Dr. Tanzeelur Rahman
It is very well said by a Greek philosopher that “we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”. In the process of learning, listening is one of the highly required skill. In various domains of education, acquiring knowledge, and personal development listening has a key role.Listening is the primary way of gathering information in any mode of learning either through alecture or via online resources. Its listening that allows the learner to absorb the requisite content that is being presented through any mode. For adhering and understanding complex ideas and concepts effective listening is highly important. Listening properly and actively enables to grasp the context of content and consequently one can deeply understand and learn the subject matter. Listening attentively enhances communication skills as well as evolves critical thinking among students. Listening is a multistep process. An individual go through these steps when receives any such audio information. The very first step is this regard is hearing that involves reception of sound waves.It is the step that enables an individual to collect the incoming information in terms of waves. But on the other hand it is not necessary that this information is conceived as well by the receptor. So, the second step in the listening process is attention. The listener once starts to hear the sound attentively will be able to comprehend and focus on the received information. The next step is then to understand this information that is being received in terms of sound waves and then being concentrated by the receiver. Afterwards, the information that is being understood by an individual is stored either for short-term or for the long-term. Consequently, the information stored for short or long term is being memorized. The memorization is indeed the next step of listening process. The effective listening basically enables to get the main theme of the information received by the above stated steps. The last step in this chain is evaluation of the information that is being conceived by the listener through listening process. The listener at this stage now starts to evaluate the provided information that either it is correct or incorrect. This enables an individual to make decision about the provided information and develop his/her own opinion. In learning language, teaching listening comprehension is one of the compulsory tool. For producing excellent communication abilities and language proficiency, effective listening comprehension is essential strategy. For attaining the desired goals using listening comprehension the choice of relevant material is quite important. The relevant and interactive audio, video, and recorded material can be effectively utilized for this purpose. For building interest into the topic some pre-listening activities like discussion regarding the topic and guessing about the title may be employed. Effective listening strategies e.g. note taking, summarizing, and predictions can also help in engaging the students with the material. While in the first there is a reasonable chance of missing some of the details provided in the audio or video content. In this regard replaying the provided audio or video provide a valuable opportunity of repetition that enable the listener to grasp the theme of content that may have been missed during the first listening. As the real-world listening situation may offer various difficulties like accent, intonation, speed etc. The matter may dealt well by providing listener with several contents of different accents and speeds to comply with them. It would definitely reduce the chance of misunderstanding or totally lake of proper understanding content due to accents and other stated issues. To develop excellent speaking and writing skill via a teaching listening comprehension scheme the listening may be coupled with the writing the summary of the content that has been listened. In this way teaching listening comprehension method can contribute very effectively in building up the excellent speaking and writing skills of first or second language. The students on the other hand may face some difficulties as well in listening comprehension technique.As stated earlier the students may face various problems while going through the listening comprehension method for attaining their goals to get reading, writing and listening proficiency of any language. The brief overview of these issues that student can face while attending listening comprehension is provided below. The very first problem that the student may face while attending any listening comprehension is lack of focus and facing distractions. The best way to tackle with the problem is actively listening the content and eradicating all the modes of distractions. It can be done by listing first all the major modes of distractions and major reasons responsible for losing the focus into the audio-visual content used for listening comprehension. For identification of modes of distractions and reasons of losing focus it is then easy to address the issue. The identified reasons responsible for distractions and lack of focus can be eliminated using different methods. The sufficient amount of vocabulary is also very important for properly understanding the content presented in listening comprehension. The insufficient vocabulary is also the major problem in getting all the benefits of listening comprehension. The individual can enhance his/her vocabulary by setting a target to add some new words on daily basis in his/her memory. The expansion in vocabulary in this way can effectively minimize the issues generated by insufficient vocabulary. As there may be several accents of single language so some time listener can understand one accent but not the other one. Consequently, listener cannot adhere the main theme of content that is being given in the listening comprehension. Also, while listening the comprehensionif the speed of audio-visual clip is not appropriate then the listener will be unable to understand the content properly. Furthermore, the real-time speed is also variant as some people speak slowly while some speak fast, therefore it is quite necessary that the students are able to understand in all paces. The solution is that the audio-visual content is played at various speeds. Listening comprehension on various speed enables the listener to conceive information at any speed. The listening material may also contain idiomatic and colloquial expressionsor phrases which are sometimes not understandable for an individual. So, it is better that such audio content should be either avoided or the listener should be introduced first with any such expression or phrases to avoid any misunderstanding. Furthermore, the listening comprehension containing typical cultural and religious terms are also not easily understandable for few individuals. The way forward to tackle with problem is selecting only the general audio-visual material for listening comprehension. For learning, the most important fact is capturing the attention of learner. Once the attention of leaner is being captured, the individual will definitely learn from the presented material depending upon his/her capability of learning. In this regard it is well established fact that “watching” along listening is the best mode for learning. The information related to any event that someone watch, store more easily and effectively in our memory instead of that one which is only being listened. So, as compare to the static images, text or audios, the videos can capture more attention. The learning practice becomes more stimulating and pleasingwith dynamic content. The dynamic content contains the relevant video clips, animations etc. The dynamic content can quite effectively present the ideas and theories which are normally not easy to understand using other modes. In conclusion, listening is a fundamental skill that plays a pivotal role in both education and personal development. It goes beyond the mere reception of sound, encompassing a multistep process that leads to deeper comprehension, critical thinking, and effective communication. By actively listening, learners are able to grasp complex ideas, retain information, and form informed opinions. Addressing challenges such as distractions, vocabulary gaps, and varied accents is essential for enhancing listening comprehension, especially in language learning. Integrating dynamic, audiovisual content further strengthens the learning experience, making it more engaging and impactful. Ultimately, fostering strong listening skills provides individuals with the tools they need to succeed in various areas of life.