Improving Active Listening Skills: Challenges for University Students

This essay discusses the challenges university students face in active listening during lectures, including unfamiliarity with content, accents, perception, and attention-related issues. It emphasizes the importance of active listening for effective learning and retention. The essay explores how students can develop their active listening skills by preparing for lectures, maintaining eye contact, avoiding distractions, and relating new material to existing knowledge. It also highlights the significance of empathy and self-care in enhancing listening abilities. The conclusion underscores that improving listening skills can lead to better relationships and academic success. Desklib provides students with access to this essay and a wealth of other study resources to aid in their academic pursuits.

Assessment 2
Individual essay

Table of Contents
ASSESSMENT 2..................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ......................................................................................................................................1
Discussion of active listening challenges that are faced by students at university while attending
lectures ............................................................................................................................................1
Explanation on how students develop their active listening skills...................................................3
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................1

ASSESSMENT 2
INTRODUCTION
The ability to listen intently and with focus what's being spoken is a trait which of
successful student or professional. Actively listening is the skill to concentrate solely on the
speaker gather their intended thought make one's own deductions and give a meaningful reply. In
contrast listening passively entails merely listening to the content without understanding the
meaning.
Ability to listen actively is a coveted social ability and provides assurance that the person
apt in the skill is able to absorb the particular specificities without needing to hear them again.
The practitioners of this skill make use of spoken and non spoken methods to display that they
are focused on the person speaking and actually keep the focus on the speaker, This ability can
not only ensure that the person listening retains the information in conjunction it also aids in
assuring the person speaking that the person listening is concentrating and interested in what is
being spoken which in turn can foster a culture of regard. (IYERE, 2018.)The person who is
inapt in this skill may have practice in their minds what they are going to say the the
conversation from speaker's side is done but the person who is well versed with this ability
retains the information and does not need to practice since they have the info stored in their
minds. The essay below points out the variety of obstacles that students have to contend with
while studying at the university and suggests how the students can overcome those obstacles in a
manner which is proper.(Favretto, 2019)
MAIN BODY
Discussion of active listening challenges that are faced by students at
university while attending lectures
There could be a lot of obstacles presented to the students to actively listen to the content
being spoken to them which creates a bad habit in future from the students as well as teachers
perspective some of these obstacle are give as under:
Unfamiliarity with content or failing to prepare for the lecture:

A very common challenge faced by students almost daily is being unfamiliar with the
content before hand this may happen due to the lecture being very tedious and detailed which
could not have been anticipated beforehand by the students or the students not at all preparing for
the lecture before entering in the class room the competency to listen intently is severely affected
when the student has no familiarity with the content which is being spoken and can putt off their
attention when new words and concepts are being introduced for the very first time. So they cant
gather the information which is relevant and tend to write everything that being spokjen to them
also they fail to make deduction or form any meaningful conclusion to the topic thus resulting in
their mind being blank when it comes to provide feedback or ask questions about the topic which
may crystallize their understanding of the topic.(King, 2021)
Unfamiliarity related to accents:
If the teacher is bilingual and speaks a language which is non native to the language of
the listeners it may cause them to loose focus as they have to keep trying to understand each and
every word carefully which may make loose sight of the larger perspective or the central point of
the content being spoken to them. Further the students may feel that their enquiry even if
addressed may not be properly comprehended by them which keeps away any insightful question
they may have on the topic.
Challenges related to perception:
If a person hears something that does not conform to their core values they may have a
tendency to disregard that content or their interpretation may be biased towards conforming to
their own prejudiced ideology. When a student listens to a lecture which may perverse to their
own way of thinking they ignore the whole content as it can be rather hard to keep two opposite
views in one's head and make sense of them which is what they need to do in order to make
deductions which are meaningful. Judging beforehand the content with respect to the identity,
racial or otherwise of the speaker or their ideology makes the learner ignore any meaningful
content which has a tendency to be in conflict with their own ideas.
From the perspective of the teacher as well this barrier manifests itself in the form of not being
comprehensive in their lecture with regards to focussing on the factors which are negative or
only focusing on the positive aspects.(Ungos, 2019)

Attention related challenges:
This applies to both the teachers and the students as they both may get distracted due to
various factors such as students interrupting a teacher in between the lecture to ask questions
due to which the teacher loses focus, it may also relate to environmental factors which may steal
focus of both the students and teachers alike for example excessive noise or bad lightning or the
room being too hot or being too cold other factors may be related to student being under duress
or the teacher being under stress or suffering from ailments further they may be distracted due to
the gadgetry like cells, tablets or any thing that has no bearing to the content being spoken. In the
modern times people are being characterised as having shorter spans of attention therefore it
becomes crucial barrier in the ability to listen actively.(Al-Samarraie, and Hurmuzan, 2018)
Moreover if the tutorials or videos being used by the teacher is of poor quality then the students
may be inclined to ignore it due to lack of excessive focus required to decode such material. It
may also stem from the teacher's material being too lengthy which is not required or when the
students have not been able to get a break to recharge their minds. The causes of diversion of
attention are which gets detrimental to the students career when their outcomes from learnings
are judged.(Sacko,and Haidara, 2018.)
Explanation on how students develop their active listening skills
When the students keep focused on a lecture and make deduction to ask for meaningful
feedback their understanding and retention regarding that topic gets crystallized. So it assumes
significant priority for the learners to evolve their abilities regarding listening actively. If the
learner can gather the centrality of the idea around which the whole topic revolves they can
retain the information more meaningfully than just being spun around by the current part of the
lecture which is going on. This could be achieved by preparing beforehand for the lecture and
getting themselves familiar to the content.(Lopez, J.A.M., 2020)
The learners who pay close attention to what's being said have a tendency to process that
information at a much higher rate in terms of making out what direction topic should logically be

geared towards. There are various methods through which a learner can be a better listener
which include:
Looking in the direction of speaker and maintaining eye contact are very essential as it
conveys the speaker that attention is being paid to whatever the topic is and it makes the listener
aware so that they do not drift away from the topic in conjunction a correct posture is essential
for maintaining attention an incorrect posture may distract the lecture provider as well as the
lecture receiver. (Williams, 2018)
Non verbal communication is just as important as verbal communication so the body
language which is conveyed by the teacher must be kept in mind while getting the entire picture
of what is being said. Its very important that the teacher not be disturbed with questions during
the lecture instead they could be written down it serves two purposes firstly the question may get
resolved without being asked since the teacher is already well versed with the topic and knows
what questions can logically pop up in the heads of the students and secondly it doesn't interrupt
the flow of the ideas that the teacher wants to convey.It's essential that the students don't form
prejudicial perception about the teacher and close off as this may harm their ability to gather
every perspective regarding the topic emotions should not get in the way of meaning full lessons.
Similarly a student should not write down every sentence and every word as it can distract them
from making any meaningful deductions and harm their comprehension as well as he outcome of
leaning that the teacher may have intended. They should remain focused on what is begin said
and only write their very own ideas on the topic as that will hep in solidifying their
understanding of the topic.(Qizi Ikanova, , 2020)
Distractions of any kind such as gadgetry of any kind such as phones or any other things
which have a tendency to distract from what is being said should be avoided with a religious
fervour as they hamper the concentration and make the span of attention shorter. Repeating the
words in one's head when one doesn't understand or is having difficulty concentrating can prove
to be very helpful to student who want to make their listening skills evolve beyond their current
capacity. Distraction which are based on the environment being non conducive to the study
should me minimised such as fixing the lighting if its too dark or any kind of noise coming from
outside should be eliminated.(Gwizdala, 2018)

It is well understood phenomena that people learn best when they can relate the current
material to the material which they already have knowledge about from the past. It is more
commonly known as contextual learning as it is very usual that students can drift off topic when
they learn concepts which are knotty in nature as result they are only passively listening and not
being able to make any logically formed conclusions it is not necessary for the students to agree
to the ideas of the speaker but they should have a well informed basis for why they do not agree
rather than just being prejudiced to what is being said. They can keep their disagreement in front
of the teacher when the teacher concludes his lecture by being patient and attentive till the time
they are asked for any issues they may have with the content or the way in which it was
presented.(Beck, and Kulzer,2018)
its pertinent for the listeners of the lecture to show empathy towards the lecturer and their
point of view in order to not pass any rash judgement which can hamper their leaning outcomes.
Further the health of the student mental or physical should be be taken care of by themselves so
that they do not suffer from inattention during the lecture the material of the lecture could be
arranged in such a way which which conveys the intended meaning behind the words by the
teacher. (Rao, 2019)The process of learning is a journey and not a destination it can be
continuously evolved with the right outlook towards gaining and retaining information in a
meaningful way. The teacher should not use material in lectures whose quality is sub-par as it
distracts the students from the topic. A good students always test themselves first which is why
its essential for measuring the learnings of the student with that of the learning that the teacher
intended to convey.

CONCLUSION
The preceding essay conveys that ability to listen carefully can and shall be contentiously
modified in order to be a better learner and by extension having a successful career. Correct
modification in the way one listens to anything can create better relationships in the personal or
the professional sphere and as a results students are able to navigate a variety of challenges
which are thrown at them. (Pomputius, 2019).Some things which should be kept in mind are that
student should not miss out on class as it it create comprehension problems in future regarding
the topic which they missed. Some of the main factors which come in the way of being a better
listener are unfamiliarity with the accent passing judgement on the teacher by being prejudiced to
their identity or the topic itself which narrows their understanding of the topic further not being
prepared with the content before the class can make their comprehension and deductions not up
to par with the learning outcomes which were intended by the teacher and lastly factors which
can hamper their attention such as gadgets.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Al-Samarraie, H. and Hurmuzan, S., 2018. A review of brainstorming techniques in higher
education. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 27, pp.78-91.
Beck, K. and Kulzer, J., 2018, February. Teaching counseling microskills to audiology students:
Recommendations from professional counseling educators. In Seminars in Hearing (Vol.
39, No. 01, pp. 091-106). Thieme Medical Publishers.
Favretto, A.R., 2019. Rethinking relationships among generations: active listening and children's
participation in therapeutic relationships. Rethinking relationships among generations:
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Gwizdala, K.R., 2018. Daily Classroom Discourse That Supports Speaking and Listening
Goals. Raise Your Voices: Inquiry, Discussion, and Literacy Learning, p.55.
IYERE, T.O., 2018. CHAPTER THREE THE LISTENING SKILL THEODORE O.
IYERE. Communication and Language Skills, p.42.
King, G., 2021. Central yet overlooked: engaged and person-centred listening in rehabilitation
and healthcare conversations. Disability and Rehabilitation, pp.1-13.
Lopez, J.A.M., 2020. Enhancing English Language Learners Listening and Speaking Skills
Using Technology (Doctoral dissertation, Greensboro College).
Pomputius, A., 2019. Can you hear me now? Social listening as a strategy for understanding user
needs. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 38(2), pp.181-186.
Qizi Ikanova, L.S., 2020. IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH ICT. Scientific
Bulletin of Namangan State University, 2(11), pp.334-338.
Rao, P.S., 2019. The importance of teaching language skills to the second or foreign language
learners of english: A comprehensive study. ACADEMICIA: An International
Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 9(4), pp.6-19.
Sacko, M. and Haidara, Y., 2018. Developing autonomous listening learning materials for
university students TOEFL preparation. LingTera, 5(2), pp.170-178.
Ungos, R., 2019. The Power of Listening.
Williams, P., 2018, March. Using escape room-like puzzles to teach undergraduate students
effective and efficient group process skills. In 2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education
Conference (ISEC) (pp. 254-257). IEEE.