Issues in development of listening skills

Significance of Listening

Due to the fact that the communicative approach is increasingly used in EFL situation, we, therefore, stress the importance of students‘ communicative competence. The need for competence in listening in EFL English language learners is increasing, so that listening teaching has attracted considerable attention. Unfortunately, the teaching of listening skills is still neglected in the English language teaching process. EFL learners have serious problems in English listening comprehension due to the fact that universities pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary. Listening and speaking skills are not important parts of many course books or curricula and teachers do not seem to pay attention to these skills while designing their lessons. EFL English language learners have limited listening comprehension. Listening levels of learners are different from each other, because listening is affected by crucial factors. The most important factors that should be emphasized are: the significance of listening, the study of listening teaching theory and use of the most advanced listening teaching methods. In many English language classes, grammar translation method is used for teaching. This method has been found inadequate to the demands for producing efficient English speakers and listeners. So a new teaching method should be used to meet the needs of students. This new method is called communicative approach. English must be taught as a tool for communication. It is now widely accepted that students‘ listening ability must be at the core of teaching practice, and it is the area in which teachers need to concentrate their own efforts to improve their teaching. This is a significant challenge for English teachers; however, it is crucial in the development of English language communicative competence. The purpose of this approach is to improve the students‘ English overall linguistic capability and oral and aural competence. The researchers attempt to discuss the definition of listening, importance of listening. Then, they review the process of listening comprehension, strategies of listening comprehension. Analysis of listening comprehension problems is reviewed. Then, teaching methods for listening comprehension and teaching listening activities will be discussed. Finally, general principles in teaching listening comprehension are discussed. Findings of this study will be beneficial to EFL learners to improve their English language listening comprehension ability.
Listening is the most frequently used language skill. Bird (1953) found that female college students spent 42 percent of their total verbal communication time in listening while they spent 25 percent in speaking, 15 percent in reading, and 18 percent in writing.⁷ A study conducted by Barker, Edwards, Gaines, Gladney, and Holley (1980) confirmed Bird's view of the primacy of listening and showed that the portion of verbal communication time spent by college students was 52.5 percent in listening, 17.3 percent in reading, 16.3 percent in speaking, and 13.9 percent in writing. According to Devine (1982), listening is the primary means by which incoming ideas and information are taken; in Gilbert (1988), on the other hand, noted that students from kindergarten through high school were expected to listen 65-90 percent of the time. Wolvin and Coakley (1988) concluded that, both in and out of the classroom, listening consumes more of daily communication time than other forms of verbal communication. Listening is central to the lives of students throughout all levels of educational development. Listening is the most frequently used language skill in the classroom (Ferris, 1998). Both instructors and students acknowledge the importance of listening comprehension for success in academic settings. Numerous studies indicated that efficient listening skills were more important than reading skills as a factor contributing to academic success. However, Dunkel's (1991b) study reported that international students' academic success in the United States and Canada relied more on reading than listening comprehension, especially for those students in engineering, psychology, chemistry, and computer science. Thus, the importance of listening in classroom instruction has been less emphasized than reading and writing. Nevertheless, it is evident that listening plays a significant role in the lives of people. Listening is even more important for the lives of students since listening is used as a primary medium of learning at all stages of education.
Using general knowledge about language skill development, we can draw up some guidelines for developing listening ability:

1. 
   Listening ability develops through face-to-face interaction.
   

By interacting in English, learners have the chance for new language input and the chance to check their own listening ability. Face-to-face interaction provides stimulation for development of listening for meaning.

2. 
   Listening develops through focusing on meaning and trying to learn new and important content in the target language.
   

By focusing on meaning and real reasons for listening in English, learners can mobile both their linguistic and non-linguistic abilities to understand.

3. 
   Listening ability develops through work on comprehension activities.
   

By focusing on specific goals for listening, learners can evaluate their efforts and abilities. By having well-defined comprehension activities, learners have opportunities for assessing what they have achieved and for revision.

4. 
   Listening develops through attention to accuracy and an analysis of form.
   

By learning to perceive sounds and words accurately as they work on meaning-oriented activities, our learners can make steady progress. By learning to hear sounds and words more accurately, learners gain confidence in listening for meaning (Rost, M., 1994,p.7).
Anderson (1983, 1995) distinguishes two kinds of mental representations in the information-processing model: declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge refers to static information in memory, or what we already know about. Procedural knowledge includes dynamic information in memory, or what we know how to do. Strategic knowledge is categorized as procedural knowledge because it works on the applications of our knowledge of rules to solve linguistic problems. While declarative knowledge or factual information may be acquired quickly, procedural knowledge is acquired gradually and only with extensive opportunities for practice (O'Malley⁸, Chamot, & Walker, 1987).
To describe the learning process that proceeds from the rule-constrained declarative knowledge to the more self-acting proceduralized phase,( Anderson 1983, 1995). proposes three stages of skill acquisition process: cognitive, associative, and autonomous stage. The first stage involves conscious mental activity under instruction or during a learner's self-education. The learner tries to figure out how to do the task and is acquiring declarative knowledge. The second stage transforms the declarative knowledge into its procedural form. Errors are gradually corrected and discarded in the preliminary declarative representation. The third stage is a "fine-tuned" phase of performance. Errors that cause the performance difficulties vanish. The target skill is carried out virtually automatically and effortlessly, so there is more room left in working memory, which allows more incoming information into the initial processing space.
This study mainly concerns the barriers or difficulties depicted in the first two stages (cognitive and associative stage) of Anderson's model. Before reaching the autonomous s00tage, learners might confront different kinds of barriers as they try to implement strategic knowledge into practice.

The following main goals are suggested for the listening comprehension programme:

1. 
   to give the learners experience of listening to a wide variety of samples of spoken language. The purpose here, then, is exposure to:
   

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  different varieties of language (standard/regional, formal/informal etc.);
  
• 
  different text types (conversational, narrative, informative etc.).
  

The motivation for the learner should be pleasure, interest, and a growing confidence at being able to understand the spoken language without reference to the written form.

2. 
   to train the learners to listen flexibly e. g. for specific information, for the main idea or ideas, or to react to instructions (i. e. by doing something). The motivation for this type of listening will come from tasks, which are interesting in their own right, and which will focus the learners’ attention on the material in an appropriate way.
   
3. 
   to provide, through listening, a stimulus for other activities e. g. discussion, reading and writing.
   

to give the learners opportunities to interact while listening. In the classroom this must be done largely through discussion-type activities and games, where listening forms a natural part of the activity. This type of activity will be done mostly in small groups, but there are occasions when the teacher can profitably interact with the whole class (Brown, J., 1990,p.15).

3.