Unit 7: LISTENING

Listening is one of the four language skills and it is a receptive skill. Listening involves making sense of the meaningful sounds of language.  There are some differences between the spoken language and the written language:

Written language	Spoken language
Doesn’t disappear	Disappears.
Uses punctuation	Uses stress and intonation
Consists of letters, written words, sentences, punctuation.	Consists of sounds, single words, sentences, utterances.
Has no visual support	Uses gestures, and facial expressions.
Follows a logical sequence.	Contains interruptions, hesitations.
Uses complex grammar.	Uses general vocabulary and simpler grammar.

As in writing we need to follow a process when listening:

• Attending
• Interpreting
• Responding
• Remembering

On the one hand we can see that written and spoken language have different features.  There are utterances. Also, it has different text types an example could be conversations. Besides, there are different interaction patterns when speaking. Listening involves learning to be able to understand a range of relevant text types.  Linking sounds and words in order to form contractions and that is the problem of many people who is learning another language.  Some people speak slowly and with more pauses and others speak faster and with fewer pauses.  On the other hand there are different subskills. We have listening for gist/global understanding, specific information, detail or to infer attitude. Since, listening is one of the subskills is very important that we as future teachers develop techniques in the classroom with our students to help them to catch faster the language. as in writing is very important to pre-teach new vocabulary, setting pre-listening tasks, giving authentic material for them to use in real situations. Also, is very important that with beginners we use simplified texts. This activity will help them to increase their confidence and they will be able to learn faster. 

References: 

·         Study.com,. (2015). The Four Stages of the Listening Process - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. Retrieved 27 April 2015, from http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-four-stages-of-the-listening-process.html

·         Learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org,. (2015). Skills | LearnEnglishTeens. Retrieved 27 April 2015, from http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice