LISTENING COMPREHENSION:

LISTENING COMPREHENSION: 

Listening is a process of receiving and interpreting the spoken word.

While receiving and interpreting the spoken word, the listener is concerned with four factors that is sensing, message, decoding or interpreting, evaluation and response.

Listening begins with physical hearing of the message and taking note of it. Sensing it thus the first step of the listening process you hear sounds and concentrate on them in order to receive the message.

Response is the action or reaction of the listener to the message

It is the best stage of listening. If the message has been analyzed, interpreted and evaluated correctly the response will be appropriat.

Listening may be classified into six types on the basis of purpose and output 

Superficial listening :

In this type of listening the listener has little awareness of the content of what is being said. The output in this type of listening is zero because the listener tends to ignore the message and is not able to concentrate on the theme.

Appreciative listening

The main purpose of ‘the appreciative’ listening is to get enjoyment and pleasure. Example includes listening to recording of songs, entertaining stories, and jokes and so on.

Focused listening 

Focused listening involves listening for specific information. The main purpose is to get some specific information that might be used to take a decision.

Evaluate listening

The main purpose of evaluate listening is to evaluate the content of the oral message to select appropriate information.

Attentive listening

As attentive listening is interactive and productive, facilitating proper interaction and more effective listener – speaker relationships it requires conscious effort on the part ofthe listener and demands concentration, involvement and responsibility. Some other examples of attentive listening include listening to administrative instructions.

Empathetic listening 

Empathetic listening is listening not only to what the speaker is saying but also to how he/she is saying that is her/his feelings emotions and state of mind.

Effective listening	Ineffective listening
⮚ The listener is aware of a clear specific purpose of listening and he/she is motivated to listen.	⮚ The listener has no clear purpose and he/she has no motivation to listen to the speaker.
⮚ The listener understands the language of the speaker.	⮚ The listener finds it difficult the language of the speaker.
⮚ The content of the oral message is accessible to the listener because of his/her familiarity with the content	⮚ The content is unfamiliar and far removed from the listener’s knowledge and experience.
⮚ The listener asks questions for clarification to ensure that he/she  has understood the speaker	⮚ The listener does not question the speaker regardless of whether he/she has heard accurately or not.
⮚ The listener has and uses back  ground information to help understand the lecture or speech.	⮚ The listener does not have or does not use background information.
⮚ The listener interprets and analyses while he/she listens.	⮚ The listener does not interpret and analyze while he/she listens.
⮚ The listener is able to use different strategies for different kinds of oral discourses.	⮚ The listener is not able to use  different strategies for different kinds of oral discourses.

Phonetics

PHONETICS 

Phonetics is the systematic study of speech sounds in a language.

The accent is the music of language. Pronunciation of individual words, the way in which words glide into each other, and intonation patterns determine the variety of accents. English, for instance, can be spoken in the British way, the American way, the Indian way, the African way, the Canadian way, and the Australian way.

The music of the English language is different from that of the Indian languages.

 

Human beings produce sounds by using certain body mechanisms. These mechanisms have primary functions to perform such as breathing, smelling, chewing, swallowing and shall also play vital role in the production of speech sounds.

A body from head to abdomen is needed for the production of spoken language. There are 3 groups of bodily organs that are used to produce speech sounds. One group lies in the trunk, the other is in the throat, and the last one is in the head. These 3 groups of bodily organs are respectively known as: 

1. Respiratory system : The respiratory system comprises the lungs, muscles of the chest, and windpipe 

2. Phonatory system: This consists of the larynx (Adam’s apple) and the glottis. The larynx is also called the voice box

3. Articulatory system: The articulatory system comprises the roof of the mouth, the tongue, and the lips.

 

Vowels and consonants are sounds, not letters. Depending on your accent and how thinly you slice them, there are about 20 vowels and 24 consonants.

 

As we all know, the basic components of any spoken language are sounds and written language are symbols or letters of the alphabet.

 Almost all the Indian languages  Telugu, Hindi etc. are much more Phonetic i.e., there is one to one correspondence between the letters and the sounds.

The case with English language is completely different. English is not a Phonetic language because there is no one to one relationship between the letters of the English alphabet and their sounds

Sometimes one letter stands for different sounds. An example of the first type is the letter u in the words

Cut

Put

Rude

Minute

Bury

university.

An example of the second type may be the

k-sound represented differently in different words by the letter

k in kit,

ck in rock,

c in cut,

cc in acclaim,

ch in chemistry

qu in queen.

To overcome the problem International Phonetic Association(IPA) has introduced some symbols to represent the sounds of the languages of the world.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

 

The English alphabet has 26 letters out of which 5 are vowels and the rest are consonants. These letters and letter combinations give rise to 44 sounds. These 44 sounds are divided into 20 vowelsounds (i.e., 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs) and 24 consonants. They are as follows 

 

 

There are altogether 24 consonant sounds. They are as follows 

1. /P/ -         pencil        power       put          pen     reply     gap

2. /b/  -    ball           bunch       beauty     bet      table

3. /t/  -         table       tale        teeth   text      attain            fit

4. /d/  -       doll        dog        dance   do        wonder         bad

5. /k/ -     kite        kettle     cat       car        sky walk

6. /g/ -         goat       big    go        ago   mug

7. /t ʃ /  -    chain   chair     church   chin     merchant       match

8./dʒ / -    jam       jump    jug    large                                                    

9. /m/ -        mug     calm   man        tomato   dam

10. /n/ -       nurse  manner    hen      neat    many      ban

11. / ŋ / -     ring    sing         bang    bangles  

12. /l/ -     leaf       tall         leg       life     place  bill    full   nil

13. /f/  -       fan       tough    rough   file     refer   half     

14. /v/ -       van       visit      five     liver   dive

15. /[θ] /      thick     truth      cloth        myth      mathematic

16. / ð / -    that       then       mother     brother     father

17. /s/  -       sink       cell       miss          son          basket   base

18. /z/ -        zero        zoo         buzz        laser  

19. / ʃ / -       shine      ship       caution     sugar      assure   dash

20. / ʒ / -       pleasure             vision                measure   

21. /h/ -         hat        hot         hotel       has        behave

22. /r/ -        car         radio     carrot   parrot

23. /w/ -       water     wet        wall      wait      between

24. /j/ -         you       yes         young    pupil

 

 

Vowel sounds:

Short Vowels:

/I/    -  ఇ    -     pit            sit          pretty    ill     bill     pity

/e/   - ఎ      -    pet      bed    ten      end   bend

/æ/   -                 -    rat           bat   mat     bag       add   land

/ʌ/   -   అ       -     cup        but     turn   burn   up  

/ɒ/  -          -    pot     got    not      on    

/ʊ/ -   ఉ  -     put   book    woman 

/ə/  -    అ -    about    allow    suppose   writer

 

 

Long Vowels

/i:/  -  ఈ   -  bee   people    each    neat     fee

/ ɑ: / -  ఆ   -   father     ask   heart    farm    farmer

/ ɔ: /-       - core    door     fout    all    caught

/ u: /- ఊ -  too    shoe   move    loose 

/ ɔ: /- అ(   - bird    burn  word

 

Diphthongs:

/ eɪ / - ఎఇ  -  day    make   baby   late  

/ aɪ /  - ఐ  -    buy   eye    ice   nine   ice     night  fly

/ ɔɪ /  - ఒఇ  -   boy  oil    employ     coin   toy  

/ əʊ / - అఉ  -  low   go   flow    joke

/ aʊ /  - ఔ -  how    now   cow  

/ ɪə / - ఇఅ – hear   near   fear   ear    clear

/eə/-  ఎఅ -  there   care    hair share

/ʊə/   - ఉఅ  - pure    sure