Academic Skills Home Page About Us Placement Testing General Studies Courses Tutoring Math Tutoring The Writers' Room Online Writing Lab Study Skills Tutoring - Academic Coaching Subject-based Tutoring Praxis I Preparation Tutor Training Academic Coaching Supplemental Instruction Strategies for College Success Faculty & Staff Resources
Student Support Services University Division Home Page
Tutor Training
Module 4
Listening Skills
Which activity involves the most amount of listening? Students spend 20 percent of all school related hours just listening. If television watching and one-half of conversations are included, students spend approximately 50 percent of their waking hours just listening. For those hours spent in the classroom, the amount of listening time can be almost 100 percent. Look at your own activities, especially those related to college. Are most of your activities focused around listening, especially in the classroom?
If you ask a group of students to give a one word description of listening, some would say hearing; however, hearing is physical. Listening is following and understanding the sound; it is hearing with a purpose. Good listening is built on three basic skills: attitude, attention, and adjustment. These skills are known collectively as TRIPLE-A LISTENING.
Listening is the absorption of the meanings of words and sentences by the brain. Listening leads to the understanding of facts and ideas. But listening takes attention, or sticking to the task at hand in spite of distractions. It requires concentration, which is the focusing of your thoughts upon one particular problem. A person who incorporates listening with concentration is actively listening. Active listening is a method of responding to another that encourages communication.
Listening is a very important skill, especially for tutors. Many tutors tend to talk too much during a tutorial session. This defeats the purpose of tutoring, which is to allow students to learn by discussion. Rather than turning the session into a mini-lecture, tutors must actively listen and encourage their students to become active learners. Giving a student your full attention is sometimes difficult because you start to run out of time, or you find yourself thinking about your next question; however, the time you spend actively listening to your student will result in a quality tutoring session.
| Poor Listening Habits and Good Listening Habits | ||
Poor Habits |
Poor Listeners... |
Good Listeners... |
| Criticizing a speaker
|
Criticize the speaker's voice, clothes, or looks. Therefore, they decide that the speaker won't say anything important. | Realize that a lecture is not a popularity contest. Good listeners look for the ideas being presented, not for things to criticize. |
| Finding fault with the
speaker
|
Become so involved in
disagreeing with something the speaker states that they stop
listening to the remainder of the lecture |
Listen with the mind, not the emotions. Good listeners jot down something they disagree with to ask the speaker later, then go on listening. |
| Allowing yourself to be
distracted
|
Use little distractions -- someone coughing, a pencil dropping, the door opening and closing -- as an excuse to stop listening. | Filter out distractions
and concentrate on what the speaker is saying.
|
| Faking attention
|
Look at the speaker but
don't listen. They expect to get the material from the textbook
later.
|
Understand that speakers talk about what they think is most important. Good listeners know that a good lecture may not contain the same information as the textbook. |
| Forcing every lecture
into one format
|
Outline the lecture in detail. The listener is so concerned with organization that he misses the content. | Adjust their style of
note-taking to the speaker's topic and method of organization. |
| Listening only for facts
|
Only want the facts.
They consider everything else to be only the speaker's opinion.
|
Want to see how the facts and examples support the speaker's ideas and arguments. Good listeners know that facts are important, because they support ideas. |
| Calling a subject boring
|
Decide a lecture is
going to be dull and "tune out" the speaker. |
Listen closely for information that can be important and useful, even when a lecture is dull. |
| Overreacting to
"push button" emotional words
|
Get upset at words which trigger certain emotions -- words such as communist, income tax, Hitler or abortion. Emotion begins and listening ends. | Hear these same words.
When they do, they listen very carefully. A good listener tries to
understand the speaker's point of view. |
| Wasting thought speed
|
Move along lazily with
the speaker even though thinking is faster than speaking. A poor
listener daydreams and falls behind.
|
Use any extra time or pauses in the lecture to reflect on the speaker's message. They think about what the speaker is saying, summarize the main points, and think about the next points. |
Look at this site for improving your listening skills:
Remember it is important for you to encourage your students to practice good listening skills. One way to accomplish this task is by sharing with them this simple mnemonic device on how to learn to Listen. Active listening is a very demanding skill that requires practice and perseverance; however, active listening is also very rewarding.
| « Back to Training Home |
USI Home | Academics | Calendar | Athletics | Visitors | Events and News | Administration
8600 University Boulevard - Evansville, IN 47712-3596 - 812/464-8600
Copyright © 2013 University of Southern Indiana. All rights reserved.
