Study Skills for Higher Education: Overcoming Listening Challenges

This report examines the listening challenges encountered by students in higher education, including false starts, unnecessary words, long sequences, technical terms, and dependent prepositions. It further proposes five strategies teachers can use to help students improve their listening skills: pr...Read More

Study Skills for Higher
Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Study Skills for Higher Education refers to the skills which are required for the purpose
of attaining success in the studies in the future by a student (Cronin and et.al., 2021). Listening
skills is one of these skills as a student has to be a good listener so that the development of
understanding can be done in a right way. In this report, a detailed and specific focus will be
made on the way in which the use of these skills can be helpful for the various types of students
to develop their abilities in a better way.
MAIN BODY
There are a wide range of listening challenges which are present in the Article. Therefore,
it is necessary that the explanation of these listening challenges can be made effectively and
efficiently (Goozee and et.al., 2021). These challenges are as follows-
False Starts and Repetitions- This is a major challenge which is faced while listening.
Therefore, it can be stated that it is faced due to the fact that various speakers do not start their
lecture properly and also repeat a lot of words and sentences while speaking which creates a
particular impact on the listeners and therefore affects them a lot. Thus, it can be stated that due
to this particular challenge some of the listeners are not able to understand what the speaker is
saying which affects them as they are not able to understand the content of the lecture properly.
Unnecessary words- This is another major challenge which is faced while listening. This
is due to the fact that the speaker sometimes puts many unnecessary words while speaking and
therefore in this way the understanding ability of the students will be impacted as a result
(Idkhan and et.al., 2021). Therefore, it can be stated that this can impact the way in which the
listeners perceive the lecture and interpret it. The use of these type of words can also make the
lecture long and boring for the listeners and they may start to lose interest in it. Therefore, the
use of such words should be avoided by the speaker.
Long sequence- This is a challenge because sometimes the speakers use a very long
sequence which creates a lot of confusions for the different types of listeners. The listeners lose
1

their interest in the lecture due to this particular reason and this affects the review of the lecture.
The reason is that the listeners can interpret the message of the lecture in the wrong way as they
can get confused with the content of the lecturer. Furthermore, this can also impact them because
they can draw incorrect conclusions from the lecture in such a case and will not be able to make
the use of the information provided in the lecture.
Use of technical terms- There are various types of technical terms which can be used in a
lecture (Irfan and et.al., 2020). Everyone who is sitting in the audience may not be comfortable
with the use of so many technical terms by the speaker and therefore this can affect the
understanding ability of the listener. Thus, it can be stated that if high-level technical terms will
be used in the lecture then this will surely affect the understanding ability of the listeners. The
listeners will not be able to understand the lecture and therefore in this way they will not be able
to develop their listening skills.
Words with dependent prepositions which express specific relational meanings- Speakers
sometimes make the use of certain words which have specific relational meanings and therefore
this impacts the various types of listeners. They are not able to understand the meaning of some
prepositions and this can thus impact their skills and abilities. Thus, when the speaker uses these
words then this affects the understanding ability of the listeners as they are not able to understand
the lecture properly.
Five Strategies which can be used by the teachers for helping the students in improving
their listening skills-
There are various strategies which can be used by the teachers. An explanation of some
of them can be provided as follows-
Providing Pre-Lecture Handout- The teachers should make sure that the students are
provided with the Pre-Lecture Handout which contains all the details about the lecture and can
help them a lot in development of understanding skills. This can help them a lot in ensuring that
the students are able to learn about the content of the lecture before even listening to it. This will
help them in preparing for the lecture in a better manner quite effectively and efficiently. As the
Pre-Lecture Handout has all the relevant details which are concerned with the lecture this helps
the students to develop their understanding in such a way which will help them in their
Academics in the future.
2

Listening for essential information- The teachers should be able to instruct the students so
that they are able to listen for the information which is required in the content of the lecture
(Khan and et.al., 2020). This will be quite helpful in ensuring that the students are able to take
interest in the content of the lecture and are able to understand it quite appropriately so that the
development of the skills and abilities of the students can be done in a right way. The students
are required to make sure that they can find out the information in quite a proper manner. This
will help in ensuring that they are able to make the use of the information in a right way and can
attain the goals and objectives can be set in the future. For this, it is quite important that the
filtering of the information which is not should be done which can be quite important in
ensuring that the students are able to make the use of appropriate information.
Academic language- The teachers are required to use Academic language so that the
students are able to understand the content of the lecture by genuinely taking interest in it
(Segara, Suprijono and Setyawan, 2021). This will also help in developing their specific skills
and competencies so that the management of the particular level of needs and requirements
which are related with the students can be done in a highly proper manner and a right way. In
this way, the students will be able to ensure that they can understand the lecture contents and are
able to attain their specific goals and objectives in a better way. The use of such language helps
in understanding the lecture properly by the students.
Listening for association and evaluation in the lecture- This is necessary because listening
helps in ensuring that the lecture can be used appropriately as the students will be able to
associate with it in a right way and will provide feedback on it. The students will be able to
understand the lecture in a proper way effectively and efficiently. This will enhance their
knowledge and will help a lot in developing their understanding abilities in a right way.
Attainment of the particular goals and objectives can be done in a proper manner in this way.
Reprocessing of information- The teachers should be able to make sure that the
reprocessing of information should be done by them (Watanabe and et.al., 2020). The students
listen to lecture and understand it which leads towards the use of information which is being
provided in it and thus helps them to be able to attain their particular goals and objectives in the
Academics. The students will be able to attain higher marks in their academics because as the
reprocessing of the information will be done through better understanding of the lecture this will
therefore enhance their skills and abilities which they can use appropriately in the future. In this
3

manner, the students can make sure that the development of higher marks in the academic
subjects can help them a lot to make progress in their career.
Thus, it is necessary that the listening skills are developed by the students so that they are
able to identify the particular way in which they can understand the lecture in a better manner.
The students should enhance their concentration and focus in the lectures to be able to develop
them so that the management of the particular needs and requirements of the Academics can be
managed. Thus, the students should make it an aim to improve these skills thoroughly which will
help them in making progress in their Academic Career.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that listening skills are essential because
through their development the students can make sure that they can listen to the content of the
lecture in a better way which will help them in understanding it appropriately. Therefore, the
students are required to make sure that they are able to develop these skills which will help them
in understanding the content of the lecture.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Cronin, L. and et.al., 2021. Development and initial validation of the life skills ability scale for
higher education students. Studies in Higher Education. 46(6). pp.1011-1024.
Goozee, R. and et.al., 2021. Investigating the feasibility of MePlusMe, an online intervention to
support mental health, wellbeing, and study skills in higher education students.
Idkhan, A. M. and et.al., 2021. The Employability Skills of Engineering Students': Assessment at
the University. International Journal of Instruction. 14(4). pp.119-134.
Irfan, M. and et.al., 2020. Challenges during the pandemic: use of e-learning in mathematics
learning in higher education. Infinity Journal. 9(2). pp.147-158.
Khan, A. and et.al., 2020. Mediating Effect of Positive Psychological Strength and Study Skills
on Examination Anxiety among Nigerian College Students. Sustainability. 12(4).
p.1479.
Segara, N. B., Suprijono, A. and Setyawan, K. G., 2021. The Influence of E-Learning towards
Students’ Heutagogy Skills in Higher Education. Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pengajaran.
54(2).
Watanabe, H. and et.al., 2020, December. Toward Identification of Learning Skills from
Learning Analytics Approach: A Research Review. In 2020 IEEE International
Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 807-
812). IEEE.
5