Listening skills in English as a foreign language

Conclusion
The main ideas that were discussed in this chapter were the definition of the listening skill, its purpose, and differences between listening and hearing. Moreover, types of listening skill according to different listening situations, and role of the listener and the teacher were discussed. Also, the listening strategies, components of its process, and factors that influence its success have been explained. Finally, evaluating the listening process, its outcomes, and approaches to evaluate listening in this study have been presented. The focus in this chapter was mainly on one of the four language skills, which is the listening skill. The reason behind this choice according to the literature review and the empirical study that the researcher carried out is the difficulty of teaching and evaluating the process of the listening skill. In order to show its importance in learning a foreign language, the researcher discussed it in the light of other factors that are related to the whole process of the listening skill. Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out again that the listening process is driven by an essential factor. This factor is motivation, which should be activated by the teacher for an effective listening process and good results. Therefore, the next chapter will show the importance of the motivation of the listener and how the success or failure behind the listening process in the foreign language depends greatly on it.
Teachers should have the awareness and knowledge of the listening skill and how it is supposed to be taught. Acknowledging the types of listening and different stages of listening is the first step to teach listening skills correctly. Listening skills should get the same amount of attention as the other skills because of its importance as the basis for the development of other skills. In addition, teachers should teach students how to listen instead of only concentrating on the outcomes of the listening process, such as demanded in tests. As a result, teachers and students will be able to diagnose their problems and barriers of the listening process, which will be helpful in overcoming them. The most important factor is to define firstly the purpose of listening to get the best results of the whole process. Moreover, teachers should create more listening situations in the classroom that increase the motivation of the students by imitating the reality so that students learn to listen actively and consequently are invited to react.
Listeners usually do not only focus on the lyrics of a song, but rather they enjoy the melody, harmony and expression. According to Jamalus (1988, p. 7), a song is a unity of elements, consisting of different elements: main and expression. The main elements consist of rhythm, melody, harmony and lyrics. Rhythm or tempo is the regular, repeated pattern of sound while melody is the arrangement of these patterns and harmony is the unity of two or more tones playing together. Lyrics, meanwhile, are the words accompanying the musical sentences. On the other hand, expression elements show how musicians express their feelings through sound dynamics and voice color.
Music and songs not only provide tools to strengthen and reinforce vocabulary, comprehension, listening, speaking and writing, but also enhance the foreign language learning experience. Along with grammatical variations, songs as auditory stimuli encourage brain activity and the imagination. Learning English through music and songs entails complex interactive roles, positively motivated students to engage and learn. Action research supports a connection between language and song, as well as the propensity of songs to actively engage learners in stimulating activities and discovery
Utilization of visual and auditory tools is effective in strengthening the learning process. Using these tools in the class environment not only enables students to acquire the desired information more quickly, but also makes the information acquired more permanent. According to Çakır (2006), it is a well-known fact that audio-visual materials are a great help in stimulating and facilitating the learning of a foreign language