Content Introduction

1.3 The main sub- skills of primary skills in language teaching

There are 4 main skills in the English language. They are:

• 
  Reading;
  
• 
  Listening;
  
• 
  Reading;
  
• 
  Writing.
  

Now we start to look at the sub- skills of the primary skills.

Listening

Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.
If there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then listening is it.
Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, and increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work.
Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs credit their success to effective listening skills. Richard Branson frequently quotes listening as one of the main factors behind the success of Virgin.

Effective listening is a skill that underpins all positive human relationships.

Spend some time thinking about and developing your listening skills -they are the building blocks of success.

Listening sub-skills:

1-Listening for gist:

It is extensive listening for skimming. This happens when we listen to get a general idea about a topic.
Example:listening to a summary of the day’s news on the radio.

2-listening for specific information:

This is when we listen to something because we want to discover one particular piece of information.
Example: Listening to weather report to discover the weather in your city.

3-Listening in detail :

It is the intensive listening for scanning. This is when we listen we listen very closely, paying attention to all the words and trying to understand as much information as possible.
Example: A member of a jury listening to a statement from a witness.

4-Listening for attitude.

5-Extensive listening.
6-Listening for individual sounds.
7-Exercises:
Learners Listen in order give full answer, give short answer, recognize true or false sentences, fill gaps in a close passage, detect mistakes, choose, underline and to summarize.


General Listening Types:

The two main types of listening - the foundations of all listening sub-types are:

• 
  Discriminative Listening
  
• 
  Comprehensive Listening
  

Discriminative Listening

Discriminative listening is first developed at a very early age – perhaps even before birth, in the womb. This is the most basic form of listening and does not involve the understanding of the meaning of words or phrases but merely the different sounds that are produced. In early childhood, for example, a distinction is made between the sounds of the voices of the parents – the voice of the father sounds different to that of the mother.

Discriminative listening develops through childhood and into adulthood. As we grow older and develop and gain more life experience, our ability to distinguish between different sounds is improved. Not only can we recognise different voices, but we also develop the ability to recognise subtle differences in the way that sounds are made – this is fundamental to ultimately understanding what these sounds mean. Differences include many subtleties, recognising foreign languages, distinguishing between regional accents and clues to the emotions and feelings of the speaker.
Being able to distinguish the subtleties of sound made by somebody who is happy or sad, angry or stressed, for example, ultimately adds value to what is actually being said and, of course, does aid comprehension. When discriminative listening skills are combined with visual stimuli, the resulting ability to ‘listen’ to body-language enables us to begin to understand the speaker more fully – for example recognising somebody is sad despite what they are saying or how they are saying it.

Example
Imagine yourself surrounded by people who are speaking a language that you cannot understand. Perhaps passing through an airport in another country. You can probably distinguish between different voices, male and female, young and old and also gain some understanding about what is going on around you based on the tone of voice, mannerisms and body language of the other people. You are not understanding what is being said but using discriminative listening to gain some level of comprehension of your surroundings.