TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: How can we teach listening skills in such a way that students can both acquire them efficiently and retain them over time? One method is empathetic listening, meaning creating an emotional connection with the interlocutor. Another method has to do with bottom-up processing, meaning that the listening activities need to offer the conditions for the learners’ understanding of divisions between word and clauses, recognizing key words, and so on. The importance of teaching listening nowadays has to do with the importance of language proficiency tests such as the Cambridge, TOEFL, IELTS, and so on, which allow non-native English speakers to emigrate to and work in English-speaking countries. Psychologists hold that good listening skills are essential to the communication process. Closely linked to the concept of empathy is the concept of active listening, rephrasing what has been said to show that you have understood. Standard multiple-choice questions from English language proficiency tests for listening comprehension reflect concepts from psychology such as empathy and active listening. The multiple choice answers suggest a rephrasing of the communication we hear on tape to show that the students have got the right meaning. What is more, theories from pragmatics can also improve the understanding of what happens in testing listening comprehension. The focus is usually on the implied meaning of various assertions.

• Details
• Contents