Teaching Students How to Listen
Instruction in the Process of Listening
Instruction in listening has too often been associated with testing, focusing the the product of listening (She 1987). A focus on the right answer only, when listener is incapable of keeping up with the speech rate, often creates a high level of anxiety, which, in turn, affects attention capacity (Arnold, 2000) While a focus on product allows the teacher to verify comprehension, the answer (correct or incorrect) reveals nothing about the process; i e., how students arrived at comprehension. To help listeners develop s to compensate for gaps in understanding, teachers need to understand how listeners arrived at answers, particularly incorrect answers (Field, 2003). This information can then be used for diagnostic purposes, particularly in helping the less skilled listener to discover and try out more efficient strategies.