Listening Skills

1. AMBO UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Course Title: Listening Skills Course Code: EnLa 205
Credit Hours: 3 Program: Regular
Course Instructor: Mr Bayissa B.
Course Rationale
Taking the course Listening exposes students with basic listening skills using a variety of
listening tools. The tasks create an immense opportunity for the students to deal with
listening authentic texts and speeches which lead to enhancing their language competence in
general and listening competence in particular.
Course objectives
At the end of this course, trainees will be able to:
• Have a clear understanding of the theoretical background to developing listening skills
• Apply various specific skills and strategies in listen effectively
• Develop interest in learning to listen in English independently
Course Description
This course includes theoretical discussion: approaches to learning to listen, characteristic of
effective listening, problems in learning to listen to English and their teaching implications;
practice of various micro-skills of listening, such as listening for gist ; for specific details,
understanding explicit and implicit meanings, predicting, inferring, selecting relevant
information and note-taking activities and extensive listening.
Course Contents
Table of contents
1 | P a g e
Page

2. Unit 1 Theory of Listening
2 | P a g e
1
1.1 Introduction 1
2. Listening difficulties 2
3. Characteristic of effective listening 3
4. Pronunciation 4
1. Consonants of English
2. Vowels of English
3. Syllabification and word stress
5. Understanding intonation and stress
6. Listening strategies
1. Predicting
2. Using background knowledge
3. Listening for main ideas
4. Listening for organization and general picture
5. Listening for specific ideas
6. Listening for details
7. Interpretive listening
1. Author’s attitude
2. Context
8. Using verbal and non-verbal clues for effective listening (transitions, vocals, body
language, voice, quality, gesture, context)

3. UNIT 1: THEORY OF LISTENING
1. 1 Introduction
There are a lot of definitions of the term “listening”. Chastain (1971) stated that the goal of
listening comprehension is to comprehend the language at normal speed in an automatic
condition. Hamouda (2013) said that listening skill is very important in acquiring
understandable input. Learning does not occur if there will not be any input. Pourhosein
Gilakjani and Mohammadreza Ahmadi (2011) expressed that listening has an important role
in the communication process. According to Pourhosein Gilakjani and Seyedeh Masoumeh
Ahmadi (2011), out the four main areas of communication skills called listening, speaking,
reading, and writing, listening is the most important of all. Goss (1982) said that in listening
comprehension listeners try to construct a meaning when they get the information from the
listening source.
Steinberg (2007) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) defined listening
comprehension as one’s ability to recognize another through sense, aural organs and allocate
a meaning to the message to understand it. According to Richards, John Platt, and Heidi Platt
(2000) and Pourhosein Gilakjani and Seyedeh Masoumeh Ahmadi (2011), listening
comprehension is the process of understanding speech and it concentrates on role of
linguistic units such as phonemes, words, and grammatical structures and the role of
listener’s anticipations, the situation and context, previous knowledge, and the subject. Osada
(2004) expressed that listening skill didn’t receive sufficient acceptance in its own
3 | P a g e

4. right but rather has been considered as a passive skill that will develop without help.
According to Morley (2001) and Rost (2001), listening is the most important skill for
language learning because it can be mostly used in normal daily life and develops faster than
the other language skills which indicate that it makes easy the development of the other
language skills.
According to Hamouda (2013), EFL learners have crucial problems in listening
comprehension because universities pay attention to grammar, reading, and vocabulary.
Listening and speaking skills are not significant parts of many books and teachers do not
consider these skills in their classes. Osada (2004) stated that listening is not very important
for both teachers and learners and teachers test not to teach listening and learners learn
listening not listening comprehension. Consequently, it remains the most neglected aspect of
language teaching. Hamouda (2013) emphasized that comprehending speech is a very
difficult activity for students. Learners face a lot of problems when they listen to a language.
If teachers are expected to assist learners to improve their listening comprehension, they
should comprehend their listening difficulties in understanding spoken passages and teach
them effective listening comprehension strategies to be able to solve their listening
comprehension problems.
www.ccsenet.org/elt English Language Teaching Vol. 9, No. 6; 2016
In this review paper, the researchers reviewed the strategies of listening comprehension and
then identified the learners’ listening comprehension problems when listening to oral texts.
This paper intended to increase teachers’ consciousness of these difficult areas in listening
comprehension so that suitable and effective actions can be adopted. It is hoped that the
findings of this review paper provide good views for the teaching and learning of listening
comprehension for both teachers and learners.
1.2 Definition of Listening
Listening has been defined by many researchers. Chastain (1971) defined listening as the
ability to understand native speech at normal speed. Morley (1972) said listening involves
auditory discrimination, aural grammar, selecting necessary information, remembering it, and
connecting it to the process between sound and form of meaning. Listening, as Howatt and
Dakin (1974) define, is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This
4 | P a g e

5. involves understanding a speaker’s accent and pronunciation, his grammar and his
vocabulary and grasping his meaning
According to Postovsky (1975), listening differs in meaning from sound discrimination to
aural comprehension. Goss (1982) defined listening as a process of understanding what is
heard and organizing it into lexical elements to which meaning can be allocated. Bowen,
Madsen, and Hilferty (1985) demonstrated that listening is understanding the oral language.
Students hear oral speech, divide sounds, classify them into lexical and syntactic units, and
comprehend the message. Listening is a process of receiving what the speaker says, making
and showing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and answering, and creating
meaning by participation, creativity, and empathy.
According to Purdy (1997), listening is the process of receiving, making meaning from, and
answering to spoken and/or nonverbal messages. Rost (2002) defined listening as a complex
process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already
know. According to Rost (2009), listening helps us to understand the world around us and is
one of the necessary elements in creating successful communication. Jafari and Hashim
(2015) emphasized that listening is a channel for comprehensible input and more than 50
percent of the time learners spend in learning a foreign language is devoted to listening.
Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying. This involves
understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and
grasping his meaning. Listening is the most used language skill, listening is the channel in
which we process language in real time, units of encoding and pausing that are unique to
spoken language.
Some researcher said that listening is ability to understand native speech at normal speed.
Listening is a process of understanding what is heard and organizing it into lexical elements.
Furthermore, listening is a process of receiving what speaker says, making and showing
meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and answering, and creating meaning by
participation, creativity, and empathy.
Micro-skills of listening, such as predicting- what people are going to talking about, guessing
an unknown words or phrases by our own knowledge to understand what speaker are saying.
We must identify relevant point and rejecting irrelevant information by note-taking or
summarizing. Moreover, listening teach us to understand different intonation of speaker,
which give clues to meaning and social setting.
5 | P a g e

6. 3. Definition of Listening Comprehension
The term “listening comprehension” has been defined by different authors. According to
Brown and Yule (1983), listening comprehension means that a person understands what
he/she has heard. If he/she learns the text through hearing it, he/she will understand it. Dirven
and Oakeshott-Taylor (1984) defined listening comprehension as the product of teaching
methodology and is matched by terms such as speech understanding, spoken language
understanding, speech recognition, and speech perception. Rost (2002) and Hamouda (2013)
defined listening comprehension as an interactive process in which listeners are involved in
constructing meaning. Listeners comprehend the oral input through sound discrimination,
previous knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, and the other linguistic or
non-linguistic clues. According to Nadig (2013), listening comprehension is the various
processes of understanding and making sense of spoken language. These involve knowing
speech sounds, comprehending the meaning of individual words, and understanding the
syntax of sentences.
UNIT TWO: LISTENING DIFFICULTIES
4. Major Problems That Learners Face With Listening Comprehension
According to Azmi Bingol, Celik Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014), there are a lot of
difficulties that learners may encounter in the listening comprehension processes and the
purpose is to be aware of these problems and try to solve them. Some of these problems are
as follows:
1. Quality of Recorded Materials
In some classes, teachers use some recorded materials that do not have high quality. The
quality of sound system can impact the comprehending of learners’ listening (Azmi Bingol,
Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul Mart, 2014).
2. Cultural Differences
Learners should be familiar with the cultural knowledge of language that has a significant
effect on the learners’ understanding. If the listening task involves completely different
cultural materials then the learners may have critical problems in their comprehension. It is
6 | P a g e

7. the responsibility of teachers to give background knowledge about the listening activities in
advance (Azmi, Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul, 2014).
1.4.3 Accent
Munroe and Derwing (1999) expressed that too many accented speech can lead to an
important reduction in comprehension. According to Goh (1999), 66% of learners mentioned
a speaker’s accent as one of the most significant factors that affect listener comprehension.
Unfamiliar accents both native and non-native can cause serious problems in listening
comprehension and familiarity with an accent helps learners’ listening comprehension. Buck
(2001) indicated that when listeners hear an unfamiliar accent such as Indian English for the
first time after studying only American English will encounter critical difficulties in listening.
This will certainly interrupt the whole listening comprehension process and at the same time
an unfamiliar accent makes comprehension impossible for the listeners.
6.4 Unfamiliar Vocabulary
According to Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014), when listening texts
contain known words it would be very easy for students to understand them. If students know
the meaning of words this can arouse their interest and motivation and can have a positive
impact on the students’ listening comprehension ability. A lot of words have more than one
meaning and if they are not used appropriately in their appropriate contexts students will get
confused.
1.4.5 Length and Speed of Listening
Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) stated that the level of students can have
a significant role when they listen to long parts and keep all information in their mind. It is
very difficult for lower level students to listen more than three minutes long and complete the
listening tasks. Short listening passages make easy listening comprehension for learners and
reduce their tiredness. According to Underwood (1989), speed can make listening passage
difficult. If the speakers speak too fast students may have serious problems to understand L2
words. In this situation, listeners are not able to control the speed of speakers and this can
create critical problems with listening comprehension.
According to Underwood (1989), there are some barriers to effective listening comprehension
process. First, listeners cannot control the speed of speech. The biggest problem with
7 | P a g e

8. listening comprehension is that listeners are not able to control how quickly speakers talk.
Second, listeners cannot have words repeated and this can cause critical difficulties for
them. Students cannot replay a recording section. Teachers decide what and when to repeat
listening texts and it is very difficult for teachers to know whether or not their learners
understood what they have heard. Third, listeners do not have high vocabulary knowledge.
Speakers may select words that listeners do not know them. Listeners may face an unfamiliar
word which can stop them and think about the meaning of that word for a while and miss the
next part of the speech. Fourth, listeners may lack contextual knowledge. Mutual
knowledge and familiar texts can make communication easier for listeners. Listeners can
sometimes comprehend the surface meaning of a passage but they can have substantial
problems in understanding the whole meaning of a passage unless they are familiar with it.
Fifth, it is not very easy for listeners to concentrate on the listening text. Sometimes a
shortest break in attention can prevent comprehension. If the listening passage is interesting
for listeners, concentration will be easy for them.
Graham (2006) said that there are some other factors that increase learners’ listening
comprehension problems such as restricted vocabulary, poor grammar, and misinterpretations
about listening tasks. According to Seferoglu and Uzakgoren (2004), some other listening
comprehension problems are related to the kind of listening materials. The researchers
emphasized that listening is not of great importance and teachers do not teach listening
strategies to their learners. Bloomfield et al. (2010) and Walker (2014) expressed that one of
the serious problems of listening comprehension is related to the pronunciation of words that
is different from the way they appear in print. Due to the fact that the spoken language varies
form of the written language, the recognition of words that make the oral speech can create
some difficulties for students. According to Vandergrift (2007) and Walker (2014), in addition
to identifying the words despite their unfamiliar pronunciation, students should try to decide
which linguistic part belongs to which word. Prosodic features of spoken language like
where the stress falls, weak forms and strong forms of words, and intonation also impact
the comprehension of oral text.
Vandergrift (2004) and Walker (2014) indicated that oral passages exist in real time and
should be processed rapidly and when the passage is over, only a mental representation
remains. Listening needs immediate processing to access the spoken input again, making the
skill more complex than reading. Students’ cultural background knowledge can have an
important role in their listening comprehension. A general understanding of the country’s
8 | P a g e

9. culture and its history can facilitate listening processes. Vandergrift (2007) and Walker
(2014) declared that listeners can use pragmatic knowledge to make inferences and identify
speakers’ implied meaning that these should be specifically considered by teachers when
teaching listening comprehension. Bloomfield et al. (2010) told that regional accents can
impact the spoken message that is understood by the listeners and familiar accents are
easier to understand than unfamiliar accents. Buck (2001) mentioned a lot of problems in
listening activities like unknown vocabularies, unfamiliar topics, fast speech rate, and
unfamiliar accents.
Hasan (2000) indicated that unfamiliar words, difficult grammatical structures, and the length
of the spoken passages are the most important factors that cause problems for learners’
listening comprehension. He continued that clarity, lack of interest, and the demand for
complete answers to listening comprehension questions are the serious difficulties of
students’ listening comprehension. Yagang (1994) said that there are four sources for
listening comprehension problems. They are the message, the speaker, the listener, and the
physical environment. Boyle (1984) stated that listener, speaker, medium, and environment
factors are the main components that affect listening comprehension. According to Teng
(2002), there are four factors called listener factors, speaker factors, stimulus factors, and
context factors that impact students’listening comprehension.
What are some listening problems?
The evidence that shows why listening is difficult comes mainly from four sources: the
message to be listened to, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting.
1. The Message
A.Content: Many learners find it more difficult to listen to a taped message than to read the
same message on a piece of paper, since the listening passage comes into the ear in the
twinkling of an eye, whereas reading material can be read as long as the reader likes.
 The listening material may deal with almost any area of life. It might include street
gossip, proverbs, new products, and situations unfamiliar to the student. Also, in a
spontaneous conversation speakers frequently change topics.
 The content is usually not well organized.
9 | P a g e

10.  In many cases listeners cannot predict what speakers are going to say, whether it is a
news report on the radio, an interviewer’s questions, an everyday conversation, etc.
 Messages on the radio or recorded on tape cannot be listened to at a slower speed.
 Even in conversation it is impossible to ask the speaker to repeat something as many
times as the interlocutor might like.
B. Linguistic Features: Liaison (the linking of words in speech when the second word
begins with a vowel, e.g., an orange /@nOrIndZ/) and elision (leaving out a sound or sounds,
e.g., suppose may be pronounced /sp@uz/ in rapid speech) are common phenomena that
make it difficult for students to distinguish or recognize individual words in the stream of
speech. They are used to seeing words written as discrete entities in their textbooks.
 If listening materials are made up of everyday conversation, they may contain a lot of
colloquial words and expressions, such as stuff for material, guy for man, etc., as well
as slang.
 Students who have been exposed mainly to formal or bookish English may not be
familiar with these expressions.
 In spontaneous conversations people sometimes use ungrammatical sentences because
of nervousness or hesitation. They may omit elements of sentences or add something
redundant. This may make it difficult for the listener to understand the meaning.
2. The Speaker
Ur (1984:7) points out that “in ordinary conversation or even in much extempore/
spontaneous/impromptu speech-making or lecturing we actually say a good deal more than
would appear to be necessary in order to convey our message. Redundant utterances may take
the form of repetitions, false starts, re-phrasings, self-corrections, elaborations, tautologies,
and apparently meaningless additions such as I mean or you know.” This redundancy is a
natural feature of speech and may be either a help or a hindrance, depending on the students’
level. It may make it more difficult for beginners to understand what the speaker is saying; on
the other hand, it may give advanced students more time to “tune in” to the speaker’s voice
and speech style.
Learners tend to be used to their teacher’s accent or to the standard variety of British or
American English. They find it hard to understand speakers with other accents.
10 | P a g
e

11. Spoken prose, as in news broadcasting and reading aloud written texts, is characterized by an
even pace, volume, pitch, and intonation. Natural dialogues, on the other hand, are full of
hesitations, pauses, and uneven intonation. Students used to the former kinds of listening
material may sometimes find the latter difficult to understand.
3. The Listener
Foreign-language students are not familiar enough with clichés and collocations in English to
predict a missing word or phrase. They cannot, for example, be expected to know that rosy
often collocates with cheeks nor to predict the last word will be something like rage when
they hear the phrase he was in a towering. . . . This is a major problem for students.
Lack of sociocultural, factual, and contextual knowledge of the target language can present
an obstacle to comprehension because language is used to express its culture (Anderson and
Lynch 1988).
Foreign-language learners usually devote more time to reading than to listening, and so lack
exposure to different kinds of listening materials. Even our college students majoring in
English have no more than four hours’regular training per week.
Both psychological and physical factors may have a negative effect on perception and
interpretation of listening material. It is tiring for students to concentrate on interpreting
unfamiliar sounds, words, and sentences for long periods.
4. Physical Setting
Noise, including both background noises on the recording and environmental noises, can take
the listener’s mind off the content of the listening passage.
Listening material on tape or radio lacks visual and aural environmental clues. Not seeing the
speaker’s body language and facial expressions makes it more difficult for the listener to
understand the speaker’s meaning.
Unclear sounds resulting from poor-quality equipment can interfere with the listener’s
comprehension.
Some solutions
What can teachers do to help students master the difficulties?
11 | P a g
e

12. Not all the problems described above can be overcome. Certain features of the message and
the speaker, for instance, are inevitable. But this does not mean that the teacher can do
nothing about them. S/he can at least provide the students with suitable listening materials,
background and linguistic knowledge, enabling skills, pleasant classroom conditions, and
useful exercises to help them discover effective listening strategies.
12 | P a g
e
Here are a few helpful ideas:
A. The Message
1.Grade listening materials according to the students’ level, and provide authentic materials
rather than idealized, filtered samples. It is true that natural speech is hard to grade and it is
difficult for students to identify the different voices and cope with frequent overlaps.
Nevertheless, the materials should progress step by step from semi authenticity that displays
most of the linguistic features of natural speech to total authenticity, because the final aim is
to understand natural speech in real life.
2.Design task-oriented exercises to engage the students’ interest and help them learn listening
skills subconsciously. As Ur (1984:25) has said, “Listening exercises are most effective if
they are constructed round a task. That is to say, the students are required to do something in
response to what they hear that will demonstrate their understanding.” She has suggested
some such tasks: expressing agreement or disagreement, taking notes, marking a picture or
diagram according to instructions, and answering questions. Compared with traditional
multiple-choice questions, task based exercises have an obvious advantage: they not only test
the students’ listening comprehension but also encourage them to use different kinds of
listening skills and strategies to reach their destination in an active way.
3.Provide students with different kinds of input, such as lectures, radio news, films, TV
plays, announcements, everyday conversation, interviews, storytelling, English songs, and so
on. Brown and Yule (1983) categorize spoken texts into three broad types: static, dynamic,
and abstract. Texts that describe objects or give instructions are static texts; those that tell a
story or recount an incident are dynamic texts; those that focus on someone’s ideas and

13. beliefs rather than on concrete objects are abstract texts. Brown and Yule suggest that the
three types of input should be provided according to the difficulties they present and the
students’ level. They draw a figure, in which difficulty increases from left to right, and,
within any one type of input, complexity increases from top to bottom.
4. Try to find visual aids or draw pictures and diagrams associated with the listening topics to
help students guess or imagine actively.
B.Th. Speaker
1.Give practice in liaisons and elisions in order to help students get used to the acoustic
forms of rapid natural speech. It is useful to find rapidly uttered colloquial collocations and
ask students to imitate native speakers’ pronunciation.
2.Make students aware of different native-speaker accents. Of course, strong regional accents
are not suitable for training in listening, but in spontaneous conversation native speakers do
have certain accents. Moreover, the American accent is quite different from the British and
Australian. Therefore, it is necessary to let students deal with different accents, especially in
extensive listening.
3.Select short, simple listening texts with little redundancy for lower-level students and
complicated authentic materials with more redundancy for advanced learners. It has been
reported that elementary-level students are not capable of interpreting extra information in the
redundant messages, whereas advanced listeners may benefit from messages being expanded,
paraphrased, etc. (Chaudron 1983).
C. The Listener
1.Provide background knowledge and linguistic knowledge, such as complex sentence
structures and colloquial words and expressions, as needed.
2.Give, and try to get, as much feedback as possible. Throughout the course the teacher
should bridge the gap between input and students’ response and between the teacher’s
feedback and students’ reaction in order to keep activities purposeful. It is important for the
listening-class teacher to give students immediate feedback on their performance. This not
only promotes error correction but also provides encouragement. It can help students develop
confidence in their ability to deal with listening problems. Student feedback can help the
teacher judge where the class is going and how it should be guided.
13 | P a g
e

14. 3. Help students develop the skills of listening with anticipation, listening for specific
information, listening for gist, interpretation and inference, listening for intended meaning,
listening for attitude, etc., by providing varied tasks and exercises at different levels with
different focuses
14 | P a g
e
UNIT THREE: CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LISTENING
3.1Active Listening
3.1.2 What's active listening, and why is it important for your career?
Active listening is the process by which an individual secures information from another
individual or group. It involves paying attention to the conversation, not interrupting, and
taking the time to understand what the speaker is discussing. The “active” element involves
taking steps to draw out details that might not otherwise be shared.1
-Active listeners avoid interrupting at all costs, summarize and repeat back what they have
heard, and observe body language to give them an extra level of understanding.
-Active listening is a helpful skill for any worker to develop. It helps you truly understand
what people are saying in conversations and meetings (and not just what you want to hear,
or think you hear).
-It’s also a particularly useful tool to use during job interviews, since it can help you build a
positive rapport with your interviewer.
-Like critical thinking and problem-solving, active listening is a soft skill that’s held in high
regard by employers. When interviewing for jobs, using active listening techniques can help
show the interviewer how your interpersonal skills can draw people out.
-Active listening redirects your focus from what is going on inside of your head to the needs
of your prospective employer or interviewer. This technique can help reduce your
nervousness during an interview.
By placing your focus, through active listening, squarely upon the interviewer, you prove that
you:

15.  Are interested in the organization’s challenges and successes
 Are ready to help them problem-solve work issues
 Are team players as opposed to being nothing more than a self-absorbed job
candidate.
It’s important to not interrupt, or worse, try to answer the question before you know what the
interviewer is asking. Listen carefully to the interviewer’s questions, ask for clarification if
necessary, and wait until the interviewer has finished talking to respond.
3. Examples of Active Listening Techniques
There are plenty of active listening techniques that will improve the impression you can make
at a job interview.
Active listening techniques include:
 Building trust and establishing rapport
 Demonstrating concern
 Paraphrasing to show understanding
 Using nonverbal cues which show understanding such as nodding, eye contact, and
leaning forward
 Brief verbal affirmations like “I see,” “I know,” “Sure,” “Thank you,” or “I
understand”
 Asking open-ended questions
 Asking specific questions to seek clarification
 Waiting to disclose your opinion
 Disclosing similar experiences to show understanding
4. Examples of Active Listening Responses
It’s often easier to learn by reading examples. Here are some examples of statements and
questions employed with active listening:
 Building trust and establishing rapport: “Tell me what I can do to help.” “I was
really impressed to read on your website how you donate 5% of each sale to charity.”
15 | P a g
e

16.  Demonstrating concern: “I'm eager to help; I know you're going through some tough
challenges.” “I know how hard a corporate restructuring can be. How is staff morale
at this point?”
 Paraphrasing: “So, you're saying that the uncertainty about who will be your new
supervisor is creating stress for you.” “So, you think that we need to build up our
social media marketing efforts.”
 Brief verbal affirmation: “I understand that you'd like more frequent feedback about
your performance.” “Thank you. I appreciate your time in speaking to me.”
 Asking open-ended questions: “I can see that John's criticism was very upsetting to
you. Which aspect of his critique was most disturbing?” “It’s clear that the current
situation is intolerable for you. What changes would you like to see?”
 Asking specific questions: “How long do you expect your hiring process to last?”
“What is your average rate of staff turnover?”
 Waiting to disclose your opinion: “Tell me more about your proposal to reorganize
the department.” “Can you please provide some history for me regarding your
relationship with your former business partner?”
 Disclosing similar situations: “I was also conflicted about returning to work after the
birth of my son.” “I had the responsibility of terminating some of my personnel, due
to downsizing, over the last two years. Even if it’s necessary, it never gets easier.”
3.1.5 Hear What People Are Really Saying
Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. How well you listen has
a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships
with others.
For instance:
 We listen to obtain information.
 We listen to understand.
 We listen for enjoyment.
 We listen to learn.
16 | P a g
e

17. Given all the listening that we do, you would think we'd be good at it! In fact, most
of us are not, and research suggests that we only remember between 25 percent and 50
percent of what we hear, as described by Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience. That means that
when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers, or spouse for 10 minutes, they pay
attention to less than half of the conversation. Turn it around and it reveals that when you are
receiving directions or being presented with information, you aren't hearing the whole
message either. You hope the important parts are captured in your 25-50 percent, but what if
they're not?
Clearly, listening is a skill that we can all benefit from improving. By becoming a better
listener, you can improve your productivity, as well as your ability to influence, persuade and
negotiate. What's more, you'll avoid conflict and misunderstandings. All of these are
necessary for workplace success!
3.1.6 a About Active Listening
The way to improve your listening skills is to practice "active listening." This is where you
make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more
importantly, the complete message being communicated.
In order to do this you must pay attention to the other person very carefully.
You cannot allow yourself to become distracted by whatever else may be going on around
you, or by forming counter arguments while the other person is still speaking. Nor can you
allow yourself to get bored, and lose focus on what the other person is saying.
Becoming an Active Listener
There are five key active listening techniques you can use to help you become a more
effective listener:
1. PayAttention
Give the speaker your undivided attention, and acknowledge the message. Recognize that
non-verbal communication also "speaks" loudly.
17 | P a g
e

18.  Look at the speaker directly.
 Put aside distracting thoughts.
 Don't mentally prepare a rebuttal!
 Avoid being distracted by environmental factors. For example, side conversations.
"Listen" to the speaker's body language . Body language is the unspoken part of
communication that we use to reveal our true feelings and to give our message more impact.
Communication is made up of so much more than words. Nonverbal cues such as tone of
voice, gestures and posture all play their part.
2. Show That You're Listening
Use your own body language and gestures to show that you are engaged.
 Nod occasionally.
 Smile and use other facial expressions.
 Make sure that your posture is open and interested.
 Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes, and "uh huh."
3. Provide Feedback
Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we hear. As a
listener, your role is to understand what is being said. This may require you to reflect on what
is being said and to ask questions.
 Reflect on what has been said by paraphrasing. "What I'm hearing is... ," and "Sounds like
you are saying... ," are great ways to reflect back.
 Ask questions to clarify certain points. "What do you mean when you say... ." "Is this
what you mean?"
 Summarize the speaker's comments periodically.
18 | P a g
e

19. 4. Defer Judgment
Interrupting is a waste of time. It frustrates the speaker and limits full understanding of the
message.
 Allow the speaker to finish each point before asking questions.
 Don't interrupt with counter arguments.
5. Respond Appropriately
Active listening is designed to encourage respect and understanding. You are gaining
information and perspective. You add nothing by attacking the speaker or otherwise putting
his/her down.
 Be candid, open and honest in your response.
 Assert your opinions respectfully.
 Treat the other person in a way that you think they would want to be treated.
Key Points
It takes a lot of concentration and determination to be an active listener. Old habits are hard to
break, and if you’re listening skills are as bad as many people are, then you'll need to do a lot
of work to break these bad habits.
There are five key techniques you can use to develop your active listening skills:
1. Pay attention.
2. Show that you're listening.
3. Provide feedback.
4. Defer judgment.
5. Respond appropriately.
Start using active listening techniques today to become a better communicator, improve your
workplace productivity, and develop better relationships.
19 | P a g
e

20. 3.1.7 Steps to Effective Listening:
In today’s high-tech, high-speed, high-stress world, communication is more important than
ever, yet we seem to devote less and less time to really listening to one another. Genuine
listening has become a rare gift—the gift of time. It helps build relationships, solve problems,
ensure understanding, resolve conflicts, and improve accuracy. At work, effective listening
means fewer errors and less wasted time. At home, it helps develop resourceful, self-reliant
kids who can solve their own problems. Listening builds friendships and career. It saves
money and marriages.
Here are ten steps to help you develop effective listening skills:
Step 1: Face the speaker and maintain eye contact.
Talking to someone while they scan the room, study a computer screen, or gaze out the
window is like trying to hit a moving target. Do your conversational partner the courtesy of
turning to face them. Look at them, even if they don’t look at you. Shyness, uncertainty,
shame, guilt, or other emotions, along with cultural taboos, can inhibit eye contact in some
people under some circumstances. Excuse the other person, but stay focused yourself.
Step 2: Be attentive, but relaxed.
Now that you’ve made eye contact, relax. You don’t have to stare fixedly at the other person.
You can look away now and then and carry on like a normal person. The important thing is to
be attentive. You can be attentive by being present, giving attention, applying or directing
yourself, and remaining ready to serve. Mentally screen out distraction, like background
activity and noise. Finally, don’t be distracted by your own thoughts, feelings, or biases.
Step 3: Keep an open mind.
Listen without judging the other person or mentally criticizing the things she tells you. If
what someone says alarms you, go ahead and feel alarmed. As soon as you indulge in
judgemental bemusements, you’ve compromised your effectiveness as a listener. Listen
without jumping to conclusion. Don’t be a sentence-grabber.
Step 4: Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is sating.
Allow your mind to create a mental model of the information being communicated. Whether
a literal picture, or an arrangement of abstract concepts, your brain will do necessary work if
you stay focused with senses fully alert. When listening to long stretches, concentrate on, and
remember, key words and phrases.
Step 5: Don’t interrupt and don’t impose your ‘solution’.
20 | P a g
e

21. Since our childhood, we have been trained in a way not to interrupt. It is considered to be
rude.
Interruption sends a variety of messages. It says:
“I am more important than you are.”
“I don’t really care what you think.”
“I don’t have time for your opinion.”
“This is not a conversation, it is a contest, and I am going to win.”
Step 6: Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions.
When you don’t understand something, of course you should ask the speaker to explain it to
you. But, rather than interrupt, wait until the speaker pauses.
Step 7: Ask questions only to ensure understanding.
A conversational affront happens all the time. Our questions lead people in directions that
have nothing to do with where they thought they were going. Sometimes we work our way
back to the original topic, but very often we don’t. When you notice that your question has
led the speaker astray, take responsibility for getting the conversation back on track.
Step 8: Try to feel what the speaker is feeling.
Empathy is the heart and soul of good listening. To experience empathy, you have to put
yourself in the person’s place and allow yourself to feel what it is like to be that person at that
moment. This is not an easy thing to do. It takes energy and concentration. But, it is generous
and helpful thing to do, and it facilitates communication like nothing else does.
Step 9: Give the speaker regular feedback.
Show that you understand where the speaker is coming from by reflecting the speaker’s
feelings. If the speaker’s feelings are hidden or unclear, then occasionally paraphrase the
content of the message, or just nod and show your understanding through appropriate facial
expression. The idea is to give the speaker some proof that you are listening, and that you are
following speaker’s train of thought. In task situations, regardless of whether at work or
home, always restate instructions and messages to be sure you understand correctly.
Step 10: Pay attention to what isn’t said—to nonverbal cues.
If you exclude e-mail, the majority of direct communication is probably nonverbal. We glean
a great deal of information about each other without saying a word. Even over the telephone,
you can learn almost as much about a person from the tome and cadence of the speaker’s
voice than from anything s/he says. While listening, remember that words convey only a
fraction of the message.
21 | P a g
e

22. 8. Effective Listening Skills
It is generally agreed that listening is not the same as hearing. Hearing is, of course, an
essential part of listening. However, listening goes beyond simply hearing, and is described as
an active process of taking in information, remembering and interpreting it, and then acting
on it. We can define effective listening as a process by which information is heard,
understood, interpreted and then acted upon—in a way that matches the speaker’s intent. In
other words, for listening to be effective, it must deliver the result that the speaker intended.
This page describes one model of effective listening, the HURIER model. This may be a
useful way of thinking about all the steps involved in effective listening.
1. The HURIER model of Effective Listening
We all accept that listening goes far beyond simply hearing. However, what do we really
mean by effective listening, and what does it include? The acronym HURIER is sometimes
used in academic texts to summarise a model of effective listening skills. This model was
developed by Judi Brownell of Cornell University. The model describes seven areas that are
part of effective listening:
H – Hearing
‘Hearing’ is used here in a very broad sense to describe how you take in information when
someone speaks. This may include both visual and auditory information, and even touch.
Hearing therefore covers the physical act of hearing, using your ears. However, it also
includes visual information, such as how you detect and pick up on non-verbal and other
signals, including tone of voice, body language and facial expressions. People may also use
touch as a way to emphasise particularly important points. This is especially true in close
personal relationships. You can find out more about these aspects of communication in our
pages on Active Listening, and Non-Verbal Communication, which includes both Body
Language, and the use of Face and Voice.
U – Understanding
Once the message has been ‘heard’, the next step is to understand.
This means bringing together all the information that you have gathered from the element of
‘hearing’ to create a coherent understanding of what was communicated.
Factors like language and accent may affect your understanding—and this goes far beyond
the factor of whether you share a native language. For example, a particular choice of words
may convey very different information to people brought up in different areas, or at different
22 | P a g
e

23. times. The use of cultural references such as children’s television can also create a common
language that allows people to communicate in ways that go beyond the words chosen.
It is therefore always worth checking back with the speaker to ensure that you have
understood their message correctly. Techniques such as clarifying, questioning and reflecting
are all ways to ensure that you have understood correctly, as well as showing that you have
been listening.
You may also find our page on Intercultural Communication is helpful in avoiding problems
with understanding when communicating with people from different cultures.
R – Remembering
An effective listener needs to be able to remember the message they are receiving in its
entirety. It is no good listening and then instantly forgetting what you have heard and
understood. You have to be able to retain and use the information. Remembering requires
focus, and is a skill in itself. Experts suggest that you may retain information in either your
short-term or long-term memory. However, these two types of memory often have little to do
with time. Instead, short-term memory is where you keep information while you are using it.
It is often known as ‘working memory’. Long-term memory is where you store information
that you think is worth keeping. Remembering information to which you have listened is
therefore a matter of using both short- and long-term memory.
I – Interpreting
The next step in the process of listening is interpreting the message.
This builds on, and enhances, understanding. Interpretation means considering factors such as
the context in which the message was sent or received, including any biases of the speaker
that may affect the meaning and purpose. Most importantly, the listener also needs to be
aware of, and avoid, any preconceptions or biases of their own that may affect how they
interpret the message. As with developing understanding, it is important to understand any
cultural and intercultural issues that may affect both the ‘coding’ of the message and your
interpretation of it. Our pages on Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Awareness
may be helpful in developing this process.
E – Evaluating
Evaluating is the process of assessing all the information collected via the listening process,
and then deciding what to do with it.This means waiting until you have all the necessary
information before you develop a response. Here, responses include your reaction to it, as
well as what you actually say in response. Evaluating therefore requires listeners to keep an
open mind about the messages they are receiving. It is important not to jump to conclusions
23 | P a g
e

24. about what is being said. Instead, you have to evaluate all the information before you start to
formulate a response.
TOP TIP! Take a deep breath
When you are listening to someone, you can find yourself starting to react before they have
finished speaking. This is especially true if they say something that makes you angry, or
triggers another strong emotion. Before you respond in anger or under the influence of any
other strong emotion, try to take a deep breath (or several) to calm yourself down.Tell
yourself to listen to everything that they have to say before you can decide whether your
anger is appropriate.
R – Responding:
The final element of listening is responding. Your response should be measured and
demonstrate that you have understood what was communicated. It may be necessary to use
techniques such as clarification and reflection as part of the response. A response ‘closes’ the
immediate episode of speaking and listening. However, it is important to remember that a
response does not necessarily end the communication process. Your response may well result
in the other person saying more—and then you will need to repeat the process of listening
again. Communication is an on-going process of transmitting and receiving messages: of
speaking and listening.
3.1.9 More effective Listening Skills
Effective Listening Skills - An essential for good communication
Listening is a significant part of communication process. Communication cannot take place
until and unless a message is heard and retained thoroughly and positively by the
receivers/listeners. Listening is a dynamic process. Listening means attentiveness and
interest perceptible in the posture as well as expressions. Listening implies decoding (i.e.,
translating the symbols into meaning) and interpreting the messages correctly in
communication process.
Listening differs from hearing in sense that:
 Hearing implies just perceiving the sounds while listening means listening with
understanding whatever you are listening. Both the body as well as mind is involved
in listening process.
 Listening is an active process while hearing is a passive activity.
24 | P a g
e

25.  Hearing is an effortless activity while listening is an act requiring conscious efforts,
concentration and interest. Listening involves both physical and psychological efforts.
Effective listening requires both deliberate efforts and a keen mind. Effective listeners
appreciate flow of new ideas and information. Organizations that follow the principles of
effective listening are always informed timely, updated with the changes and
implementations, and are always out of crisis situation. Effective listening promotes
organizational relationships, encourages product delivery and innovation, as well as helps
organization to deal with the diversity in employees and customers it serves.
To improve your communication skills, you must learn to listen effectively. Effective
listening gives you an advantage and makes you more impressive when you speak. It also
boosts your performance.
Developing Effective Listening Skills would help:-
1. Discover your interests’ field.
2. Grasp and understand the matter/content.
3. Remain calm. Do not lose your temper. Anger hampers and inhibits communication.
Angry people jam their minds to the words of others.
4. Be open to accept new ideas and information.
5. Jot down and take a note of important points.
6. Work upon listening. Analyse and evaluate the speech in spare time.
7. Rephrase and summarize the speaker’s ideas.
8. Keep on asking questions. This demonstrates that how well you understand the
speaker’s ideas and also that you are listening.
9. Avoid distractions.
10. “Step into the shoes of others”, i.e., put yourself in the position of the speaker and
observe things from his view point. This will help creating an atmosphere of mutual
understanding and improve the exchange of ideas in communication process.
3.1.10 Top -Tips for Effective Listening
We all know and understand that listening is far more than merely hearing. It requires you to
use your eyes and ears, to understand both verbal and non-verbal communication, and your
25 | P a g
e

26. mind to interpret what you are seeing and hearing on both a logical and an emotional basis. It
is, therefore, a complicated process.
How can you start to develop your listening skills? You might start with our page on
Listening Skills, or Effective Listening—or even with our Interpersonal Skills Self-
Assessment to identify particular problem areas.
However, if you’re in a hurry, you might prefer to start right here: with a page of top tips for
effective listening drawn from all of our content on listening skills.
3.1.11 Top Tips to Improve Your Listening Skills and Make Listening More Effective
1. Start by Stopping (Anything Else)
When someone is speaking, it’s time to stop what else you were doing, so you can focus on
listening. Put your phone away, turn away from your computer, put aside your thoughts about
what you’re going to have for lunch, and simply concentrate on what they’re saying. Make
eye contact with them to show that you are listening, and focus your attention on them.
Effective listening requires your full attention. You can’t do it while you’re distracted or
thinking about something else. If you’re doing something else, then you’re NOT listening
effectively.
2. Consciously Set Aside Any Judgement or Assumptions
Effective listening means putting aside your prejudices, assumptions and biases. It is also
important not to make making any kind of judgement about the speaker or their message. Try
to listen WITHOUT considering whether you agree or disagree, or how you are going to
reply, or any feelings you have about the speaker. Certainly do not start preparing a counter-
argument in your head. Quite apart from anything else, if you listen to their whole message,
you may find that your early impressions were wrong. This ability to set aside judgement is
particularly important for empathic listening. However, it can help you to avoid making
assumptions or misinterpreting the message in any listening situation. You can find out more
about the different types of ineffective listening, and what can prevent you from
understanding the speaker’s message, in our page on Ineffective Listening.
3. Remove Any Physical Barriers to Effective Listening
We said above that you should remove any distractions. However, it is also important to
consider any (other) physical barriers to effective listening. These include, but are not limited
to:
 A lot of background noise, for example, because you are in a crowded room, or you
have the television or radio on. Turn off the noise, or go somewhere else where you
can hear and listen effectively.
26 | P a g
e

27.  Being in physical discomfort, for example because you are hungry or thirsty, or your
chair is uncomfortable. With the speaker’s agreement, stop and get a drink, or
something or eat, or change your chair.
 Being distracted by some characteristic of the speaker, such as their looks or their
accent. Under these circumstances, the most effective thing that you can do is to be
aware of your issue. You can then concentrate harder to overcome the effect.
These factors will prevent you from listening effectively—so remove them from the equation.
4. Show the Speaker You Are Listening
There are a number of signs that you are listening, both verbal and non-verbal.
For example, when people are listening attentively, they tend to make eye contact with the
speaker, nod, and make affirmative noises such as ‘Mm-hm’. This encourages the speaker to
continue, because it shows that the listener is interested.
By contrast, if someone is fidgeting, looking out of the winter, yawning, or checking their
phone or watch, it suggests that they are not paying attention. Under these circumstances, it is
much harder to continue to talk. You can also show that you are listening by briefly
summarising what you have heard and/or taken from their words. We are not talking about a
full summary. However, short phrases like ‘Wow! That must have been exciting!”,
“Goodness, that sounds awful!”, or “It sounds like that was very nerve-wracking” show that
you are paying attention to more than just their words, but also their feelings.
5. Listen for Both Words and Meaning—including Feelings
The words that we choose when we speak are important. However, a huge amount of
communication—some people suggest up to 80%—is non-verbal.
In other words, the tone, volume and pitch of voice, facial expressions, body language, and
behaviour, convey an enormous amount of information and meaning. Your non-verbal
communication is particularly important in conveying emotion. For example, when we are
excited, we tend to talk faster, and more loudly, and the pitch of our voice goes up. When we
are upset about something, our voices drop, and we tend to avoid eye contact.
As you listen to someone talking, take time to consider their non-verbal communication as
well as their words—and ask yourself what message that is sending to you.
6. If Your Mind wanders, bring it back
Everyone’s mind wanders at times. In fact, most people’s minds wander an awful lot of the
time. That’s understood—but effective listening means noticing when it is happening, and
stopping it in its tracks. As you are listening to someone, pay attention to whether your mind
27 | P a g
e

28. is wandering if it is, just bring it back to the speaker. Refocus your mind, and consciously pay
attention again. You can find out more about this idea in our page on Mindful Listening.
7.Be Prepared to Ask for More Information or Clarify of Your Understanding Listening
does not mean never talking yourself. An important part of the listening process is making
sure that you have fully understood the message. It is perfectly acceptable—and indeed,
actively desirable—to use techniques like reflecting, clarifying and questioning to make sure
that you have correctly understood. These techniques are also helpful for showing the speaker
that you are listening. They demonstrate your interest in the subject, as well as your
understanding. They therefore encourage the speaker to say more—and that, after all, is part
of the point.
8. Wait for the Speaker to Pause Before Responding
It’s good to seek clarification or show that you are listening—but wait for the speaker to
finish speaking, or at least pause. Interrupting potentially tells them that you value your views
or ideas more than theirs. As a general rule, don’t jump in until you’re sure that the speaker is
ready for you to do so. However, there are exceptions to this, including if someone is talking
too much, and you need to interrupt to give someone else some air-time. Equally, if you want
to check your understanding of a particular point, then do so. However, try to be mindful of
whether they have finished making their point first.
9. Be Patient
The best, and most effective, listeners are those who are prepared to wait.
They are in no rush to move on in the conversation. They have the patience to wait for the
speaker to order their thoughts, manage their emotions, or do whatever they need to get the
right words—and the right message—across. They know that sometimes communication
takes longer, and they do not interrupt, or rush to fill in pauses in the conversation.
This, in turn, means that those who are speaking to them trust them to listen, and to wait if
necessary. This is especially true when you are talking about something difficult or
emotional—but it follows at any time. Giving people time and space to speak is the mark of a
truly effective listener. You can find out more about how to develop this most underrated of
personal skills in our page on Patience.
10. Put yourself in the Speaker’s Shoes
It is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of empathy in effective listening.
This is the quality of feeling ‘with’ someone: of putting yourself into their shoes so that you
genuinely understand their point of view. Listening with empathy can help you to fully
understand someone’s situation. It allows you to connect more fully with them on a more
28 | P a g
e

29. emotional level. This, in turn, makes communication more open and more effective in both
directions.
2. Characteristics of Good and Effective Listener
Good and effective listener tries to give maximum amount of thought to the speaker’s ideas
being communicated, leaving a minimum amount of time for mental exercises to go off track.
A good listener:-
1. Is attentive- Good listener must pay attention to the key points. He should be alert.
He should avoid any kind of distraction.
2. Does not assume- Good listener does not ignore the information he considers is
unnecessary. He should always summarize the speaker’s ideas so that there is no
misunderstanding of thoughts of speakers. He avoids premature judgements about the
speaker’s message.
3. Listen for feelings and facts- Good listener deliberately listens for the feelings of the
speaker. He concentrates totally on the facts. He evaluates the facts objectively. His
listening is sympathetic, active and alert. He keenly observes the gestures, facial
expression and body language of the speaker. In short, a good listener should be
projective (i.e. one who tries to understand the views of the speaker) and empathic
(i.e. one who concentrates not only on the surface meaning of the message but tries to
probe the feelings and emotions of the speaker).
4. Concentrate on the other speakers kindly and generously- A good listener makes
deliberate efforts to give a chance to other speakers also to express their thoughts and
views. He tries to learn from every speaker. He evaluates the speaker’s ideas in spare
time. He focuses on the content of the speaker’s message and not on the speaker’s
personality and looks.
5. Opportunists- A good listener tries to take benefit from the opportunities arising. He
asks “What’s in it for me?”
To conclude, effective listening enhances the communication quality. It makes all attentive. It
encourages optimistic attitude, healthy relations and more participation. It leads to better
decision- making in an organization. Effective listening is directly related to our ability to do
team work. It must be noted that “We listen at about an efficiency rate of 25 percent
maximum, and we remember only about 50 percent of what is delivered during a ten minute
speech/lecture/communication.”
29 | P a g
e

30. 3.3 Characteristics of Effective Listening
Communication takes place along four modalities: speaking, writing, listening, and reading.
It is common for instructors to teach speaking, writing, and reading skills, and yet, listening is
at once the least understood and most important of these competencies.
Listening is an important communication competence that includes complex cognitive
processes like understanding and interpreting messages, affective processes like being
motivated to pay attention, and behavioural processes like responding with both verbal and
nonverbal feedback. In other words, to be an effective listener, the listener has to take into
consideration what he or she is thinking about the communication being received, what he or
she is feeling about the communication and also the context of the conversation, and what he
or she will do in the process and as a result of the communication.
The characteristics of effective listening thus range across these cognitive, affective, and
behavioural frames.
1. Cognitive characteristics of effective listening
 Probing/explore/investigate
 Paraphrasing
 Summarizing
Asking questions to follow up or for clarification, paraphrasing the individual
communications, and summarizing the conversation are all activities that show the listener’s
cognitive engagement in the conversation, indicating his or her attempts to fully understand
and correctly interpret the messages being relayed.
2. Affective characteristics of effective listening
 Focusing of attention
 Acceptance
 Empathy
30 | P a g
e

31. The effective listener can also signal his or her affective engagement in the conversation by
making it the sole focus of attention, and by receiving communications with acceptance and
empathy. Receiving communications with empathy requires that the listener try to avoid
projecting his or her own opinions, feelings or prejudices onto the speaker, and that the
listener accept the speaker’s communications without simultaneously trying to craft a
response.
3. Behavioural characteristics of effective listening
 Non-verbal behaviour
 Advice
Action is also part of effective listening. The listener should communicate his or her attention
through non-verbal means like eye contact, erect posture, nodding, and other positive body
language. The listener can also demonstrate engagement by broadening the range of the
conversation, such as by inquiring about or suggesting alternatives to the topic or conclusions
at hand.
4. Teaching effective listening
In a dynamic classroom, both the instructor and the students need to be effective
listeners. Perfecting listening skills will foster learning in the classroom by helping students
master the content of the course, ask incisive questions, and learn to think critically about the
content of the course. Listening skills also play a crucial role in personal and professional
success and are especially important to master for students for whom the language of
instruction is not their first language. Because listening is such a complex activity, or a broad
field of activities, inculcating good listening habits in students requires the instructor to
address each of these types of listening processes.
5. Listening Comprehension Strategies
Goh (2000) said that it is very important to teach listening strategies to students and before
doing this; teachers should increase learners’ knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and
phonology. According to Vandergrift (1999), the development of strategy is significant for the
training of listening and learners can guide and assess their own understanding and
31 | P a g
e

32. answers. Many researchers such as Conrad (1985), O’Mallay and Chamot (1990), and Rost
and Ross (1991) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) expressed that there
are three types of strategies in listening comprehension. They are cognitive, metacognitive,
and socio-affective. These strategies can change based on the level of learners.
1. Cognitive Strategies
Cognitive strategies are related to understanding and gathering input in short term memory or
long-term memory for later use. Comprehension begins with the received data that is
examined as consecutive levels of formation and a process of decoding. Cognitive strategy is
a problem-solving method that learners apply to deal with the learning activity and facilitate
the learning of knowledge (Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, & Tugrul Mart, 2014). Derry and
Murphy (1986) defined cognitive strategies as problem-solving techniques that learners use
for the acquisition of knowledge or skill. Brown and Palincsar (1982) and O’Malley and
Chamot (1990) and Abdalhamid (2012) expressed that cognitive strategies are related to the
learning activities and include direct utilization or change of the learning materials.
According to Goh (1998), learners utilize cognitive strategies to assist them process, keep,
and remember new information.
www.ccsenet.org/elt English Language Teaching Vol. 9, No. 6; 2016
There are two kinds of cognitive strategies in listening: bottom- up and top-down. Bottom-up
strategies are word-for-word translation, arranging the rate of speech, repeating the oral text,
and concentrating on prosodic characteristics of the text. Top-down strategies involve
forecasting, guessing, explaining, and visualization.
Advanced learners use more top-down strategies than beginners (Conrad, 1985; Tsui &
Fullilove, 1998; O’Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989; Abdalhamid, 2012). A think-aloud
procedure was used to examine the listening strategies of university students learning
Spanish. The results of quantitative study showed that participants utilized more cognitive
than metacognitive strategies and that females applied more metacognitive strategies than
males. The findings of qualitative study indicated that success in listening was related to
factors like the application of many strategies, ability and flexibility in modifying strategies,
stimulation, self-control, and sufficient use of prior knowledge (Abdalhamid, 2012).
2. Metacognitive Strategies
32 | P a g
e

33. According to Rubin (1988), metacognitive strategies are management techniques used by
learners to control their learning through planning, checking, assessing, and changing. For
instance, for metacognitive planning strategies, listeners clear the aims of a listening task and
apply specific features of the aural language input that make easy the understanding of aural
input. Holden (2004) and Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014) stated that in
this strategy students are aware when listening to the text. In this strategy, learners learn how
to plan, monitor, and evaluate the collected information from the listening part. According to
Wenden (1998), learners who use metacognitive strategies can learn faster and integrate the
knowledge outstandingly, can be constant receivers and deal with all situations, have self-
confidence to get help from partners, teachers, or family, and can observe and assess
themselves. Salataci (2002) indicated that the use of metacognitive strategy in the listening
process increases learners’ self-confidence, motivation, and ability to complete the activities.
According to Baker and Brown (1984) and Abdalhamid (2012), there are two kinds of
metacognitive skill: knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition. Knowledge of
cognition deals with the learners’ consciousness of what is going on, and regulation of
cognition deals with what learners should do to listen effectively. Bacon (1992), O’Malley
and Chamot (1990), Goh (2000), Vandergrift (2003), and Abdalhamid (2012) indicated that
the difference between skilled and less skilled listeners can be understood through their
application of metacognitive strategies. O’Malley et al. (1989) demonstrated that skilled
listeners utilize more repair strategies to redirect their attention back to the activity when
there is a comprehension failure, while less skilled listeners cease listening. Vandergrift
(2003) and Abdalhamid (2012) showed that skilled listeners applied twice as many
metacognitive strategies as their less-skilled learners. According to Henner Stanchina (1987),
metacognitive strategies played an important role in listening comprehension. She mentioned
that skilled listeners can permanently explain and what they hear through (1) utilizing their
prior knowledge and predictions to create theories on the text; (2) connecting new
information with their continuing predictions; (3) making deductions to fill comprehension
breaks; (4) assessing their predictions; (5) improving their theories. Henner Stanchina (1987)
continued skilled listeners can identify failure in understanding and activate their background
knowledge to get better comprehension.
33 | P a g
e

34. 3.5.3 Socio-affective Strategies
Vandergrift (2003) and Abdalhamid (2012) expressed that socio-affective strategies are
techniques that listeners use to cooperate with others, to check their comprehension, and to
reduce their apprehension. Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) said that affective strategies are
very significant because the learning situation and learners’ social-psychological factors are
closely related to each other. There is a significant relationship between low anxiety and high
listening performance: that is, the use of affective strategies makes easy and improve
listening (Aneiro, 1989). O’Malley and Chamot (1987) represented that among the four
strategies of listening comprehension, social and affective strategies had the most effect on
the learning context. Wilson (2003) said that socio-affective strategies are related to students’
interaction with other speakers and their reactions towards learning. Habte-Gabr (2006) said
that in socio-affective strategy, students should know how to decrease anxiety, feel confident
during listening activities, and raise motivation in improving listening skill.
www.ccsenet.org/elt English Language Teaching Vol. 9, No. 6; 2016
3.6 Importance of Listening
Listening plays an important role in second language instruction for several reasons (Rost,
1994). If you cannot hear it well you will find it hard to communicate or perhaps you cannot
pass your listening examination for instance. In fact, students often take the wrong way when
listening and this leads them to the poor result. It should be noted that the learner’s perception
of their listening problem and strategies can affect their comprehension both positively and
negatively (Wenden, 1986). Thus, in order to help students get improved with their listening
skill, it is needed finding out their listening problems which cause difficulties to them.
According to Yagang (1994), the problems in listening were accompanied with the four
following factors: the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting. Furthermore,
a numbers of research have been carried out to pick out the problem in listening. The
problems were believed to cause by the speech rate, vocabulary and pronunciation (Higgins,
1995). As Flowerdew & Miller (1996) assumed that the problems of the students were for the
speed of delivery, new terminology and concept, difficulty in focusing and the physical
environment. As Nguyen Ngoan stated in his article “listening to VOA: advantages, problems
and solutions” the students have to face these three problems. First of all, the students find it
hard to understand proper names as they have never heard about it before. In other words,
they have no background knowledge about what they are listening. The second problem is
34 | P a g
e

35. believed to rise from the unfamiliar, uninteresting and too long listening which makes the
students feel strange, discouraged and bored of what they are hearing. The last one is
assumed to be about the sound connections and intonation spoken by native speakers with
different accents.
The research available on second-language listening comprehension is insufficient.
Comparing with other skills, Goh (1997:161) said that “there are fewer insights about the
process of listening and the way it is learnt”. Similarly, Richards (1985:189) stated that:”
there is little direct research on second language listening comprehension”. As for that, I am
doing this research not only to help students in our university with better listening but also to
contribute a small part to enrich the listening research which has been done so far.
6.1 Definition of Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension is the different processes of understanding the spoken language.
These include knowing speech sounds, comprehending the meaning of individual words, and
understanding the syntax of sentences. Listening comprehension is a product of teaching
methodology and is matched by terms such as speech understanding, spoken language
understanding, speech recognition, and speech perception. Some researcher defined listening
comprehension as an interactive process in which listeners are involved in constructing
meaning.
According to Chastain (1988), listening comprehension is divided into four components. The
first is the ability to differentiate all sounds, intonation patterns, and voice qualities. The
second is, understanding of the whole message uttered by a speaker. The third is the ability to
hold that message in one’s auditory memory until it can be processed, this part is a little
difficult, and we should hear as much language as possible. Language activities that are
comprehensible increase auditory memory. The speed of difficulty level must be adjusted to
the learners. The fourth is to sample the important meaning carrying components of the
material. Listeners should use their own knowledge to understand material about unfamiliar
topics and they rely more on linguistics clues to make up their lack of background
knowledge.
35 | P a g
e

36. 6.2 The Importance of Listening Comprehension in English Learning
Listening comprehension has been ignored in many English language programs. Listening
comprehension is a complex process to understand the speaker says. This ability has an
important role in second language learning and use. Listening comprehension is a necessary
skill for classroom real communication activities. It is a skill for oral communication between
native and non-native speakers to understand each other.
Listening is vital in the English learning because it provides input for learner. If we can’t
understand what the speaker is talking about, any learning simply cannot begin. Spoken
language provides a means of interaction for the learner, this interaction between the speaker
and the listener to achieve understanding. Access to speakers of the language is essential.
Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learner to understand language as
native speakers actually use it. Listening comprehension provides teachers with a means for
drawing learners’ attention to vocabulary, grammar, new interaction patterns in the language.
Listening is an important aspect of both daily life and academic context. This is achieved
when people can maintain effective communication. Listening skills are as important as
speaking skills because people cannot communicate face to-face unless both types of skills
are developed together. Listening ability is also important for learning because students
receive information and gain insight by listening to teachers.
3.7 Reasons Why Listening Comprehension is Difficult
Listening is difficult because for most people English is not their first language and they
don’t speak English. Because of the overemphasis on grammar, reading and vocabulary,
learners who learn English as foreign language have problems in listening comprehension.
Moreover, there are unfamiliar sounds that appear in English but not in their native language
and this leads to comprehension difficulties.
hear. For a language learner, comprehending the meaning of the spoken language requires
more effort when they are compared with native speakers of that language. Learners may not
be familiar with the sound-combinations, lexis and collocations which help them make
guesses to fill the missing parts. It is difficult to make prediction what speaker are saying,
especially if they are not familiar with the commonly used idioms, proverbs and collocations.
Furthermore, learners not being able to have words repeated, limited vocabulary, failing to
36 | P a g
e

37. follow signals like transitions, lack of contextual knowledge, being able to concentrate, and
habits like trying to understand every word in what they hear
The different accents they are exposed to could also be problematic for many language
learners. English is spoken around the world for communication and they should understand
with different accents which may help them to overcome this problem. Another important
problem is students lack the ability to use these visual clues while listening.
Anxiety also influences the ability of participants to respond in listening correctly. Learners
feel anxious are when feeling worry before having a test, feeling afraid if the test is difficult
and feeling worry if the results are not good. This psychological factor also influences the
difficulty of listening comprehension to understand what speaker says because of losing their
focus.
Learners have to listen and write the answer at the same time while listening. Listening test is
different from reading or a grammar and structure test, listening is more complicated. The
listeners have to able to decide the correct answer at the same time when they are listening;
otherwise they will miss the session. This problem can be caused by lack of practice.
Another problem is the listeners don’t recognize words they know miss the beginning of
texts, unable to concentrate, cannot chunk streams of speech, quickly forget what is heard,
unable to form a mental representation from words heard, don’t understand subsequent parts
of input, understand words but not the intended message and confused about the key ideas in
the message. Language learners should be more focused on ways to improve listening skills.
37 | P a g
e
UNIT FOUR: PRONUNCIATION
1. Definition of Pronunciation
According to Seidlhofer (1995), pronunciation is the production and perception of the
significant sounds of a particular language in order to achieve meaning in contexts of
language use. This comprises the production and perception of segmental sounds, of stressed
and unstressed syllables, and of the „speech melody‟, or intonation. Also, the way we sound is
influenced greatly by factors such as voice quality, speech rate and overall loudness.

38. 38 | P a g
e
Whenever we say something, all these aspects are present simultaneously from the very start,
even in a two-syllable utterance such as Hello!”
Further Pronunciation definition taken from Oxford Dictionary states pronunciation is the
way in which a language or a particular word or sound is spoken. If one is said to have
"correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a specific dialect.” A word can be spoken
in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as: the
area in which they grew up, the area in which they now live, if they have a speech or voice
disorder, their ethnic group, their social class, or their education. According to Fraenkel
(1984), there are two main steps to learning how to pronounce a language:
a. Receptive/list stage
In this stage, we learn to differentiate the significant sounds and pattern by listening to the
language.
b. Productive/speaking stage
By this stage, we learn to speak or to produce what we have learned before.
a. Segmental Feature
According to Carr (2008), segmental phonology is the study of segmental phenomena such as
vowel and consonant allophones. Some phonologists argue that segments are an artefact
stemming from our knowledge of alphabetic writing systems. Others argue that the idea of
segments is not a mere artefact, but that segments are psychologically real objects which
enter into the speech planning process, and are reflected in slip of the tongue phenomena.
1) English Consonants
Crystal (2008), defines consonant in terms of both phonetics and phonology. Phonetically, it
is a sound coming from closure or narrowing in the vocal tract therefore the airflow is either
completely blocked or restricted that audible friction is produce. Humans employ speech
organs in producing consonants that the term „articulation‟ is used to most to address
consonant production (Daniel et al., 2014). Phonologically, consonants are those units which
function at the margins of syllables, either singly or in clusters. There are 24 consonants: [p],
[b], [t], [d], [k], [g], [?],
[t∫], [ʤ], [m], [n], [ŋ], [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [∫], [ʒ],[r], [h], [w], and [j].

39. Discussing about consonant classification will lead to three questions: voicing, place of
articulation and manner of articulation.
Table II.1
Consonants
a)Voiced and Voiceless consonants: According to Yule (2010), inside the larynx are the
vocal cords, which take two basic positions.
1)When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them
unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless.
Voiceless consonants will not give a vibration on the Adam’s apple.
2)When the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them
apart as it passes through,
Table. 1 Consonants (Yule, 2010, p. 30)
10.Creating a vibration effect: Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced. Voiced
consonants will give a vibration on the Adam’s apple.
b) Place of Articulation
Regarding the place of articulation occupied to produce the consonants, Yule (2010,p.27-30)
classified consonants into:
Figure . 1
Place of Articulation
1) Bilabials
These consonants are produced through upper (bi) and lower (labia) lips. The consonants
which are categorized bilabial are [p], [b], [m] and [w].
2) Labiodentals
These consonants are produced through the upper teeth and the lower lip. The consonants
which are categorized labiodental are [f] and [v].
39 | P a g
e

40. 40 | P a g
e
3) Dentals
Dental consonants are produced by placing the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. The
consonants which are categorized dental are [θ] and [ð].
4) Alveolars
Alveolar consonants are produced through the front part of the tongue placed on the alveolar
ridge. The consonants which are categorized alveolar are [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l] and [r].
5) Palatals.
These are produced by placing the tongue at the very front of the palate, which is near the
alveolar ridge. The consonants which are categorized palatal are [t∫], [ʤ], [∫], [ʒ]and [j].
6) Velars
The production of velar consonants is done by placing the back of the tongue against the
velum. The consonants which are categorized velar are [k], [g] and [ŋ].
7) Glottal
This is produced without the active of the tongue and other parts of the mouth. This sound is
produced in the glottis- a space between the vocal cords and the larynx. [h] is the glottal
consonant.
c) Manner of articulation
Based on the manner of articulation, Yule (2010, p. 31-33) divides consonants into:
1) Stops or plosives
The sounds which have already been mentioned, the set [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [ɡ] are all
produced by some form of “stopping” of the air stream (very briefly) then letting it go
abruptly. This type of consonant sound, resulting from a blocking or stopping effect on the air
stream, is called a stop (or a “plosive”). A full description of the [t] sound at the beginning of
a word like ten is as a voiceless alveolar stop. In some discussions, only the manner of
articulation is mentioned, as when it is said that the word bed, for example, begins and ends
with voiced stops.
2) Fricatives

41. The manner of articulation used in producing the set of sounds [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], [ʒ
]
involves almost blocking the air stream and having the air push through the very narrow
opening. As the air is pushed through, a type of friction is produced and the resulting sounds
are called fricatives. The usual pronunciation of the word fish begins and ends with the
voiceless fricatives [f] and [ʃ]. The word those begins and ends with the voiced fricatives [ð]
and [z].The sound [h], as in Hi or Hello, is voiceless and also usually included in the set of
fricatives.
3) Affricates
If a brief stopping of the air stream and an obstructed release are combined which causes
some friction, it will be the way to produce the sounds [ʧ] and [ʤ]. These are called affricates
and occur at the beginning of the words cheap and jeep. In the first of these, there is a
voiceless affricate [ʧ],and in the second, a voiced affricate [ʤ].
4) Nasals
Most sounds are produced orally, with the velum raised, preventing airflow from entering the
nasal cavity. However, when the velum is lowered and the air stream is allowed to flow out
through the nose to produce [m], [n] and [ŋ], the sounds are described as nasals. These three
sounds are all voiced. The words morning, knitting and name begin and end with nasals.
5) Liquids
The initial sounds in led and red are described as liquids. They are both voiced. The /l/ sound
is called a lateral liquid and is formed by letting the air stream flow around the sides of the
tongue as the tip of the tongue makes contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge. The [r]
sound at the beginning of red is formed with the tongue tip raised and curled back near the
alveolar ridge.
6) Glides
The sounds [w] and [j] are described as glides. They are both voiced and occur at the
beginning of we, wet, you and yes. These sounds are typically produced with the tongue in
motion (or “gliding”) to or from the position of a vowel and are sometimes called semi-
vowels.
7) Glottal Stops and Flaps
41 | P a g
e

42. There are two common terms used to describe ways of pronouncing consonants which are not
included in the chart presented earlier. The glottal stop, represented by the symbol [ʔ], occurs
when the space between the vocal folds (the glottis) is closed completely (very briefly), then
released. When someone says the expression Oh!
Between the first Oh and the second oh, he typically produces a glottal stop. Some people do
it in the middle of Uh-uh (meaning “no”), and others put one in place of “t” when they
pronounce Batman quickly. A glottal stop can also be produced when saying the words butter
or bottle without pronouncing the “-tt-” part in the middle. If, however, someone pronounces
the word butter in a way that is close to “budder,” then he is making a flap. It is represented
by [d] or sometimes [ɾ]. This sound is produced by the tongue tip tapping the alveolar ridge
briefly. Many American English speakers have a tendency to “flap” the [t] and [d] consonants
between vowels so that, in casual speech, the pairs latter and ladder do not have distinct
middle consonants. Nor do writer and rider, metal and medal. They all have flaps. The
student who was told about the importance of Plato in class and wrote it in his notes as play
dough was clearly a victim of a misinterpreted flap.
42 | P a g
e
2) English Vowels
A vowel is defined as some of the continuous voiced sounds produced without obstruction in
the mouth and they are what may be called pure musical sounds unaccompanied by any
friction noise (Jones, 1986, p. 12) the quality of vowels is depending upon the position of the
tongue and the lips because those articulators have a great role in producing the vowels. As a
result, the production of most vowels is managed by tongue that rises to the palatal ridge.
Vowel classification is based on what part of tongue which is managed to produce the
vowels.
Chart II.1
Vowel Chart
The vowel classification, based on the part of the tongue, is (Jones, 1983, p. 32):
a) Front vowels: the vowels produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the hard
palate.

43. b) Back vowels: the vowels produced by raising the back part of the tongue to the soft palate.
c)Central vowel: the vowels produced by raising the central part of the tongue. The central
part is between the position of the front and back parts of the tongue.
Based on the height of the tongue, vowels fall under four classifications (Jones, 1983,
p.32):
a)Close vowels are those produced by which the tongue is raised as high as possible
consistently with the sound remaining vowels.
b) Open vowels are those produced by which the tongue is positioned as low as possible.
c)Half-close vowels are those produced by which the tongue occupies a position about one-
third of the distance from close to open vowels.
d)Half-open vowels are those produced by which the tongue occupies a position about two-
third of the distance from close to open vowels.
Based on the length, vowels are classified into two categories (Roach, 2009):
1)ShortVowels
Figure II.2
Short Vowel
Fig. 2 Short Vowels (Roach, 2009, p. 24)
The vowel [ɪ],as in the words 'bit', 'pin' and 'fish', is in the close front area and is more open,
and nearer in to the centre. The lips are slightly spread,
The vowel [e], as in the words 'bet', 'men', and 'yes', is a front vowel between. The lips are
slightly spread.
The vowel [æ], as in the words 'bat', 'man', and 'gas', is a front vowel. The lips are slightly
spread.
The vowel [ʌ],as in the words 'cut', 'come', and 'rush', is a central vowel and is more open than
the open-mid tongue height. The lip position is neutral.
43 | P a g
e

44. 44 | P a g
e
The vowel [ɒ], as in the words 'pot', 'gone', and 'cross', is not quite fully back, and between
open-mid and open in tongue height. The lips are slightly rounded. The vowel [ʊ], as in the
words 'put', 'pull', and 'push', is slightly open and near to central. The lips are rounded.
There is one other short vowel, for which the symbol is [ə]. This central vowel is heard in the
first syllable of the words 'about', 'oppose', and 'perhaps', for instance.
2) Long vowels
Long vowels tend to be pronounced a bit longer than the short vowels (Roach, 2009). There
are five long vowels as seen in the following figure.
Figure II.3
Long Vowels
The vowel [iː],as in the words 'beat', 'mean', and 'peace', is closer and more front than is the
short vowel [ɪ],
Although the tongue shape is not much different from the short vowel [ɪ],the lips are only
slightly spread and this results in a rather different vowel quality.
The vowel [
ɜ
ː
]
,as in the words 'bird', 'fern', and 'purse', is a mid-central vowel. The lip position is
neutral.
The vowel [ɑː],as in the words 'card', 'half, and 'pass', is an open vowel, but not as back asthe
vowel [ʌ].The lip position is neutral.
The vowel [ɔ
ː],as in the words 'board', 'torn', and 'horse', is almost fully back and it has quite
strong lip-rounding.
The vowel [uː],as in the words 'food', 'soon', and 'loose', is less back and less close compared to
the vowel [ʊ].The lips are only moderatelyrounded.
Fig. 3 Long Vowels (Roach, 2009, p. 27)
3) English Diphthong
Jones (1983) defines diphthong as another branch of vowel produced gliding from one
position of vowel to another. According to Roach (2009), there are eight diphthongs. It can be
seen in the following figure.

45. Figure. II.4
Diphthong
The centring diphthongs glide towards the [ə] vowel. It can be seen in the following
figure.
Figure II.5
Centering Diphthong
Fig. 5 Centering Diphthong (Roach, 2009, p. 29)
45 | P a g
e
The diphthong [ɪə], as in the words 'beard', 'weird', and 'fierce', starts the point in a little closer
position than [ɪ],as in the words 'bit' and 'bin'.
The Diphthong [eə], as in the words 'aired', 'cairn', and 'scarce', begins with a vowel sound
that is more open than the [e], as in the words 'get' and 'men'. The Diphthong [ʊə], as in the
words 'moored', 'tour' and 'lure', starts the point in a similar position to [ʊ], as in the words 'put'
and 'pull'. Many speakers pronounce /
ɔ
ː
/instead.
Roach (2009, p. 29) remarks that the closing diphthongs have the characteristic that they all
end with a glide towards a closer vowel. Because the second part of the diphthong is weak,
they often do not reach a position that could be called close. The important thing is that a
glide from a relatively more open towards a relatively closer vowel is produced.
Three of the diphthongs glide towards [ɪ],as described below:
Figure. II. 6
Closing Diphthong
Fig. 6 Closing Diphthong (Roach, 2009, p. 29)
The diphthong [eɪ],as in the words 'paid', 'pain' and 'face, starts the point in the same as the
[e] of 'get' and 'men'. The diphthong [aɪ],as in the words 'tide', 'time', 'nice') begins with an open
vowel which is between front and back; it is quite similar to the [ʌ]of the words 'cut' and 'bun'.

46. The diphthong [
ɔ
ɪ
]
,as in the words 'void', 'loin', 'voice', begins with is slightly more open than [
ɔ
ː
]
in 'ought' and 'born'.
Two diphthongs glide towards [ʊ], so that as the tongue moves closer to the roof of the mouth
there is at the same time a rounding movement of the lips. This movement is not a large one,
again because the second part of the diphthong is weak.
The diphthong [əʊ], as in the words 'load', 'home' and 'most', begins in the same as the "schwa"
vowel [ə], as found in the first syllable of the word 'about'. The lips may be slightly rounded
in anticipation of the glide towards [ʊ],for which there is quite noticeable lip- rounding.
The diphthong [ɑʊ],as in the words 'loud', 'gown' and 'house', begins with a vowel similar to [ʌ].
Since this is an open vowel, a glide to [ʊ] would necessitate a large movement, and the tongue
often does not reach the u position. There is only slight liprounding.
46 | P a g
e
4) English Triphthongs
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly
and without interruption (Roach, 2009, p. 29-30). For example, a careful pronunciation of the
word 'hour' begins with a vowel quality similar to /ɑː/,goes on to a glide towards the back close
rounded area [ʊ], and then ends with a mid-central vowel [ə]. The symbol [ɑʊə] is used to
represent the pronunciation of 'hour', but this is not always an accurate representation of the
pronunciation.
2. Problems of Pronunciation
Many students have problems in learning English especially in spoken English language.
According to Harmer (2007), there are many problems faced by students to study
pronunciation. They are as follows:
a. What students can hear?

47. Some students have great difficulty hearing pronunciation features which we want them to
reproduce? Frequently, speakers of different first languages have problems with different
sounds
b. What students can say?
Learning a foreign language often presents us with the problem of physical unfamiliarity (i.e.
it is actually physically difficult to make the sound using particular parts of the mouth, uvula
or nasal cavity).
1) The intonation problem
Some of us (and many of our students) find it extremely difficult to hear tunes or to identify
the different patterns of rising and falling tones.
Some common pronunciation errors produced by many speakers of English as a foreign
language are:
a)The speakers get it difficult to produce sounds /e/ and letter th (as in that, mother, it
because some particular sounds may not exist in their mother language, so that the speakers
will substitute sounds and /a/ to similar sound /d/. As Shah. Siew
Lee and Stephen state that sounds /e/ and/a/are not found in Malay.
b)The speakers get it difficult to differentiate sounds /i:/ and /I/ in words. Actually, these
sounds exist in their language, but it is not in a separate phoneme.
c) The speakers get it difficult to pronounce schwa vowel /a/, for example up /ap/.
d) The speakers have a tendency to give same stress to stress syllable and unstressed syllable.
e) The speakers have a tendency to shorten diphthongs become monothongs. For example is
/ei/ becomes /e/ in word table.
Dealing with the common pronunciation error above, EFL
(English for Foreign Language) teachers can do some efforts. First, teachers should speak
clearly and slowly in their pronunciation classes and they should convince their learners that
their language is understandable (Bradley Bennett, 2007), This can help their students
improve their pronunciation by listening to them carefully, In this case, slow speech with
47 | P a g
e

48. correct pronunciation is much better than fast speech with wrong pronunciation Second,
teachers should familiarize their learners to both American and British English and learners
should be able to understand both varieties of pronunciation (RasekhiKolokdaragh, 2010)
Third, pronunciation should be viewed as more than correct production of individual sounds
or words, Teachers can urge their learners to monitor their own pronunciation and practice
their speaking skills as much as possible both in and outside the classroom. In short in order
to solve the pronunciation problems faced by learners, the efforts must be done both by
teachers and students.
3. The difficulties of pronunciation
Daniel Jones states that: The difficulties of pronunciation are:
Learning a foreign language often presents us with the problem of physical unfamiliarity (i.e.
it is actually physically difficult to make the sound using particular parts of the mouth, uvula
or nasal cavity). The intonation problem some of us (and many of our students) find it
extremely difficult to hear tunes or to identify the different patterns of rising and falling
tones. According to Kelly (2000), there are two main problems in teaching pronunciation:
a. Pronunciation tends to be neglected.
b.When it is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the
classroom rather than being strategically planned.
There are two reasons that pronunciation tends to be neglected.
First, teachers are lack interest to teach pronunciation. Secondly, teachers do not know how
to teach pronunciation due to having lack of knowledge of pronunciation theory. When
pronunciation is not neglected, it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in
the classroom rather than being strategically planned. Teachers need to improve their
practical skill in teaching pronunciation. Additionally, students show considerable enthusiasm
for pronunciation. Students feel enthusiastic, because pronunciation is something that would
help them to communicate well.
Therefore, both teachers and learners consider that pronunciation is very important in a
language learning process. To solve these problems, pronunciation teachers need:
a. A good grounding in theoretical knowledge
48 | P a g
e