From Listening as Comprehension to

Listening as Acquisition
(How to Teach and Assess Listening Skill)
Prepared by:
Trixie Hyacinth L. Pelicano, MAEd
Hearing VS Listening
“You heard but you didn’t listen…”
Hearing
• An accidental and
automatic brain response to
sound that requires no
effort.
• Reception of sound.
• A form of perception.
Listening
• To hear something with thoughtful
intention.
• Purposeful and focused to understand
the meaning expressed by a speaker.
• An active and intentional process
 Listening
An active process wherein language learners receive,
construct meaning from, and respond to both verbal and
non-verbal messages.
 Active Listening

The use of verbal and Follow up the message A skill that may not
non-verbal gestures that the speaker intends come naturally for
in a conversation many.
Makes comment, ask questions Responding and providing
and take turns participating in the feedback at the right time.
The listener needs to make
conversation.
connections between what s/he hears
and what s/he already knows and at
the same s/he tries to comprehend
the meaning negotiated by the
speaker.
 Active Listening VS
Passive Listening
Active Listening Passive Listening
1. With comprehension
1. One-way communication
2. Paying attention not only to the speaker or to
2. Without giving response or
the message but to the verbal and non-verbal
feedback
cues messages
3. Inattention
3. Listening accurately, effectively, and
responding appropriately
4. Gaining information, learning, and
understanding
 The Importance of Active
1.
Listening 3
Medium of gaining Spoken language provides a
knowledge, information, and means of interaction for the
understanding of the world. learner.

2 4

It provides input Listening exercises provide

for the learner. teachers with a means for
drawing learners attention to
new forms.
 Barriers to Active
Listening
Noise Attention Span Receiver Biases
Most common Learners attention last for a One’s perceived ideas and
distraction when finite length of time. Short but opinions, whether about the
listening. interesting and engaging speaker or the message/topic
strategy to teaching. can be considered as noise and
interfere in the listening
process.
Listening or receiver apprehension
Fear that you might be unable to understand
the message or process the information
correctly.
 6 Key Active
Listening Skills
Pay Attention
Giving undivided attention to the speaker and
the speaker’s message while integrating one’s
own prior knowledge and experiences

Withhold Judgement
Stay open-minded and welcome varied ideas,
new perspectives, and different opinions.
 6 Key Active
Listening Skills
Reflect
It allows you the understand the speaker’s
experiences and the emotions that come with
them.

Clarity
Feedbacking is important. In order to do this,
the listener has to clarify information that has
not been clearly understood.
 6 Key Active
Listening Skills
Summarize
Summarize or restate key points in the
conversation to ensure that you have the same
understanding of the intention and message of
the speaker.
Share
As you take into account the context of the
speaker, you can begin to introduce (without
imposing) your perspective, ideas, and feelings
without judgement.
Ethical Listening
Highlights the importance of listening with honest
intentions. Respect is the key to active listening.
6 Stages of
Listening
Stage 1. Receiving
Involves two other activities like hearing and attending.
Pay attention to the speaker and avoid accommodating
other thoughts to ensure that you have not missed any
information, or messages, both verbal and non-verbal.

Stage 2. Understanding
The listener determines the context and meaning of
individual words, as well as assigning meaning in language.

Stage 3. Remembering
• People usually forget up to half of what they’ve heard
within the first eight hours of listening to it. – Harvard
Business Review
• Students only retain 20% of what they have heard. –
Dale’s Cone of Experience
• Make associations to past remembered information.
Stage 4. Evaluating
The listener assess the information after making a
reasonable objective interpretation of the message.

Stage 5. Responding
Giving feedback is an important aspect of the
communication process. It is at this stage where you will
signify your participation. It could either be verbal or non-
verbal reactions.
The Process of
Listening
Bottom-up
Process and
Top-down
Process
 Bottom-up Process

Uses information he/she has about sounds, word meanings,

and discourse markers, then tries to assemble his/her
understanding of what he/she reads or hears one step at a
time
 Top-down Process

Learners use their background knowledge to comprehend

the meaning by considering the previous knowledge and
schema.
LSRW (Listening, Speaking,
Reading, and Writing)
LSRW method suggests that students
learning a new language will first be
taught how to listen.
Teaching Listening
 Pre-Listening
This stage sets the context of the
listening activity that will be given to the
students. Remember, before starting the
listening activity, ensure that there is no
distraction.

Pre-listening suggested activities

1. Identifying vocabulary/comprehension needs
Teachers should help students better understand the listening or oral texts by
identifying possible difficult words which students would need while listening.

2. Activating interest
Teachers would always start with motivational activities to set the classroom
mood. The goal is for students to be ready and be motivated to listen.
 Pre-Listening
This stage sets the context of the
listening activity that will be given to the
students. Remember, before starting the
listening activity, ensure that there is no
distraction.
Pre-listening suggested activities
3. Putting it in context.
Teachers should choose oral and listening texts that are relevant and interesting
to the students. During the pre-listening, the teacher should be able to design
contextualized activities that will activate prior knowledge that will help in
inferencing.
4. Setting the purpose.
The purpose of the listening activity should be made clear to the students.
 While Listening
While listening suggested activities
1. Listening and re-listening
As a teacher, you need to assess how much your students can take and whether
listening once is enough for them.
2. Guided listening and Scaffold note-taking
Teacher can provide listening organizers to help students focus on important
details which can help them deepen their understanding of the listening material.
3. Thinking space
Give learners time to process the information by pausing in between paragraphs,
and check if they are still following.
 Post-Listening
This stage serves as a follow-up to the
listening activity done while taking into
account the primary purpose of the
listening task.
Post-listening suggested activities
1. Responding to the text
It is important that students share their reactions to the content. Teacher can
provide discussion questions or evaluative questions.
2. Analyzing linguistic features of the text
Teacher can ask students to analyze language forms from the script.
3. Integrating speaking and writing
Listening skills is a receptive skill. Teacher may design tasks that would require
students to use their productive skills.
 Assessment in Teaching Listening
Why do we assess?

Check for students’ progress

Make informed decisions

Reinforce students’ learning

 How do we
assess?
Validity Practicality
The extent to which the Tests should consider
test measures what is
Reliability constraints like
supposed to measure A reliable test is consistent and limitations, time
and nothing else. constraints, ease of
dependable. Same results when administration, scoring,
the same tests were administered etc.
to same group
 How do we
assess?

Authenticity
This describes the relationship between the test and the real
world. Assessment tasks should be reflective of real-life
situations which would trigger mental processes similar to what
students hear and use in their daily life.