Analyzing Listening Challenges and Skill Development in Universities

This essay explores the listening challenges encountered by university students during lectures, tutorials, and group discussions, including difficulties in understanding new content, unfamiliar accents, and maintaining concentration, which can lead to missing crucial information. It emphasizes the difference between simply hearing and listening with understanding, highlighting common distractions and the importance of avoiding assumptions. The essay also addresses environmental and personal factors that can impede listening abilities. Furthermore, it provides strategies for students to develop active listening skills, such as listening for meaning, monitoring perception, improving concentration, and eliminating distractions. The importance of physical and mental readiness, engaging with instructors, and maintaining overall health is underscored as essential components of effective listening and overall academic development. The essay concludes that addressing these challenges and actively cultivating listening skills is crucial for students to become more efficient learners and better communicators.

Assessment 2 Individual

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1.Discussing the listening challenges that students may experience at universities....................3
2.Explaining how students can develop their active listening skills............................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Listening skill are one of the most important part of the academic phase equivalent to
other key skills like speaking skills, learning skills etc. Attentive listeners are always good
learners but many students in the university are not effective listeners. This essay covers various
listening challenges that students face at universities during lectures, tutorials and group
discussions. Some of these challenges include understanding new content, unfamiliar accents and
lack of concentration power and ultimately missing the key information. The current essay
outlines the solutions to overcome these challenges and ideas and need to develop effective
listening skills to become more efficient learners.
MAIN BODY
1.Discussing the listening challenges that students may experience at universities
Active listening skill is one of the most important part of the student's academic phase
(Eggenberger, 2021). Active listeners are always good learners but many students have poor
listening skills and even after spending a lot of time in the classrooms and lectures they face
difficulties and end up wasting a lot of their time. Some students may believe that they are very
good listeners but unfortunately they are not able to differentiate between “just listening” and
“listening with understanding”. They only hear the speech without actually understanding the
deep meaning and what exactly is being relayed. This is the most common problem of students
as in most cases they are not even able to figure out what they are doing wrong (Mohamadi,
2013).
Students often lose their focus or judgement of the speaker and get pulled away from the
speech and make their own perspective about the topic and the person and how they feel about
the speech. Due to this, it may be a very big challenge for new students to be able to counter the
argument without observing the initial speech. Listening is all about understanding and waiting
for the turn to speak but a little may get distracted due to advance planning of what to speak and
skipping the content of the conversation. Distractions may be in other forms as well such as
thinking about after classes, get together, canteen conversations, social media etc. Attention may
also be shattered by daydreaming and thinking about other things such as hobbies, sports, and
events etc. it may be very challenging for students to avoid such distractions.
One of the biggest challenges that students face is not understanding the point and
perspective of the other person. Poor listening skills may put certain students in a situation where

they cannot connect to the other person and find it challenging to respond to the situation. In that
case the students may start to assume that they understood the context and put themselves in
more trouble. Students start assuming to read the mind of the speaker and start speaking without
letting them to finish. They skip the importance of active listening and understanding believing
that they know everything and start finding solutions on their own but this may backfire at times
by leaving their argument/ advice unconscious due to the reason that it was irrelevant and
incomplete.
Active listening considers listening everything that comes in the way, whether it is boring
or useless and still respond accordingly. But students these days get bored easily and start
agreeing just to end the conversation. Building patience and durability for listening the less
interesting talks and speech may be a considerable challenge for students at universities
(Mohamadi, 2013). This may also be a challenge in their day to day life because it demonstrates
your behaviour and character as a person as well. Not paying proper attention to the opposite
person may make that person feel ignored or unimportant. Students may face the problem of half
knowledge and not properly assessing the situation and experience of the other person. This may
be because of poor listening skills and not focusing on the deep meaning. Without proper
knowledge, the students may fall behind during debates and arguable conversation. It may be
very challenging for students to develop a better and efficient listening skills and rapid
understanding of the context and situation to become better responders.
Environmental factors also contribute in influencing the listening skills of students during
university/classroom. The physical surroundings play a direct role in distracting or maintaining
the student's concentration (Bond, 2012). For example, if the lights of the classrooms are too
bright or too low, it may hurt the eyes of the students and continuously distracting their focus on
the matter; if the temperature of the classroom is not comfortable then it may disturb them and
create discomfort during listening to the lecture demolishing their ability to focus. The classes
need to be properly arranged so that every student is observable to the teacher and make eye
contact (Adnan, 2014). Benches being too far may disconnect students from in class discussions.
A noisy and indisciplined environment may be very challenging for them to listen and focus on
the lectures.
Physical and mental factors may also prove be a threat to the listening ability of students.
Physical illness due to fever, cough, lack of sleep due to poor time management and body ache

may create barriers in efficient listening. Apart from the physical pain, mental status also
influence the listening mindset of students. If the student is happy and free minded, it may be
easier to understand things but in case the mind is involved in something else then it may be very
challenging for students to maintain their effort towards listening and paying attention in class.
These mindset challenges may be due to overexcitement, lack of interest, thinking about other
prime interests of life and overconfidence etc. there are many other listening challenges that may
be faced such as slower processing speed of brain compared to the speed of the speech. Students
may find it difficult to listen to subjects that they find irreverent to their life and only drive their
attention on subjects of their own interests. For example, the students may focus on the sports
related subjects but not on Shakespeare due to their interests and relevance of the matter in their
life.
2.Explaining how students can develop their active listening skills.
Developing active listening skills is very important for overall development of a student.
It improves observation power and understanding ability to become good learners and better
leaders (Canpolat and et.al., 2015). Active listening skills processes the information more
effectively and helps to interact in the best manner. Students may listen for meaning. Active
listeners not only hear the words but also recognize the intent of speaker and end to end meaning
of the conversation. They should pay close attention to the explanations, points, suggestions and
all the details of the speech/lecture. Students may monitor and check their perception to judge
their active listening strategy. Checking comprehension on a regular basis may bring out the
right idea about their listening ability.
Students may sharpen their mental standards and brain speed to process confusing
concepts during class lectures. They may improve their concentration power and habit by
regularly attending the lectures and going through the complex topics multiple time by asking
relevant questions in the class and clarify their doubts. Developing the instinct of being attentive
in class and summarizing the subject of matter and analysation of questions for clarification of
doubts may be a key for developing in class confidence and excitement for learning more
(Hogan, Adlof and Alonzo, 2014). To improve active learning skills, it is very important to be
attentive during lectures, group discussions and any other conversation. Students may develop
the sense of interest towards the lectures and subject so that they may process the information
more effectively by listening with an interested mindset. The students may be ready with

advance reading and reviewed notes of previous lectures so that it becomes easy for them to
understand the current lectures and attentively listen to them by connecting the past and present
learning. They should eliminate the disinterests and negligence of finishing subject assignment
and projects.
Eliminate the distracting thoughts that drifts away the focus during lectures. Train the
mind not to think about external affairs such as canteen meetings, weekend planning, sports
events and entertainment during classes. Proper time management is crucial for better focus on
particular tasks, for example, pending assignment may become mental burden and create tension
in class. Time management may create a free and satisfied mindset to focus on the lectures and
debates with full concentration and positive attitude (Isabayeva, 2022). The students may put
away the unwanted things that may disturb them during listening such as mobile phones and
tablets, pictures, cards etc., remove other subject books and unneeded materials may be helpful
to focus on the current task. One of the most important factor in developing the active listening
skills is avoiding the undeserving people. Those who are not disciplined and do not care about
the importance of listening skills and do not posses such thinking skills must be left behind
otherwise it may indirectly affect the habits and mindset and spread negativity and
dissatisfaction.
Being physically and mentally ready is very important to develop active listening skills.
Being physically ready means maintaining a good personality, positive posture and being straight
instead of a bended back. This is very important for staying alert during conversation and stay
focussed (Celik 2017). Good posture and maintaining eye contact is very essential in being alert
as well as assuring every point is properly evaluated without missing any crucial information.
This develops a positive character and behaviour in a student. Apart from being physically ready,
mental status is also important to actively endorse the student into developing effective listening
skills. Understanding concepts that are not easy is also a part of listening that most students
ignore. It is also an important factor to consider in developing their active learning skills. They
may actively engage with their instructors and not be shy to ask frequent questions to clarify
things in detail. It makes the teacher concern towards the students and creates a better
relationship that may serve them in their future (Thomas, 2012).
During all these development activities, the students may not forget health factors and
compromise with their health. Much involvement in development activities and overexcitement

may flourish health concerns of the students. This may be the biggest setback and put them out
of the competition for a long time. Hence, proper food, proper sleep and enough relaxation in
very important in overall development as a learner.
There are many other ways active listening may be improved/ developed such as facing
the speaker and maintain regular eye contact along with attentive look in the eyes. Listening and
understanding the non- verbal clues, expressions and body language of the speaker is also very
important type of communication (Celik, 2017). It may not include verbal information but may
express information and message. Understanding non- verbal data is also a quality of a skilled
active listener. A good listener may never interrupt in between and jump on conclusions without
properly assessing the speech. It may not pre- plan what to speak but rather analyse the content
and wait for the right time and situation to play their part with appropriate points and
suggestions. The students must change their old habits and make constant efforts such as
planning and yoga for better control over mind and dismiss habits that hold them back from
becoming an active listener. Consistent practice and striving mindset may definitely develop
active listening skill in students
(Tyagi, 2013).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above essay that many students face challenges with their
listening skills during lectures due to new and unfamiliar conditions in the universities. There are
a number of challenges that students may experience due to poor listening skills and as a result
loose focus and key information. There are a number of ways and ideas that can be adopted and
followed in order to develop strong and effective listening skills. It can be identified from the
essay that along with other key skills, active listening skills are also important for overall
development of a student and become an efficient learner.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Adnan, A., 2014. Improving students’ listening ability through movie report. Proceedings of
ISelt FBS Universitas Negeri Padang, 2. pp.69-75.
Bond, C.D., 2012. An overview of best practices to teach listening skills. International Journal of
Listening, 26(2). pp.61-63.
Canpolat, M., and et.al., 2015. Active listening strategies of academically successful university
students. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 15(60). pp.163-180.
Celik, O., 2017. The importance of listening in communication. Global Journal of Psychology
Research: New Trends and Issues, 7(1). pp.8-11.
Eggenberger, A.L., 2021. Active listening skills as predictors of success in community college
students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 45(5). pp.324-333.
Hogan, T.P., Adlof, S.M. and Alonzo, C.N., 2014. On the importance of listening
comprehension. International journal of speech-language pathology, 16(3). pp.199-207.
Isabayeva, A., 2022. DEVELOP THINKING AND COMMUNICATION THROUGH ACTIVE
LISTENING. CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS, 3(04). pp.57-
61.
Mohamadi, Z., 2013. Determining the difficulty level of listening tasks. Theory and Practice in
Language Studies, 3(6). p.987.
Thomas, L., 2012. Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of
change. Paul Hamlyn Foundation. 100(1-99).
Tyagi, B., 2013. Listening: An important skill and its various aspects. The Criterion An
International Journal in English, 12(1). pp.1-8.

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