Teaching Listening - An Overview

Abstract

Listening for of great importance to both learning in general and second language learning in particular. Listening is important because the ability to understand what others say is essential to communicative interaction. Lee (1986) pointed out that an effective listener is a more effective language learner and user.

Listening is the most frequently used language activity because the average adult spends approximately three times as much time listening as reading (Rankin 1929). Rivers and Ternperley (1978) stated that "45 percent of the time adults spend in communication activities is on listening, 30 percent on speaking, 16 percent on reading and 9 percent on writing." Bird (1953) stated that college students spent 42 percent of their time in listening, 25 percent in speaking, 15 percent in reading and 18 percent in writing. Wilt (1950) also pointed out that 57.5 percent of the daily classroom time is spent on listening.