Effective communication (listening): building bridges to understanding (Part 1)

As we experience life, our minds are constantly working. We think about our experiences. They stir emotional and/cognitive responses as we either consciously or unconsciously process them. We process our experiences by critically thinking about them. After we critically think about our experiences, we want to share them as we have experienced them or we want to share our impressions of these experiences with others. In sharing our experiences we communicate.

Communication is an activity which involves a process. This activity should lead to understanding. That is, we who engage in this activity should develop insights into the goals, motivation, biases – that is, an appreciation of the whole person with whom we communicate. This is an understanding that should guide our interactions with each other.

As educators, part of our jobs – possibly the most important part – is to help students to develop the art of effective communication. We realise that if students are to develop this art we have to teach them to listen, to read, to speak and to write. These are the skills inherent in communication. And if we are teachers of English, we would have been taught in college to ensure that every single lesson that we teach engages students in listening, reading, speaking and writing. I am sure teachers of English have all been integrating all these elements in their lessons. But to what end?

In this article, I will explore one element of communication – listening. In doing this, I will present two strategies which teachers of English are fond of using to help students "develop" their listening skills. Then I will show the limitations in achieving the results hoped for as these strategies are now used. Subsequent articles will explore the elements of reading, speaking and writing in promoting effective communication.

First, to “foster” students’ listening skills teachers like to use the game “Chinese telephone”. I am not sure why this game is so named. However, it involves students standing/sitting in a formation which allows them to be next to each other. The teacher whispers a “message” to the first student in the formation, probably something like “Today is a beautiful day”. That student whispers the “message” to the person next to him/her and so the “message” is relayed to the last person in the formation. The last person then relays to the group the message s/he received. Oftentimes, the message that is finally delivered is a garbled mess.

Students and teachers laugh. The students question among themselves how they manage to “lose” the “message”. The teacher tells them that the game is to show the importance of listening. Then, she goes into her “real” lesson. The game is just a warm-up exercise (usually five or ten minutes) to get the students in the mood for what is to come.

Second, there are other “warm-up” listening exercises which require that students listen to a piece which the teacher reads, or listen to any type of recording, after which they fill in the blank spaces on sheets which the teacher provides.

In the two examples of listening exercises provided above, the teacher is asking the students to recall information. Recall is good. After all, we do not want to distort the “facts”.

However, listening should do more than recall information. When we listen we have a responsibility to evaluate what we are hearing. We need to listen critically. We need to ask ourselves some questions which will involve the 5 “ws” and the “h” – “who”, “what”, “when”, “why”, “where” and “how”. We should create questions beginning with these words according to the context in which we find ourselves.

If we evaluate what we hear, we will walk away with a deep understanding of what was said. That is, we can make a judgement as to the merit of the communication.

When we use listening exercises as warm-up exercises for our classes, we should ensure that we introduce our students to the purpose of listening and strategies which they may use in listening. We should also link the exercise to our “real” lesson. When students question what we teach, the answers they get will further their understanding of what is taught. As a result, they will become invested in the subsequent lessons we teach.

Let’s begin to introduce students to listening critically in all our classes, whatever the subject/s that we teach. This is not an easy process. It is something we learn to do with practice.

 Read parts 2, 3 and 4 of this article at the following links:

 Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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