The necessity of setting a limit to the exceptions

312 Language Learning

a. Opportunities

1 Visiting Visiting can be used for listening hearing the language practice. a Visiting others As you make your round of visiting each day Kunas appreciate a daily visit, follow one of the other men or women from house to house. This is quite acceptable and affords you the opportunity of hearing the same person relate the same content the day ‘s activities to house after house. Then, the next day, follow someone else. When someone has arrived from a trip, go and visit him and stay around as he relates his trip over and over again to a succession of visitors. b Visitors to your house After normal courtesies have been extended, often the visitor will visit or talk with only one member of your family. The inactive member can then listen and get in hearing practice without having to worry about replying, e.g., the husband listens as the wife takes care of medical needs. Or the wife listens as the man talks with her husband. If your visitors have been given photos or magazines to look at, you can listen as they discuss it among themselves. 2 Meetings The village meetings give a great opportunity for listening. The temptation is to switch off when you can ‘t understand. However, by concentrating, you can learn much of teaching style and patterns. You can learn discussion patterns too. Occasionally, if a problem arises with somebody violating the law and customs of the people, you can hear accusations, denials and counter-accusations and authoritative judicial announcements as the chief acts as judge. You cannot concentrate for hours on end. Nobody can. So, when you feel your concentration slipping, ―switch off‖ the speaker and relax your mind. After a break of about five minutes, ―switch on‖ again and start listening. Stretching your legs and a breath of fresh air can help too. You will notice it is quite cultural to excuse yourself from the meeting for a couple of minutes. 3 Work parties Kunas are a community-oriented society and as such, often work together doing house-building, town clean-up, etc. By taking part in these, you can obtain excellent opportunities for listening. It is quite cultural to be present at a work party and not lift a finger to help, if you are not one of those assigned to the job. If, however, the whole community is involved, it is better to join in as you can.

b. Methods

1 Tracking The most profitable way is to track the speaker. This device is fully discussed in Section 9.2. 2 Active listening A less profitable way is to listen actively. Sometimes it ‘s just not wise to track the speaker, so this is the best you can do. Think about what you are hearing. Don ‘t only pay attention to the content or meaning of what is being said, but also to the way it is said. Sometimes you should concentrate on everything that is being said. Other times you should select a particular feature and zero in on that, e.g., where a listener inserts a conversation sustainer, or if there is some pattern to how one of them is used.