Chinese universities have invested heavily in sound labs to teach English listening.
Post-graduate students who have spent many hours in these sound labs know nothing about proper listening skills. They speak with each other in Chinese and off topic while someone else has the floor. Their cell phones ring and they answer them. They send text messages or worse, play games on their cell phones. Some sleep with their eyes wide open while other lay their head down on the desk and sleep. There is little or no eye contact between listener and speaker.
They have not learned the basic rudimentary principles of listening.
Give your full attention on the person who is speaking. Don’t look out the window or at what else is going on in the room.
Make sure your mind is focused, too. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your mind wandering, change the position of your body and try to concentrate on the speaker’s words.
Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance to say everything they would like to say without being interrupted. When you interrupt, it looks like you aren’t listening, even if you really are.
Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You can’t really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next.
Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with phrases such as “My point is…” or “The thing to remember is…”
Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said so that you can be sure your understanding is correct. For example, you might say, “When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean that the stripes are different on each one?”
Give feedback. Sit up straight and look directly at the speaker. Now and then, nod to show that you understand. At appropriate points you may also smile, frown, laugh, or be silent. These are all ways to let the speaker know that you are really listening.
Remember, you listen with your face as well as your ears!
These principles cannot be learned sitting in a cubicle wearing a set of headphones while listening to canned dialogue.
So what do the students learn in the sound lab?
They memorize set phrases that are subsequently unusable because the student has learned only one context in which the set phrase was used. There is little likelihood that the student will ever be confronted with the exact same dialogue in real life and the student has no idea how to use the set phrase in any other context.
The investment in sound labs has not furthered the Chinese students’ functional English capability.
It is really good principles we should follow in listening, no matter in which language they speak. It shows the basic respect to the speaker.