English Language Listening Skills

The skill of listening includes some sub skills like perception skills, language skills, knowledge of the world, dealing with information and interaction with a speaker as White (1998, p.8-9) pointed out. Listening can be one way (transactional) or two way (interactional). The listening process includes bottom up and top-down listening. In bottom up process, the listener picks the message piece-by-piece and goes from parts to the whole for the meaning of what he listens. Dissimilarly, top down listening involves listener to use his schemata and prior knowledge to get to the meaning and it is a process of going from the whole to the parts (p. 40).

2.11.2. Speaking. Speaking in foreign language is an oral communication skill. It can be defined

Role of listening and speaking in the history of SLA. Previously, listening was viewed as a passive activity processing meaning and sound. But in recent models, it is shown as a more active process where message is not only received by the listener but “created in the interactional space between participants” in real time (Nation and Newton, 2009, p.39). The explicit treatment of listening in language learning has started after 1900s when spoken language became the definite source of foreign language learning replacing that of written mode (Rost, p.116). Later on with the emergence of communicative language teaching (CLT) in 1980s, listening and speaking have become an integral part of language learning as a means for communicative competence. At the beginning, the primary focus was the “listening for meaning” as listening was the primary channel through which learners get access to language data. During this period, the input hypothesis by Stephen Krashen had a great impact on language teaching. This hypothesis emphasizes on the learners’ proper understanding of the “input” of language and linguistic items for language learning to take

One of the basic reasons is the under resourced education system with large classes and low quality English of teachers which make the student learn English for passing exams rather than acquiring a life skill. Moreover, traditional teaching methods used to promote rote learning and memorization from which many teachers and learners could not break through yet. Most of the time, both teachers and students are reluctant to come out of their comfort zone which affect the standard of English. Then again they have very little knowledge of modern authentic English (p. 11-14). Furthermore, the findings reveals that locally produced materials are below standard and requires many correction. In fact, transliteration of English word into Bengali sometimes produces mispronounced word. Thus students learn incorrect English from the very early age. There is hardly any chance of corrective feedback or even scope for practicing English which make them disinterested and low in confidence. Consequently, learners feel embarrassed and uncomfortable in speaking English