Children's Listening Skills - Essay Example

On Children’s Listening Skills A child spends most of his or her time in school listening. It may be listening to a friend, listening to the teacher, audio media, or communicating his or her thoughts after listening to others. It is an important skill that a child must develop. The terms hearing and listening are often used interchangeably. They are closely related but are not actually the same. This paper will discuss children’s listening skills. It will try to define listening and its relation to other skills; the different factors that may affect listening; the importance of listening skills; how it is assessed; and how to improve children’s listening skills. Listening Defined Listening is “being alert to catch an expected sound” as defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2007). It is different from and more than merely hearing a sound. Listening requires, first and foremost, that a person must be able to hear sounds. Listening requires thoughtful attention to the sounds heard. There are different aspects that affect a person’s listening skills. The first factor may be classified as the physiological components of hearing sounds. One must have a healthy set of ears to properly hear sounds or have mechanical help to hear sounds properly. The ears have two facets: mechanical apparatus and the neurological processing of the information acquired (Elsea, 1996). All the mechanical apparatus or all the parts of the ear must function well. This should be coupled with the healthy nervous system and brain that interprets the sounds heard. The second component is the environmental factors that could affect listening. Noise, impulse noise and other physical factors in the environment also affect listening. It may prevent sounds to be heard clearly or may distract a persons’ attention. The last component that is also important to consider is the attention that a person gives to the sounds heard. There are several attempts to fully define listening. Hyslop and Tone (1988) compiled different definitions by researcher as follows: Thomlison’s (1984) definition of listening includes "active listening," which goes beyond comprehending literally to an empathetic understanding of the speaker. Gordon (1985) sees empathy as essential to listening and contends that it is more than a polite attempt to identify a speakers perspective... Coakley (1985) tends to define listening skills as the opposites of negative attitudes. Hirsch (1986) treats aspects that span neurological responses and interpretation of sound to understanding and assigning meaning by reacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing, and incorporating previous experience.” (Hyslop and Tone, 1988) The concept of listening is indeed related to learning, reading, comprehension, and of course, other communication skills. It may be well said that listening affects all areas of learning. Listening can be considered the basis of the skills mentioned. Poor listening skills will surely lead to poor communication, poor reading skills and reading comprehension. Developing listening skills will also develop these skills. Although listening skills can be discussed separately, listening is well intertwined with these skills that make it hard to separate them from each other. Their relationship is proportional with each other. Listening and Comprehension Listening comprehension is the heart of reading comprehension. Kirby (2007) noted that reading comprehension is the application of a skill that evolved for other purposes (listening or oral comprehension) to a new form of input. Gough and Tunmer (1986) proposed that reading comprehension is the product of Decoding and Listening Comprehension. (Kirby, 2007) According to Andre (1999), “During elementary school, a child’s maximum level of reading comprehension is determined by the child’s level of listening comprehension.” Listening is the base of other skills, especially reading skills. Listening and Vocabulary Language can only develop through interaction with people and texts that introduce new vocabulary, concepts, and language structures. Davidson, A. (2000) stated that “whole language educators have identified at least two important parallels between learning to speak ones native language and learning to read. First, in both cases, the child is most concerned with meaning. Adult speech and adult accuracy in reading are mastered only gradually… A second important point is that both learning to talk and learning to read are facilitated when adults treat children as "meaning-makers" and focus on meaning first.” Children who go to school for the first time, are not expected to be able to read. At best, they can attentively listen to their teacher as she reads stories. Children start school with various reading experiences. Some of them have a lot of reading experiences at home, and have developed a wide vocabulary. Some hardly had reading experiences or interactions. Listening to stories will be a good start in expanding their vocabulary, as new words are introduced through stories. “Curiosity and expanded vocabulary, provide challenges that develop critical reading skills, and motivate learning for students across the curriculum.”(Brabham, Boyd, & Edgington, 2000). Vocabulary acquisition may also take place at home. Even without direct teaching taking place, listening to stories can still widen children’s vocabulary. “The more interaction children have with books, read-alouds or shared reading, the easier it will be for them to develop literacy skills, develop vocabulary, and make connections and inferences about the various texts they read…It was found that early exposure to books and literacy in the home help prepare children for formal school instruction.” Ruvio (2006).Parents can model good listening skills for children, and help them to become active listeners. They can converse with others, model appropriate listening skills, and show children exactly how to listen. According to Senechal and Monique (1995) frequent book reading at home makes a significant contribution to vocabulary acquisition over and above the influence of parental education level and individual differences in analytic intelligence. (Ruvio, 2006) Listening and Life-text Connections Children listening to adults read are also learning how oral language and texts relate to each other. Children’s storybooks are often about the things that children also experience. Unaware as they may seem, children also learn to connect that texts found in books are also related to their lives. Through reading children make inferences about characters and events in a story. Fountas & Pinnell (1996) stated that reading aloud is the foundation of the early literacy framework and by being immersed in a variety of well-chosen texts children not only learn to love stories and reading but they also learn about written language. (Ruvio, 2006) Brabham and Lynch-Brown (2002) agree that “by listening to stories, children learn about relationships between print and speech”. (Ruvio, 2006) Listening and Parent-Child Relationship It is also important to note that listening does not only benefit children academically but also socio-emotionally. If parents are to teach children listening skills, they must be models of good listening. This modeling of good listening skill benefits both parent and child. Parent listening to children makes children more likely to talk and share when they feel are important. Parents can share thoughts to extend the conversation and strengthen their children’s confidence by reassuring them that their ideas are heard. “Parents who listen and converse with patience, interest, and attention prove to be the best teachers of listening and give their children the greatest audience in the world.” (Spivey, 2006) A warmer, stronger relationship develops between parent and child.  Strategies used in Improving Listening Skills Teaching children listening skills by reading to them will improve their listening skills and train them in the art of active listening. The more children are exposed to reading, the more they develop their listening skills. Every time an adult reads to a child, the adult is conditioning the child to the mechanics of reading. There are several ways of improving children’s listening skills. The most prominent are also well connected in improving their reading skills. One way of doing this is through the Read Aloud Strategy. According to Jacobs, Morrison, and Swinyard (2000), “the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children” (Ruivo , P., 2006) “Reading aloud is the foundation of the early literacy framework. By being immersed in a variety of well-chosen texts children not only learn to love stories and reading but they also learn about written language. Children assimilate a sense of structure of written language and can produce it in a way that sounds like reading and approximates text. It allows the teacher to demonstrate ways to make personal connections and comparisons with books that children use for interactions in literature circles and forms a foundation for other reading and writing activities” (Fountas & Pinnell,1996). Reading aloud to children to has many benefits. It “builds vocabulary, develop oral language, develop written language, develop social skills, develop phonological skills, begin to make connections between their world and that of the text, and begin to question the text being read.” (Ruivo, 2006) . Honig & Shin (2001), Morrow & Smith (1990), and Burgess (2002), all agree that these benefits help children from primary grades until the high school years. (Ruivo, 2006) Another strategy is called the Shared Reading Strategy. Fountas & Pinnell, (1996) defined it as: “when children join in and read the text of a book with the person who is reading the story. In shared reading the text should be large enough for the children to see clearly in order or them to be able to engage in the reading. The person reading the story helps guide the children by pointing to the text as the story is being read. By pointing to the text as it is being read the children pay close attention to print and focus on reading behaviors such as reading from left to right. Shared reading provides many opportunities for incidental learning about the way written language works. “ (Militante, 2006) Fountas & Pinnell, (1996) lists several benefits of Shared reading, among them are building previous experiences with books, providing language models, expanding vocabulary, laying a foundation for guided and independent reading, supporting children who are on the verge of reading so that they can enjoy participating in reading whole stories, providing an opportunity for the teacher to demonstrate phrased, fluent reading and to draw attention to critical concepts about print, providing a context for learning specific words and features of words, and helping children become familiar with texts that they can use independently as resources for writing and reading. (Militante, 2006) Shared reading provides readers a good support system. Readers can help each other as they read the text. They can work and read as a group or team to solve problems that they may encounter as they read the text. They can work on meaning of words that they cannot understand and even share their opinion with concepts found in the book. A lot of conversation may take place as they read and they can share their thoughts and experience. “Just like in read alouds, the teacher draws the children into the text and asks questions about the story and begins conversation for children to become active participants. “(Militante, 2006) Militante gathered several research findings on Shared Reading experiences . Some of them are: “ Storybook reading is considered to be a very powerful factor in a young child’s literacy development. According to Sipe (2000) some benefits that storybook readings offer are the development of a love of books (Holdaway, 1979), the forming of emotional attachments with caregiver (Bus, 1993), understanding the difference between oral language and decontextualized book language that does not relate to the child’s immediate physical world (Snow, 1983), and the development of sense of story structure and narrative”. (Phillips & McNaughton, 1990). Improving Listening Skills for Children with Needs Children with special needs also need to develop their listening skills. Often, language impairment is evident and comorbid with these children. A study done by on ADHD found out that “children with ADHD, with adequate language abilities for their age as measured by commonly used standardized language tests, showed evidence of comprehension deficits when listening to spoken expository passages.” (Brand-Gruwel, S., Aasnoutse, C.A.J., & Van Den Bos, K. P., 1998) Acoording to Harvey and Goudvis (2000), teaching children to actively visualize information during listening and reading is a common strategy to develop and improve comprehension and memory. Brand-Gruwel, S., Aasnoutse, C.A.J., & Van Den Bos, K. P. (1998) found out “the possibility that listening comprehension deficits co-occurring with ADHD, both at basic and higher levels of language functioning, underlie some behavior symptoms associated with ADHD.” This implies issues on poor listening skills and the relation of listening to environmental factors and interactions. “Children with cerebral palsy, on the other hand, often demonstrate relatively well-developed listening comprehension for text but poor reading comprehension.” (######) Several issues are that faced children with special needs are having great difficulties in learning to read, and the instructional approaches designed to address these learning difficulties typically focus on the study of words in isolation and are rich in workbook activity and skills practice. “Children with disabilities are served by teachers, related services personnel, and school systems who believe that their reading and learning needs are different than other students and/or students with disabilities must be taught separately from non-disabled peers.” (Koppenhaver, D. A. and Erickson, K. A., (1998) The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies believed that children with special needs have the same needs and learn in much the same way as other children. But admit that in severe cases or multiple disabilities require more conscious and careful consideration. (Koppenhaver, D. A. and Erickson, K. A., (1998) Listening and Technology The importance of technology in developing listening skills should not be ignored. Technology provides “doors to new, less expensive access to experiences that provide a greater depth of learning. Children, especially those with disabilities, require repeated and varied opportunities to read text and to talk about that text experience with peers and teachers.” (Koppenhaver, D. A. and Erickson, K. A., (1998) Technology offers both methods and materials that can be incorporated to reading and literacy programs for children. Technology provides instruments and machines to correct physical difficulties in hearing. It also provides innovative way of presenting reading activities like software that are intended to teach children how to read and improve comprehension. These are just a few of the benefits that technology has provided the children of today to help them in their listening skills. However, some may argue that technology also provides distractions that lessen attention of children on tasks that are needed to actually listen and comprehend. It is part of the same debate related to the pros and cons technology. But the answer will lie on how it is being used by people. Assessing Listening Comprehension The listening comprehension assessment tests measure the extent to which the child can comprehend information that is listened to. Listening comprehension tasks are usually age and grade appropriate and is directly comparable to reading comprehension assessment. The relationship between reading and listening performance is of particular interest in assessments. According to Dr. Royer of Reading Success Lab, “children with a Specific Reading Disability often comprehends a text much better if they listen to it than they do if they read the text. In contrast, children with Attentional Disorders (ADD-sometimes accompanied by hyperactivity) sometimes have much higher reading performance than listening performance. The reason for this difference is that some ADD students seem unable to maintain focus on an oral message that they have a single opportunity to grasp.” Royer, J. M. (2004). Since there are several factors involving listening, it would be best if all these factors are considered first and come up with an authentic assessment that will address all the concerns to be fair for the child involved. Conclusion Listening is a very important aspect of child’s development. It may come naturally and automatic at birth as hearing but it must be trained to a higher level which is listening for a purpose. Listening seems to be the basis of other communication skills. A baby needs to listen to the sounds around him or her, and to learn how words are produced and how language may be used. As the child grows up, he or she needs to develop his/her listening skills to acquire more skills such as words meaning, understanding, reading, and comprehension. Through listening, a child can gather several information that he or she may use to his or her advantage. He or she may even come up with his or her idea after synthesizing. Listening is very important, if not the most important, skill a child may learn for him or her to succeed in school, and with her relationships with friends and family. It is appropriate and imperative that the child learn how to develop his or her listening skills as soon as possible, guided adults, by research and new technology. References Brand-Gruwel, S., Aasnoutse, C.A.J., & Van Den Bos, K. P. (1998). Improving text comprehension strategies in reading and listening settings. Learning and Instruction, Volume 8, Number 1,pp. 63-81 Biemiller, A. (2003) Oral Comprehension Sets the Ceiling on Reading Comprehension. American Educator, (Spring 2003). Retrieved April 15, 2007 from http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring2003/biemiller.html Davidson, A. (2000) Listening and Speaking Skills As They Relate to Reading Retrieved April 14, 2007 from http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/poetry_stories_kids/52056 Elsea, P. (1996) Technical Essays[Electronic version]. Retrieved April 17, 2007 from http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/tech_background/TE-03/teces_03.html Kirby, J. R. (2007). Proceedings from 2007 Ontario Education Research Symposium: What have we learned about reading comprehension? Ontario, Canada. Koppenhaver, D. A. and Erickson, K. A. (1998) Technologies to Support Reading Comprehension in Children with Disabilities. Center for Literacy and Disability Studies. Retrieved April 15, 2007, from http://www.surgery.mc.duke.edu/commdis/clds/ Merriam-Webster On Line Dictionary (2007) Retrieved April 15, 2007, from http://www.m- w.com/ McInnes, A., Humphries, T, Hogg-Johnson, S. and Tannock, Rosemary (2003). Listening comprehension and working memory are impaired in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder irrespective of language impairment [Electronic version]. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology,(Aug, 2003 Issue). Retrieved April 15, 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0902/is_4_31/ai_104634486 Rice, J. M. and Schunk, D. H., (1984). Strategy Self-Verbalization During Remedial Listening Comprehension Instruction. Journal of Experimental Education, 53 Royer, J. M. (2004). Listening Comprehension Task - Testing Listening Comprehension. Retrieved April 16, 2002 from http://www.readingsuccesslab.com/ListeningComprehension.html Ruivo , P. (2006) Reading Aloud: Companion Reader vs. No Companion Reader An Experimental Research Study Masteral Thsesis, Kean University, 2006) Spivey, B. J. (2006). Poor Listening Skills Affect Learning. [Electronic version]. Super Duper® Publications. Retrieved April 13, 2007 from http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts.asp Yamada, J. (2002). Neurological Origins of Poor Reading Comprehension Despite Fast Word Decoding? Brain and Language, 80 (2), 253-259. Read More