Page 200 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Listening: Vital to Teaching
Effective listening is of enormous importance to teaching. It is not only the
students but also the teachers who have to practise listening skills.
In a teaching-learning process, it is generally believed that the student is
at the listening end and the teacher at the talking. But this is a wrong notion.
The teacher is not always at the authoritative talking end. The teacher is also
a friend and a facilitator. There are a number of occasions where a teacher
needs to listen, not just give an indifferent hearing, but a patient, empathic
listening to the students’ problems. He understands the problems of the stu-
dents and perhaps even solve them.
Listening is not a subject taught at school like reading and writing. Many
of us seem to feel that it comes naturally. The latest studies reveal that listen-
ing is a very large part of school learning and is one of our primary means of
interacting with people on a personal basis. It is estimated that between 50
to 75 per cent of students’ classroom time is spent listening to the teacher, to
other students or to audio media.
In a classroom the students need to listen attentively to the lectures.
Students must consider listening skills to be an art that should be used effec-
tively for accomplishing the set goals. Listening skills must be consciously
improved by following some strategies.

Some Listening Strategies for the Student

i. Concentrate on content: Do not pay too much importance to the
style of delivery and the teacher’s idiosyncrasies. If you are doing so,
you are not focussing on the content of the lesson.
ii. Avoid emotional involvement: Do not be readily affected with or
stirred by emotion. If you are emotionally involved, then you tend to
become selectively receptive. You listen to what you want to but not
to what is being said.
iii. Maintain eye contact: You will, of course, have to look into your
books at times, but eye contact with the speaker keeps you focused
on the subject at hand and keeps you involved in the lecture.

iv. Expel distractions: Don’t let your mind wander and be distracted by
any noise around you. Try to find a solution for any discomfort due to
a bad seat or bad weather.
v. Consider listening to Be a stimulating mental task: Listening
to an academic lecture is not a passive act. You need to concen-
trate on what is said so that you can comprehend and process the
information.

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