Challenges and Strategies for Improving Listening Skills in Academic Context

STUDY SKILLS FOR
HIGHER EDUCATION
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Assessment-1
Listening skills in academic context
Study skills are the skills which students need to master for various academic situations.
Listening skills are one of those skills which students need to acquire in order to interpret their
academic sessions (Cottrell, 2019). These skills are useful on various occasions such as meetings
and discussions with tutors or any formal and informal interactions. Listening skills are needed
in general so that they are able to interact properly with administrative staff and people. In this
essay various challenges to listening skills will be explored. The strategies which teachers can
adapt to improve these skills of students will also be discussed.
The major listening challenge which students may face are linguistic challenges. These
challenges include speed, accent and vocabulary used by lecturer while delivering lecture. If the
speed of the lecture is too fast, the students will not be able to listen it properly and therefore will
be unable to understand it (Sahlén and et.al., 2020). The accent of lecturer i.e. the way they
pronounce words might be different for some students. They might not understand some words
and confuse them with other words. This creates misunderstandings and own understanding of
students. As a result, they interpret the lecture according their understanding and understand
different meaning to sessions and interactions. Special vocabulary used by the lecturer that
includes academic words which students might not have heard before create a barrier in
understanding. The students might not be able to process the lecture and interactions. This can
cause non-understanding of academic sessions which can harm their studies.
When people from different cultures, education and origin backgrounds interact, the
listening challenge might arise. Here the challenge can be grammatical errors. Some people
might start sentences in wrong way which might be completely normal in their cultures but the
person they are interacting might interpret it very differently. Other grammatical errors such as
unnecessary words used in words and long sentences can also affect the listening skills. Long
sentences can be difficult to process (Astika, 2019). They might need more time to interpret
which can create a listening challenge for them. Grammatical challenge also includes the
complex noun phrases used by lecturers or staff. Students are used to speak and listen the
academic language which they learn from books and sessions. When in the interaction or during
lecture complex noun phases are used they might not be able to interpret it.
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Another listening challenge is layers of information in one sentence. This challenge arise
when the lecturer or the person interacting provide various layers of information in a single
sentence (Tate and Hopkins, 2020). The students might not be able to understand the hole
information at once. The speaker might use a single sentence with multiple clauses to express
singular information. Listener will not be able to pile up every information disclosed, which
leads to skipping of information. They might not able to keep of every thing discussed, which
creates a challenge for the students. The speaker might use abbreviation for some words which
might be unfamiliar to the students. This can create a listening challenge as they are unable to
interpret what they are listening. Embedded references used by lecturer which the students do not
remember can also create barriers in understanding.
Students are used to interpret simple language which they use in their everyday life. They
understand the language they have learnt from books and studies. Complex structure of sentences
used by the lecturer can create a listening challenge for the students. They structure of sentence
might be complicated which can confuse the students (McClelland, 2017). This confusion can
become a barrier in understanding of the lecture. Complex sentence structures need additional
time to interpret and in the continuous lecture it is not possible for the student to hold that much
of information. Teachers can use simple language and not use accent while delivering lecture so
that the students do not get confused. If any complicated word or an unusual word is used in
delivering lecture, the teacher should provide/ interpret meaning for the same immediately.
Physical distance can become a listening challenge as distance between speaker and
listener can create poor understanding of lecturer delivered. If the lecturer is delivering the
lecture at a considerable distance from the students and there are no microphone or speakers
available the student will be unable to hear the lecture delivered. Physical distance can also affect
the interpretation of PowerPoint Presentation (Duvaraganathan, Edison and Evangeline, 2021).
The students might see the presentation but not hear the conversation. This can become a barrier
in understanding. Body language and gestures also pays a vital part in the understanding of
communication. Due to physical distance, students might not see the body language and gestures
of the speaker. Thus, they will not be able to interpret the message conveyed through lecturer
effectively. This can cause students disturbance and distraction from the topic being conveyed in
the lecture.
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