Listening
Why is it important?
Although most input is from books and journals, listening skills are also important for university students. Lectures are a very important source, and your interactions in seminars, teams, or in one-to-ones push you to develop your positions.
Listening also involves understanding or interpreting what you hear. This means that listening is closely connected to other skills such as subject knowledge (e.g. technical vocabulary) and critical thinking (for example evaluating an argument).
Good listening skills are necessary for taking effective notes, but not because you should write down everything you hear (you shouldn't): understand what is said, then note down your understanding or write a brief summary. This helps you remember and understand.
These active listening skills help you to engage with your studies.
How can I learn how to do it?
Active listening and advance preparation are very useful for successful listening. Here are some tips and tricks to help you improve your listening skills:
- Concentrate. Sit at the front. Avoid distractions - put your phone on silent and put it away where you can't see it.
- Prepare yourself. Before a lecture, do any required reading, review your notes, think about the subject. You will learn new vocabulary in advance. This will help you to understand and follow better.
- Summarise in your own words. This helps you understand and makes it more memorable.
- Ask questions if anything is unclear.
- For one-to-one or small group situations, pay attention but also show that you are listening with body language and gestures (e.g. by nodding).
- Reflect back what you have understood to confirm your understanding, for example: "So, you are saying that..." with a summary of what you think was said.
- Be aware of the parts of a presentation, lecture, seminar etc. Realise that there are structures to academic speaking. For example, lectures often start with an introduction.
- Notice the signposting language (follow the link for examples). These are words or phrases that show the structure, for example: "Moving on", "Finally".
- Predict the kind of language the speaker will use. Use what you know about the situation to help you prepare and activate your knowledge of the subject and its vocabulary. What is the most likely tense: past, present or future? You can practise this by pausing YouTube videos and trying to predict what will happen next or what they will say.
- A common problem is that students try to catch every word and if they miss a word they stop and get left behind. Realise that you do not need to hear and understand every word in English. Listen out for the key words. These are usually pronounced clearly or stressed. By listening for the key words and not worrying about the unstressed words you will understand most of what is being said. There are a lot of redundant words in English.
- Notice the speed, volume and tone of the speaker. If something is important, the speaker will stress it, i.e. say it more loudly, more slowly and more clearly. Words that are quiet or shortened are usually less important.
- Practise the skill of guessing words that you don’t know. Use the context to help you. Very often, it is possible to guess the meaning of new words. Use clues: the topic, the words around, and the body language of the speaker. You don’t need to be familiar with every word you hear to be able to guess, more or less, what they mean.
