins with listening; if
you can’t remember something that was
said, you might not have been listening
effectively. Wolvin and Coakley note that
the most common reason for not
remembering a message after the fact is
that it wasn’t really learned in the first place.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Evaluating- The fourth stage in the listening
process is evaluating, or judging the value of
the message. We might be thinking, “This
makes sense” or, conversely, “This is very
odd.” Because everyone embodies biases and
perspectives learned from widely diverse sets
of life experiences, evaluations of the same
message can vary widely from one listener to
another.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Responding- sometimes called feedback—
is the fifth and final stage of the listening
process. It’s the stage at which you indicate
your involvement. Almost anything you do at
this stage can be interpreted as feedback.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Formative Feedback
Not all response occurs at the end of the
message. Formative feedback is a natural
part of the ongoing transaction between a
speaker and a listener. As the speaker
delivers the message, a listener signals his or
her involvement with focused attention, note-
taking, nodding, and other behaviors that
indicate understanding or failure to
understand the message.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Summative Feedback

Summative feedback is given at the end of the

communication. When you attend a political rally,
a presentation given by a speaker you admire, or
even a class, there are verbal and nonverbal
ways of indicating your appreciation for or your
disagreement with the messages or the speakers
at the end of the message. Maybe you’ll stand up
and applaud a speaker you agreed with or just sit
staring in silence after listening to a speaker you
didn’t like.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Classifications of Listening
Listening can be classified into several types depending on
how you pay attention to what is being said or heard.

Passive Listening is listening without reacting

• Allowing someone to speak, without interrupting
• Not doing anything else at the same time

Attentive Listening- is reacting or doing something that demonstrates you are

listening and have understood.
• Giving non-verbal cues to demonstrate you are paying attention (nodding,
making eye contact, making facial expressions appropriate to what is being said)
• Reflecting back the main points and summarising what has been said

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Critical/Analytical Listening- using careful, systematic thinking
and reasoning to see whether a message makes sense in light of factual
evidence. Critical listening can be learned with practice but is not
necessarily easy to do. Some people never learn this skill; instead, they
take every message at face value even when those messages are in
conflict with their knowledge.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Appreciative Listening
When you listen for appreciation you are
listening for enjoyment. Think about the
music you listen to. You usually listen to
music because you enjoy it. The same can
be said for appreciative listening when
someone is speaking.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Guidelines for Listening Well
Prior to listening:
∙ stop whatever you were doing
∙ arrange the chairs comfortably, eg: in a ten-to-two format
∙ ideally, sit in comfortable/easy chairs
∙ remove any barriers between you - eg: do not sit on the
other side of a desk
∙ ensure there will not be any interruptions - close the office
door and put your phone on divert
∙ If you anticipate making notes, get the person’s permission. Be
aware that this may formalize the discussion and thereby restrict
the openness of information you may be given.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

As the person is speaking:
•Focus completely on what the person is saying.
Do not do any other activity or think about any
other topic.
•Mentally note the main points they are making,
ready for summarising.
•Listen not only to the words that are said, but
also the tone of voice and body language - eg: if
they are nervous, excited, depressed.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Activities in Integrating Listening with other MacroSkills
Listening Activities
1- Listen to your teacher
speaking.
2--Listen to the tape.
3--Listen to the CD.
4--Listen to each other in pairs.
5--Listen to the video tape.
6--Listen to the microphone.
7--Listen to answer, draw, paint, design, do, participate, point,
choose, match, correct, underline, fill in, analyze and evaluate.
8--Listening for dual dictation.
9--listen for a class memory quiz.
10-Listening for detecting lies.
11-Listening to reading articles and newspapers or stories to
retell.
 Dual dictation

Ask students to get into pairs to write a dialogue. When student A is

speaking, student B should write down what they are saying and vice
versa. When they have finished the conversation, they should check
what each other has written and put the two sides of the conversation
together. You could then ask students to perform their dialogues again
to
the rest of the class, or to swap with other pairs.

This activity works best if you give students a theme or role-play, e.g.
• A conversation between friends about holidays
• An argument between siblings
• An interview with a famous person
• A scene from a film

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D.

 Class memory quiz
• Ask one student at a time to go to the front of
the class. Ask the rest of the class to ask
• them any questions they like (as long as they
are not too personal),e.g.
• What is your favourite colour/food/band?
• What did you have for lunch?
• Which country would you most like to visit?

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Listen for lies

Divide the class into two teams A and B. Ask one student
at a time to come to the front of the class and read aloud a
passage which you have chosen, e.g. a story or
newspaper article. Then ask them to read it aloud again,
but to make some changes. Each time a lie(or change) is
read out, the students must stand up. The first team to
stand up gets a point.
This game requires students to listen carefully and
encourages them to remember important information and
details.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Teaching Strategies: Listening Importance of Listening

“Are you listening to me?” This question is often asked because

the speaker thinks the listener is nodding off or daydreaming.
We sometimes think that listening means we only have to sit
back, stay barely awake, and let a speaker’s words wash over
us. While many Americans look at being active as something to
admire, engage in, and excel at, listening is often understood as
a “passive” activity.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 The Nature of Listening Skill

Listening is the cognitive process

whereby we attach meanings to aural
signals. It is the active intellectual process
of decoding, interpreting, understanding
and evaluating messages. It is a mode of
communication just as important as the
other modes like speaking, reading, and
writing.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Barriers to Effective Listening
To improve the process of effective listening, it can be
helpful to turn the problem on its head and look at
barriers to effective listening, or ineffective listening.
For example, one common problem is that instead of
listening closely to what someone is saying, we often
get distracted after a sentence or two and instead start
to think about what we are going to say in reply or
think about unrelated things. This means that we do
not fully listen to the rest of the speaker’s message.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Levels of Listening Ability

• Levels of Listening explores how important listening is for effective

communication.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=84&v=2grajx8i
Yvw&feature=emb_logo
• Watch and listen to the video for more learning.
• Most of our efforts to develop communication skills deals with
reading, writing and speaking. But very little effort is placed on
developing our ability to really hear the other person's perspective.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

Levels of Listening

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D

 Levels of Listening

Level 1: Ignoring
If you have ever been ignored there is no doubt about it. You are
talking but the other person is not giving any attention to what you are
saying.
Now, it is possible the person did not hear you. If that is the case, it is
not ignoring.
Level 2: Pretend Listening
To truly hear someone takes time and attention.
Pretend listeners give you the impression they hear what you say, and
they may hear some of your words, but they are not "present."
They may nod their head or offer another gesture to indicate they are
listening, but they are not giving you their full attention.
Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D
 Levels of Listening
• Level 3: Selective Listening
The person who listens selectively only wants part of the message,
but not all. They are probably the person who says, "So, what's
your point? "They are quick to interrupt the person who is speaking
or they have the tendency to finish the other person's sentences.
• Level 4: Attentive Listening
Attentive listeners offer their time and attention. However, they are
one step short of being empathic listeners because attentive
listeners hear from their frame of reference. They don't try to put
themselves in the other person's shoes.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON, LPT., Ed.D.

 Levels of Listening

Level 5: Empathic Listening

• Empathic listening is intentional. The
person who develops this skill listens not
only to the other person's words, they
listen for what the other person means.
They are willing to give their time and full
attention to truly hear the other person.

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON, LPT., Ed.D.

 Activity
1.Make a list of some of the abstract words you have misunderstood while
watching your chosen video on listening. What were the consequences of
the misunderstanding?
2.Reflect on your listening in class or in other settings where remembering
information is important. What keeps you from remembering important
information accurately?
3.Give an example of a time when you felt that your message was
misunderstood or treated with shallow attention. How did you know your
message had been misunderstood or rejected? What does this mean you
must do as a student of public speaking?
4. Do you need to improve your listening? If so, what are you going to do to
listen better in the future?

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON, LPT., Ed.D.

References:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
communications/chapter/understanding-
listening/#:~:text=The%20listening%20process%20invol
ves%20five,she%20he
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/listening-skills.html
https://www.doncrawley.com/the-five-levels-of-listening-
how-to-be-a-better-listener/

Prepared by: CECILIA R. ALAGON,LPT., Ed.D