LISTENING COMPREHENSION

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This page gives a theoretical explanation on how to study second language listening comprehension. Firstly, I provide a simple overview of what scholars know about listening comprehension, and then secondly I conclude from that how to teach, and study, listening comprehension.

I hope both teachers and students will find this useful.

This page is very long, so it is divided into different sections. The sections are:

Content

1. Listening is Different From Reading
   • Speech Consists of Sounds
   • Speech Uses Different Language
   • Speech Takes Place in "Real Time"
     
     
2. Language Comprehension
   • Types of Knowledge
   • Applying Knowledge
   • Reasonable Understanding
     
     
3. Conclusion: How to Study
   
   
4. In Short

1. Listening is Different from Reading

There are many skills necessary to listen to spoken English. Some skills are similar to the skills used in reading. But many important listening skills are different from reading skills. That's why if you want to learn to listen, you must practice listening. Listening skills are different from reading skills because speech is different from writing. Below there are some of the main ways speech is different from writing.

Speech Consists of Sounds

The biggest difference between speech and writing is that speech consists of sounds. This is very important, because processing the sound adds a whole new set of skills that are not necessary for reading.

• You must know the sound system; if you don't, you cannot understand the speech.
• You must also know how the sounds change in fast speech. Fast pronunciation is very different from the dictionary form of the word.
• The English sound system varies from place to place, and from speaker to speaker.

Speech Uses Different Language

Written English consists of neat, correct sentences; speech does not. Speech usually consists of idea units. Each idea unit is a short piece of spoken language; usually about two seconds long, and consisting of just a few words; on average about 7 words.

Sometimes idea units are complete sentences, but sometimes they are not. The main differences between spoken idea units and written sentences are:

• Spoken idea units are usually shorter than written sentences.
• Speech usually has simpler grammar - idea units are usually just strung together - but writing usually has more complex grammar.
• Speech contains many mistakes, and grammatical errors; so it also has corrections and repairs. Written language is usually more correct and polished.
• Speech contains many pauses and hesitations. There are also fillers, meaningless words that give the speaker thinking time. Examples of fillers are um, well now, uh, let me see. Written language has none of those.
• Spoken language is more modern and up to date; there are more slang words, swear words, new expressions, figures of speech, and humor. Written language tends to be more conservative and old-fashioned.
• In speech a lot of things are not actually stated. Speakers often use their tone of voice, or stress and intonation to express important information. For example, emotions such as pleasure and anger, attitudes such as disbelief or sarcasm, and so on, are often not clearly stated in words.

Speech is Fast

Speakers decide how fast they will speak, and most speakers speak very fast. So listeners have to listen fast. When reading, the reader can choose a comfortable reading speed, but the listener cannot choose the listening speed. Listeners must listen at the speaker's speed.

• The speed of the speech is called the "speech rate". It is very an important for second language listeners: usually, as the speech rate increases, comprehension decreases. If the speech rate is too fast, comprehension stops.
• Because speech is generally fast, the listener must get the meaning very quickly and very efficiently. There is no time to stop and wonder about the language used (e.g. the vocabulary or grammar). That means of that listening must be automatic.

2. Language Comprehension

Listening and reading also have many things in common. Both listening and reading are a form of language comprehension. In both cases we are trying to get some meaning from the language. It is important to understand how comprehension works.

Types of Knowledge

To understand the meaning, listeners use their knowledge. They use not only knowledge of the language but other types of knowledge too. The 4 most important types of knowledge used in comprehension are:

• Knowledge of the language. This includes knowledge of the vocabulary, the grammar, and the way longer discourse is structured. Also knowledge of the sound system for listening, and the writing system for reading.
• Knowledge about what has already been said. This is important because we usually understand things based on what we have already understood of what came earlier.
• Knowledge about the situation in which the speech is taking place. This is important, because it gives us expectations about what might come next.
• Knowledge about the world. We use our background knowledge about the world and how it works to help us understand everything.

Applying Knowledge

Not only do we use different types of knowledge in comprehension, but this is applied in complex ways.

• There is no fixed way in which this knowledge is applied. Listeners have expectations about what they are hearing, and they use whatever knowledge seems relevant. Any relevant information might be used.
• Comprehension is basically a guessing game. Not all the necessary information is clearly stated. We use our knowledge to make inferences about the meaning. We don't always listen to every word, but make inferences based on the 4 types of knowledge.
• Comprehension is not understanding what words mean, but is understanding what speakers mean. Even after getting the meaning of the words, the listener (or reader) must still try to understand what the speaker means by that. Not everything is clearly stated, and it is often necessary to figure out the real meaning. Again. this means making inferences. Inferences are the core of comprehension.
• Many people assume that the meaning is contained in the passage, and the listeners job is to get the meaning out of the message. That is not true! The meaning is not in the passage, but is constructed by the listener.

Reasonable Understanding

Because meaning is constructed by the listener (or reader) by making inferences based on knowledge, different people might make different inferences, and get different understanding of the same passage. This happens because listeners vary.

• Different people have different knowledge and different ideas about the world. A person with more knowledge about something may understand more than a person with less knowledge.
• Different people have different purposes for listening. Some people may want all the details, and others may only want to get the general idea. And so they will get a different understanding.
• Different people have different interests. If something is interesting, people pay more attention and will understand more.
• So different listeners, who hear the same thing, may have different ideas about what he speaker means. And that is ok, because these different ideas about the speaker's meaning may all be reasonable. Now here's the important thing: there is often no single correct understanding of a piece of language, but a number of possible understandings. The purpose of listening is to get a reasonable understanding of what the speaker said, not the 'correct' understanding.

3. Summary: How to Study

So what does all this theory mean for how we study listening. We think it means that:

• Listening ability can only be developed by practicing listening, to get all the necessary skills.
• The listener needs a lot of practice, so the skills become over-learned and completely automatic.
• The listener needs to listen to realistic spoken language, with all the characteristics of natural language use.
• New listeners need to pay special attention to the sound system. Listening to lots of easy passages (even if they know a lot of English) is a good idea to help them learn the sound system well.
• Intermediate listeners need to listen to a wide variety of speakers and accents, to get familiar with the wide range of English pronunciation.
• All listeners need to listen to a wide variety of different passages.
• While the listener listen to something, he/she should concentrate on trying to understand what the speaker means, and not think about the language too much.
• And most important of all, just relax and enjoy listening. If you can do that, all the rest will just follow naturally.

In Short

Listen to lots of realistic passages, with different speakers, different accents, and different topics, and try to understand what the speaker means.

Happy Listening!