2 Monitoring: determining the effectiveness of one‘s own or another‘s
performance while engaged in a task; 3 Self-
evaluating: determining the effectiveness of one‘s own or another‘s performance after engaging in the activity;
4 Self-testing: testing one- self to determine the effectiveness of one‘s
own language use or the lack thereof.
Referring to explanation above, the writer concludes that listening process is the process of brain activities of getting the meaning from incoming sound. The
complexity of constructing meaning referred to process of combining background knowledge and background acknowledge that occur concurrently.
3. Factors Affecting Listening
According to Joseph P. Boyle, there are three factors that affect listening skill, they are: Listener factors, Speaker factors, and Material factors.
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a. The listener Interesting topic makes
the listener‘s comprehension increases; give topic of listener‘s interest. A listener who is an active participant in a
conversation generally has more understanding of the topic being discussed than a listener who is listening to a conversation on recorded
materials. Furthermore, the ability to use negotiation skills, such as asking for clarification, repetition or definition of points that he does not
understand, enables a listener to make sense in the incoming information. Listener factors involve:
1 Knowledgeperform in listening to the target language 2 General intelligent
3 Physical and educational 4 Intellectual powers of analysis and selection and memory of short
term and long term, etc
15
Joseph P. boyle, Factors Affecting Listening Comprehension, English Language Teaching Forum, XXXVIII, 1, 1984, p. 35.
5 Psychological motivation and manner while listening, sense of purpose of listeners to the speaker, listener
‘s attention and concentration.
A good listener is an individual who does the following at listening: 1 Stay alertly and consciously;
2 Classify the general idea of the topic; 3 Identifies and connects the supporting ideas or details of the speakers;
4 Keep the logical sequence of the topic; mentally and maintains a running summary of the speaker‘s points;
5 Critically identifies emotional and catch phrases; 6 Relates other knowledge to the topic as it is being presented; makes
justifiable inferences; 7 Makes mental notes of agreement and disagreement; asks questions
for clarifications.
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b. The Speaker Factors The speaker factors which he uses language forms up to the extent has an
impact in listeners‘ comprehension. The exposure, rate of delivery, may be too fast, too slow, or has too many hesitations needs listener great
ability to comprehend. Language ability of the speaker: native speaker- beginner-level and non native speaker
1 Speaker‘s production: pronunciation, accent, variation, voice, etc.
2 Speed of delivery 3 Prestige and personality of the speaker
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c. Content The content to comprehend is the content of harder with unfamiliar
vocabulary or which the listener has insufficient background knowledge
16
Paul C. Burns and Betty L. Broman., The Language Arts In childhood Education, Chicago: Rand McNally Company, p. 83.
17
Joseph P. boyle, Factors Affecting Listening Comprehension, English Language Teaching Forum, XXXVIII, 1, 1984, p. 35.
d. Visual support Learner‘s ability to interpret visual support, such as video, pictures,
diagrams, gestures, facial expressions, and body language, can increase comprehension correctly. This can be done with amount of support
provided by gestures, visuals.
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Awareness to these factors and in order to make listening comprehension easier, construct appropriate activities. There are two kinds of listening activities
propose by Joan Rubin and Irene Thompson they are interactive listening and non-interactive listening.
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a. Interactive listening. This kind of listening called interactive because participants alternately
play the role of speakers and listener which is mostly occurs in the course of conversation. In interactive listening, one can intervene by asking
additional questions and seeking clarification, repetition, or rephrasing. It is an active listening because listener is thinking, feeling, wanting of
what the message means by checking out the messaage and reflect it back to sender for verification. This verification or feedback process is what
distinguishes active listening and makes it effective. b. Non-interactive listening.
In this listening situation, one not needs to be prepared. This type of listening is called non-interactive because these include instances in
which one will not be able to interfere in which one have no part by asking questions or seeking clarification. For instance, one will listen to
lectures, speeches, and radio or watch TV, films, or live plays. Non-interactive listening as passive listening or attentive listening
are genuinely in hearing and understanding the other‘s person point of
18
Ibid.
19
Joan Rubin and Irene Thompson, How to be a More Successful language Learner: Toward Learner Autonomy, Massachusetts: Heinle and Heinle Publishers, 1994, p. 85.
view. One is attentive and passively listens, and assumes what being heard and understands correctly, but stay passive and do not verify it.
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Most obviously, the listening skill is essential for learners. Through listening activity, learners can be more practiced and more skillful. Teacher need to stay
alert about listening practice. Practicing listening involves listening principles. Jeremy harmer points out several listening principles to be compiled by the
teacher, they are: Principle 1: Encourage students to listen as often as possible. With more at
listening practice and listening sources, students will get better at it.
Principle 2: Help students to prepare to listen. Preparing students to listen is essential because if they are known what to deal with they are
better perceived it. Principle 3: Once may not be enough. Repetition for students is good but do
not give too many because they will feel boredom of the sae material again and again.
Principle 4: Encourage students to respond to the content of the listening, not just to the language. Teachers need to alert of materials he
taught because learners need to know the language also. Principle 5: Different listening stages demand different listening tasks. This
is teacher‘s job to detect what students required to perceive in listening.
Principle 6: Good teachers exploit listening tasks to the full. Teacher‘s
creativity can make listening activity not only a merely listening
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Ibid.
practice but also other challenging material by setting it properly.
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4. Problems in Listening
