In learning a language, it is necessary to focus on the language you hear. What do you think is the difference between hearing and listening?
Hearing vs listening
According to a study from Ohio University, the average adult spends more than 70% of their waking hours socializing in some way. In addition to speaking and listening, 16% of that time is spent reading. Since 45% of our communication time is spent listening, we must develop practical listening skills to gain from communication fully.
The consensus is that, unlike the learned skills of reading, writing, and speaking, listening is a natural action that everyone without a physical handicap can perform without conscious effort. But it’s not that simple since listening requires a complicated set of emotional and physical abilities.
Hearing
The ability to hear is an automatic sensory system that enables humans to listen to sounds. It is a physiological response related to how we perceive sound. It does not require concentration. For instance, when watching television, you can still hear your neighbor’s dog barking, the sound of traffic outside, and people laughing.
Listening
Understanding the words you hear requires focused, intentional listening, which calls for your careful attention. As a result, you might feel something when you hear something. Active listening is defined as hearing with the goal of understanding.
You might be paying careful attention to someone if, for instance, they are discussing a poor day. You will understand their experience more as they speak. This will enable you to make insightful remarks and ask pertinent questions to understand their viewpoint better.
To sum it up:
Hearing:
- No effort is necessary;
- Involuntary;
- Sound perception on a physiological level.
Listening:
- Demands effort;
- Voluntary;
- Deliberate amplification of sound.
Kevin Gilliland, a clinical psychologist, claims that the difference between hearing and listening is like day and night. Hearing is a primary and easy task. Contrarily, listening is a three-dimensional activity. According to Gilliland, those who are successful in their careers, marriages, or friendships have honed their listening skills.
Active and passive listeners: What are the differences?
We may go much further in our concept of listening. Communication experts often use active and passive listening. One word best describes an inquisitive listener: active. The United States Institute of Peace defines active listening as “an approach to listening and reacting to another person that enhances mutual understanding.”
In other words, if you’re attempting to comprehend someone else or seeking a solution, this is the listening you want to do. Passive listening is at the other extreme. Gilliland asserts that a passive listener, particularly at work or in a classroom, does not attempt to participate in the discourse. It is ineffective as a means of interpersonal communication.
Why is listening so crucial while learning a language?
Speaking is valued highly by many language students. They do not make as much of an attempt to listen. However, it is a shock to many beginning speakers that listening to a foreign language is difficult. If you’ve ever taken a test in a second language, you know that the listening portion is typically the most challenging.
The ability to listen is crucial for the development of language. We listen for around half of the time, as was previously suggested. Do you spend 50% of your learning time engaging in listening activities? The answer is to listen more frequently. But you must develop your listening skills.
Please find out how we can enhance our ability to listen to foreign languages. Learn more about language learning and how to do it quickly.
Listening is an active process
If you’ve ever sat among individuals conversing in a foreign tongue, you’ll be familiar with the uncomfortable sense that you should be participating. You feel you are not genuinely contributing to the discourse if you remain silent. But by doing this, you mistake a silent process for a passive process.
To listen successfully, we must overcome the belief that we are “doing nothing.” Using active listening techniques is one method to remind yourself and others that even when you are not speaking, you are still engaged in effective communication.
Like as:
- Establish eye contact;
- Lean a little forward to demonstrate interest;
- Make nodding and agreeing on noises when you agree;
- Avoid appearing preoccupied with fidgeting, using your phone, or gazing off into space.
The silent phase is golden
When learning the Spanish language, children often go through a “silent period” where they are mute. Adults often don’t have any silent periods. However, some quiet listening time can be beneficial.
The act of speaking itself might be intimidating. As a novice speaker, you are too focused on what to say next to acknowledge what the other person has genuinely told. You can listen more effectively if you permit yourself to be silent. If you can, try to speak, but don’t force it.
The brain acts as a foreign language goldfish
Would it surprise you to learn that your short-term memory is significantly shorter while speaking a foreign language? When you consider it, it makes logic. How often do you mishear what someone says to you in their native tongue?
A crucial first step in fixing this problem is listening. But why is this taking place? When we hear someone talk, our brain starts to process the information by breaking it into manageable chunks to store it in our short-term memory.
We find it challenging to adapt to the “segmentation rules” of a foreign language when speaking it. All of the words must be kept in our short-term memory independently. Hearing helps us become accustomed to the segmentation rules, which is why it is so important to do so when learning a foreign language.
It will improve not only your understanding but also your ability to communicate in the target language. The best strategy to acquire segmentation rules is to practice appropriate listening habits frequently because learning segmentation rules is typically an unconscious process.
Our listening strategies are inverted
How did you learn to listen if you did study a language in school? I still remember taking a listening test that required us to listen to a recording and then translate what we had heard. Details determined whether an assignment was successful or unsuccessful. For instance, you would lose points if you misspelled a word.
Language experts use the term “bottom-up listening” to characterize this technique. Bottom-up listening is a legitimate teaching strategy. Sadly, it is not a comprehensive listening technique in everyday circumstances.
As people communicate in the real world, you cannot devote all of your listening efforts to focusing on precise grammar. They’ll keep talking, and you won’t understand a word. On the other hand, top-down listening is a valuable technique to increase comprehension of what is being stated.
Concepts are used in top-down listening techniques. It merely indicates that you do some preliminary research on the speech subject.
Here are a few concepts:
- Read the script if you’re going to a Spanish-language play or movie;
- Do some research on the issue before a speech;
- Try reading about or making predictions about an audio passage before listening to it.
Your brain will learn to concentrate on ideas rather than specific words as a result of this.
The general idea is only half the story
Last but not least, when listening in a different language, we frequently forget to assess our comprehension. Frequently, we “get the gist” of what was stated. But sometimes, we don’t comprehend things as well as we believe. Try these quick, easy exercises to demonstrate that you comprehended what was said:
- Draw something;
- Try to answer the questions you ask yourself;
- Give a summary;
- Indicate what could occur next in the “narrative”;
- To have a fictitious dialogue with the narrator, press the “talkback” button.
Listening ability is a must in learning a language
As you can see, the ability to listen actively is a lifelong one. Are you prepared to hone your target language listening abilities? Remember to employ active listening techniques; you’ll be astounded by the difference once you’ve finished the exercises and can assess how much you’ve learned!
Continue to translate in your mind. Learn Spanish now with the help of the above tips.