BCA Improving Listening Comprehension Study Material Notes

BCA Improving Listening Comprehension Study Material Notes:  Listing comprehend station speech decoding comprehending oral discourse analysis effective listening strategies ten thum rules for good listening Active listening practices Pre-listening analysis predicting using Background Knowledge Intensive Listening Understanding the Links between Difference Parts o Speech Team listening and note taking Techniques o note-taking. ( Most Important Notes for BCA Students )

BCom 1st year Insolvency Accounts Study Material notes In Hindi

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Comprehension is the act of understanding or the power of the mind to understand. Listening comprehension is the act of understanding an oral message. As a professional, you have to achieve the ability to comprehend material delivered at a relatively fast speed and understand Listening spoken material in standard Indian English, British English or American English comprehension involves

You need intelligent listening skills in situations such as an interview in which you speech decoding are a candidate or a group discussion, or a meeting in which you are a participant son pretending and Being a complex process that involves perceiving and interpreting the sounds correctly as well as understanding the explicit and implied meaning of the oral message, listening comprehension includes several skills and sub-skills. These skills include scanning, prediction speech decoding, comprehending, and oral discourse analysis. The first two skills are similar to scanning and prediction in reading comprehension. Scanning is the ability to locate specific information in a conversation, speech, or presentation whereas prediction is guessing information. The three other skills need some explanation

Speech Decoding

Speech decoding is integral to listening comprehension. It involves sound perception and recognition, word recognition, and accent recognition.

Sound Perception and Recognition Decoding of verbal messages requires the ability to perceive and recognize speech sounds and sound patterns accurately as well as the ability to recognize the way sounds combine to form syllables and utterances. The listener has to be attentive to the sounds that he/ she hears because any lapse or mistake may lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding. Moreover, a large number of competing sounds from the environment may interfere with concentration and it the listener is not careful, he/she may not perceive sounds accurately.

Word Recognition Speech decoding during listening also involves the ability to recognize words accurately, understand definitions of the words and phrases being used, recognize the way words are used in context, and identify discourse markers and attention signals.

Accent Recognition In order to decode a verbal message, the listener has to recognize stress and intonation patterns. In addition, he/she needs to identify pauses, false starts, hesitations, and turn-taking in a conversation, discussion, or other transactions involving more than one speaker.

Comprehending

Comprehending a verbal message involves the ability to

identify the central theme, main ideas, and supporting details:

concentrate and understand long speeches:

identify the level of formality:

deduce incomplete information; and

decode unfamiliar vocabulary.

Oral Discourse Analysis

Oral discourse analysis is the process of identifying relationships among different units within the speech or oral message. It includes critical skills, attitude analysis, and inferential skills.

Critical Skills When you listen to a structured talk, speech, or presentation, you need to analyze it in order to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, factual and non-factual information, examples and ideas, and so on.

Critical skills are, thus, essential to effective listening comprehension. Attitude Analysis You may have to analyze a verbal message in order to understand the speaker’s attitude to you and the topic under discussion. This is more important in meetings, discussions, and conferences. Attitude analysis includes the following skills:

Understanding the speaker’s attitude

Identifying a speaker’s attitude

Evaluating a speaker’s attitude

Inferential Skills Effective listening comprehension involves understanding not only the explicit meaning of a verbal message but also the implicit meaning because the speaker may not speak everything explicitly and clearly. Thus, the listener may have to analyze a verbal message in order to draw inferences and conclusions. This may involve interpreting the non-verbal clues and body language of the speaker.

EFFECTIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES

Complete comprehension of an oral message is more challenging than reading. A text can be reread there is no problem in comprehension but there is no such scope in listening. As listening is a major aspect of academic and professional interaction, mastering the art of effective listening is essentially Moreover, listening is a communication opportunity and taking advantage of such opportunities Man person a dedicated professional.

Most students who do not have a systematic approach to listening face difficulties in understanding a lecture, a seminar, or a discussion. They suffer from lack of concentration, boredom, ineffective listening, and poor comprehension. As one has to ensure high degree of understanding and remembrance, one should follow a systematic approach to listening. For example, an eminent scholar has to deliver a lecture on a topic relevant to a particular person’s studies and career Listening effectiveness and he/she wants to listen to the professor. In order to take full advantage of this largely depends on an efficient method of opportunity, he/she needs to follow a systematic listening method and apply approach listening priate listening strategies for better comprehension.

In order to improve your listening comprehension, some basic tips on good listening need to be followed and active listening techniques should be adopted. In addition, listening strategies should be developed for specific listening tasks such as lecture comprehension, two-way interactions, group interaction, student-teacher consultations, student-student negotiation, seminars, discussion sessions, and so on.

Ten Thumb Rules for Good Listening

Remember the 10 rules of thumb for good listening listed in Table 5.1. These suggestions can help improve listening effectiveness.

1 Stop Talking Do not talk while listening. One cannot be a speaker and a listener at the same time. The listener should accept his/her role and allow the speaker to talk. He/she should forget about his/her response to the listener and concentrate on the speaker’s words.

2. Stop Thinking It is not enough for the listener to keep his mouth shut while he/she is listening. He/ she has to stop thinking too. He/she cannot listen effectively while thinking. He/she will not be able to focus 100 percent on what the speaker is telling.

3. Remove Distractions in order to focus 100 percent on the person speaking, the listener should avoid all kinds of distractions. He/she should not create any distractions for himself/herself and should not allow others to interrupt.

4. Do Not Let Your Mind Wander One of the main causes of listening inefficiency is the slowness of speech. We can listen faster than the speaker can speak. This lag time may make the listener’s mind wander or daydream. This can be avoided by concentrating on each word spoken by the speaker.

5. Put Speaker at Ease Ac him/her to be at ease. If the speak Speaker at Ease A conducive environment should be provided to the speaker in order to the enhancer to be at ease. If the speaker is not comfortable, he/she will not be able to speak clearly.

Jo not Pre-judge Give the speaker a chance to complete what he/she has to say. Pre-judgment closes the mind and does not allow you to perceive the speaker impartially. You can make a proper judgment only after you have fully comprehended the information.

6. Be Patient The speaker should be allowed sufficient time and not interrupted until he/she takes a pause and invites the listener to do so. Patience is the key to good listening. The listener may be in a hurry as he/she has to go somewhere or do something, but good listening demands that he/she listens to the speaker patiently.

6. Do not be Angry The listener should control his/her temper while listening. He/she may not like what the speaker is telling, or may completely disagree with his/her point of view but good listening demands that he/she listens to him/her calmly without making any fuss.

7. Empathize with the Speaker In order to understand the speaker’s perspective and appreciate his/ her point of view, the listener should try to put him/her in the speaker’s position.

8. Take Notes The listener should take notes if he/she wants to keep a record of what was said, and wants to use it at a later stage.

Active Listening Practices

Listening can be passive or active. Passive listening is the process of just absorbing the message encoded in the spoken word without any involvement. In passive listening, the listener plays no role. On the other hand, active listening is a dynamic, interactive communicative process in which the listener

pays attention,

shows interest in the speaker and speech,

takes note of the speaker’s body language,

avoids distractions, and

responds non-verbally to encourage the speaker.

As active listening is interactive and productive, it facilitates proper interaction and produces new understanding. It promotes more effective listener-speaker relationships and helps us take advantage of opportunities we might miss by being passive listeners. That is why one needs to be an active listener rather than a passive one. Active listening requires conscious efforts on one’s part Active listening and demands concentration, involvement and responsibility. demands concentration, involvement, and

In order to become an active listeners, we have to adopt a set of listening pracresponsibility tices that may help us understand the meaning of an oral message. Listed below are some guidelines to be followed by an active listener.

Attentive Listening Unlike a passive listener, the active listener should show interest in speaking and speech. He/she should show a desire to listen and be interested in what the speaker is telling. Heshe should not show non-verbal signals such as audible snoring or rolling eyes that indicate that he/she does not want to listen. His/her posture must reflect his/her interest and his/her body language shou indicate his/her keenness to listen

An active listener would listen to the speaker patiently and carefully and be alert and pay attention while listening. Passive listeners generally listen to others in an unconscious manner without pays attention. By paying attention to both contents as well as presentation, we can understand the speaker better

Using Non-verbal Skills Appropriate Non-verbal skills may be used to indicate interest and understanding. Eye contact should be maintained with the speaker. The speaker should be helped and encouraged by positive body signals such as an occasional nod or a smile. The listener may also send nonverbal signals to indicate comprehension. He/she should also pay attention to the body language of the speaker in order to understand and interpret non-verbal clues Active listening includes for signs of stress, anxiety, excitement, enthusiasm, or boredom. This will help the listener analyze the verbal message in the right perspective.

Asking Questions Asking questions forms an important part of the listening process as it leads to building up a good rapport between the speaker and the listener. By asking relevant questions we can get the maximum information from a speaker. Moreover, asking questions shows that one is listening and this encourages the speaker. The listener should not wait to be asked and must instead readily ask relevant clarifying questions.

He/she may ask open-ended or closed questions. Open-ended questions provide the speaker with an opportunity to elaborate a point whereas closed questions ask the speaker to be more exact and specific. Examples of Open-ended Questions

1 What are the advantages of this deal?

2. What is your personal opinion about the problem?

3. What do you think about this proposal?

Examples of Closed Questions

1 Is this deal acceptable to the management?

2. Are we facing this problem for the first time?

3. Will you accept this proposal?

While asking questions, the listener should not argue or be rigid on a question. The listener should have the liberty to handle the question the way he/she wants. Here are some tips on how to ask questions:

Questions should be asked at the appropriate points. The speaker should not be interrupted.

Questions should be chosen carefully. The purpose of asking a question should be to get clarifications and indicate comprehension.

Simple language should be used to phrase questions

Questions should be asked one at a time.

The listener should wait for an answer patiently.

The listener should listen carefully to the answer and not jump to conclusions,

Clarifying Clarify what the speaker is saying by paraphrasing what has been said or summarising one’s understanding of the key points. This way the listener can show that he/she is listening carefully and paying attention.

Analyzing As an active listener, one should interpret and analyze what one hears in order to

understand both explicit as well as the implicit meaning of an oral message:

differentiate between ideas, opinions, feelings, and facts, as expressed by the speaker:

infer the meaning of unfamiliar words from contextual or internal clues: and

draw inferences and conclusions from the speech

LISTENING IN CONVERSATIONAL INTERACTION

We may have to listen during two-way interactions that may include informal conversations, academic interactions, student-teacher consultations, student-student negotiation. job interviews, and so on. Lic. tening plays a key role in these communicative situations as the output of listening in all these situations is to make considered oral responses. We need to develop effective listening strategies for these communicative situations.

Which of the following is not an effective listening strategy for two-way interactions? (a) Labeling (b) Listening for conversational signals (c) Too many informal grunts (d) Making social judgments (e) Using attention signals (1) Carrying on mental commentary (1) Using receptive expressions and utterances (h) Increasing speed of listening

LISTENING TO STRUCTURED TALKS

In order to understand a structured talk (that is, lectures, seminar talks, presentations, speeches, oral reports, and so on) or any other formal oral discourse, we require effective listening strategies that help us in comprehending the subject content and language patterns of the oral message. These techniques include pre-listening analysis, predicting, use of background knowledge, intensive listening, and the ability to understand the links between different parts of speech. In order to become an effective listeners, we need to learn and polish these listening techniques.

Pre-listening Analysis

The pre-listening analysis includes determining the purpose of listening and knowing- Listening to structured talking the speaker or presenter involves determining the purpose of listening, knowing

Determining the Purpose

The most important aspect of pre-listening analy- the speaker, guessing thesis is determining what needs to be achieved by listening to the speaker. Does expect information, using background information, and the listener want to listen to the speaker to get a broad understanding of topic intensive listening techniques? of his/her interest? Does he/she intend to obtain specific information? Does he/ and comprehend she wants to be aware of the opinions and reactions of the speaker to specific logical links between a different situation or problem? Does he/she want to understand specific instructions? parts of presentation Whether his/her purpose is to get facts or opinions, understand attitude or perspective, he/she must have a clear idea of what he/she wants to remember at the end of the conversation/ talk/lecture/speech/presentation/seminar/workshop.

Knowing Your Speaker

The second essential aspect in the pre-listening analysis is analyzing the speaker. If the listener knows the speaker well, he/she will be able to make appropriate adaptations for better understanding. Is the speaker an expert of the subject, or just a generalist? What are his/her background and specific qualifications that make him/her fit for the presentation? Has the listener ever heard him/her before? Is he/she or she a native speaker? Answers to these questions will give the listener a fairly good idea of the speaker and help him/her improve.

Predicting

Predicting is a listening strategy for lecture comprehension. It is the process of guessing the information that one expects to receive during a lecture or talk. The listener should be able to think ahead, hypothesize,

(c) What is the overall purpose of the talk?

(d) What is the central idea or theme?

(e) What is the overall organizational structure?

(1) What does the speaker intend to do? (describe, instruct, report, narrate, explain, argue. persuade, illustrate, and so on)

(g) What are the main points of the talk?

Concentrate on the visual aids, if used by the speaker

Identify the keywords or phrases that the speaker might use to emphasize the main points.

Understanding the Links between Different Parts of Speech

The most important aspect of lecture comprehension is identifying the key points of a lecture. In order to recognize key points, we have to understand the links between different parts of speech. This involves recognizing listening cues used by the speaker. Every speaker uses various techniques to indicate the relative importance of different parts of the information contained in the talk. These techniques include identifying prosodic and syntactic features, oral discourse markers, and transitions. Prosodic Features and Syntactic Features Prosodic features include pauses, stress, intonation, and rhythm patterns. A listener needs a proper understanding of English pronunciation and articulation in order to understand these features. The chapter on “Speaking Techniques” in Part Three of this book contains a detailed discussion on these topics.

Syntactic features comprise grammatical structures such as subordinate clauses, noun complements, and so on. Comprehending these syntactic structures during listening demands a fairly good understanding of English grammar. Listeners should concentrate on these features to get the correct meaning of the message: Oral Discourse Markers include signal phrases, logical connectors, and transitional signals. Signal Phrases Lecturers and speakers use specific words and phrases to indicate major transitions and emphasis in their lectures. As illustrated in Table 5.2, they help the listener understand the links between different parts of the talk.

TEAM LISTENING

In view of the widespread use of oral communication in team management and decision making, there can be little doubt about the value of good listening skills in achieving group communicative goals. When we take part in a group communicative situation, we cannot contribute to the stated purposes of the communication unless we are listening properly. By participating in avoiding distractions dating as active listeners, we may meet a personal need to contribute to the negative non-verbal accomplishments of the goals of a group activity. Moreover, active participation as a signals and interruptions listener in a group and its discussions and deliberations serve the group-centered while analyzing and needs of an individual. Finally, active listening meets the ego-centered needs of noting important facts listeners by enhancing their status as successful communicators objectively and attentively

Listening in teams is more difficult than listening to structured talks and well-organized lectures. While we listen to a talk, we get information in an organized and structured form. Understanding the main points is not difficult because the speaker may repeat them several times during the Talk The use of signposts and visual aids also make comprehension easier. On the other hand, wh listen to deliberations during a group discussion, meeting, or team interactions, we get information in a disorganized and unclear form. There are no repetitions of points, no visual aids to clarify points and improve comprehension, no verbal signposts to indicate organization and main points in an oral mee sage. It is, therefore, important that we take extra precautions during team listening.

The following suggestions are designed to help improve team listening skills.

Avoid Distractions There are two kinds of distractions that might disrupt the listening process. The first of these distractions result from surrounding noise and physical disturbances. In order to avoid these external distractions during the process of listening, you have to ensure that all channels are free of noise during the time of communication. The second type of distraction may result from your disturbed state of mind. The best way to control these distractions is to avoid team listening while you are emotionally disturbed. However, if you can not avoid listening, you should focus 100 percent on what other members of the team are talking about.

Avoid Negative Nonverbal Signals Using negative nonverbal signals during group communication is not only rude but also against team spirit as it may lead to misunderstanding and mistrust between team members. Do not use nonverbal signals to show disagreement, boredom, and lack of comprehension. It is better to express these feelings verbally. Avoid using fingers or negative head-shaking to say ‘no’ or ‘rolling eyes’ to indicate that the speaker is a fool or negative hand gestures to show that you disagree.

Don’t Interrupt It is impolite to interrupt a person who is speaking as it shows a lack of respect and creates misunderstanding. You may have something important to say or maybe be very eager to give a quick reply or opinion but it is not fair to interrupt the speaker. It makes you overeager and careless. Good team spirit demands better manners. Be Involved in order to be an effective team listener, do not just absorb the message encoded in the spoken word without any involvement but be alert and pay close attention while listening to your team members. Take conscious efforts with concentration, involvement and responsibility to improve your listening effectiveness as a team member.

Recognize Important Facts It is important to recognize important facts during team listening because team members might express them informally in a casual manner. You have to obtain relevant information and identify the main ideas and supporting details. Although you have to listen carefully to everything that your team members say, you need to filter the information to identify the overall purpose. the central theme and the main focus of what they are saying.

Be Objective Good team members avoid making subjective observations while listening to each other. Being objective will help you as well as the team members in getting a clear picture of each other side and feelings. Also, avoid giving judgments on what you listen. Expressions such as “I think your ico zoning is inappropriate”, or “I do not understand your attitude” are judgmental and should be avoided.

Make Notes Make notes to retain and use the information that you receive during team listening.” not rely on your memory. Refer to the next section for learning effective note-taking techniques

Which of the following listening practices will make you a better team listener? (a) Using negative non-verbal signals (b) Controlling external and internal distractions (c) Becoming actively involved (d) Listening between the lines (e) Interrupting (0) Asking questions (9) Rephrasing (h) Taking notes (0) Being subjective 0 Relaxing during lag time

LISTENING AND NOTE-TAKING

While listening to a lecture or talk, or to a team member during a group discussion or meeting, one needs to remember the information so that it can be used in some other form. It is better not to trust only one’s memory, and one should take notes while listening. Taking notes helps one to understand the points clearly and keep a record for future reference. Even if the facts are easy to remember, they should be jotted down for clarity.

Note-taking may be defined as the process of writing down quickly, briefly, and clearly the important points of a lecture, speech, presentation, or any structured verbal message. It involves summarizing and paraphrasing the verbal message.

Techniques of Note Taking

Taking notes while listening to lectures and talks is an important academic activity. Learning effective note-taking techniques is essential because it is more challenging than making reading notes. While reading a text, you can reread it several times for better comprehension, and notes can be made leisurely. However, this is not possible in note taking because the speaker The four steps of note is not going to repeat his/her points for your convenience.

It is important that you avoid writing down everything you hear. You have to and noting carefully filter the information that you receive and adopt a strategy that enables you to understand the lecture quickly and make appropriate notes. Effective note-taking strategies are essential. Note-taking includes four simple steps, that is, listening, filtering, paraphrasing, and noting. Listen

Follow the 10 rules of thumb for good listening and apply active listening techniques for better comprehension.

Carefully listen to the verbal message in order to identify its purpose and scope.