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12.1.1.1.    Sub-skills of listening

Listening can be divided into the foliowing sub-skills (Lewis and Hilli 1992:62):

—    ubility to follow the generał trend of what is said,

—    ability to understand specific details,

—    ability to check a specific piece of pre-knowledge against what is said,

—    ability to understand the speaker’s intention - why did he/she say something?,

—    ability to understand the speaker’s attitude - how he/she felt.

Since students’ listening skills need to be developed to improve generał language abilities and facilitate language acąuisition, not only global listening skills but the sub-skills have to be practised as well.

12.1.1.2.    What do we listen to?

Many authors attempt at listing all possible types of listening siluations, yet the list never seems complete, sińce the variety appears to be immense. Below, the reader shall find enclosed the list suggested by Ur as involving aural comprehension (1984: 2):

listening to the news, weather forecast, sports report, announcements etc. on the radio,

discussing work, current problems with family or colleagues,

—    making arrangements, exchanging news etc. with acąuaintances,

—    making arrangements, exchanging news etc. over the telephone,

—    chatting at a party, other social gathering,

—    hearing announcements over the loudspeaker (at the railway station, airport, etc.),

—    receiving instructions on how to do something, get somewhere,

—    iittending a lesson, seminar,

—    being interviewed, interviewing,

—    watching a film, theatre show, television programme,

—    hearing a speech, lecture,

—    listening to recorded, broadcast songs,

- attending a formal occasion (wedding, prize-giving, other ceremony),

— getting professional advice (from a doctor, etc.), being tested orally in a subject of study,

12.1.1.3. The characteristics of spoken language in different circumstances

The characteristics of spoken language vary according to situations or circumstances. Below the reader shall find the summary of these characteristics, with the + indicating presence and the -absence of the feature (based on Grauberg, 1997:184)

Circum stance	Immediate response needed	Message adjustable (speed, etc.)	Short bursts of language	Redundancies	Body language	Discóurse markers
Friendly interaction	;■ ,-fH A	nkuH		+	+	-
Service ęncounter	+	+/-	+	-	+/-	-
Others talking	-	-	+	+	+	-
Talks / lectures	-	-	-	-	+/-
Radio / TV	-	-	+/-	-	+/-	-

12.1.1.4. Real life listening

In real life, there are two ways in which we often listen (based on Doff, 1988):

a)    ‘casuaP listening - we listen with no particular purpose in mind, very often not concentrating much on what is heard (e.g. listening to the radio while doing some housework, etc.), afterwards, not much of what has been heard will be remembered,

b)    ‘focused’ listening - we listen for a particular purpose, to find out the necessary information, the passage is listened to much morę closely, but we tend to concentrate specifically on the most important points or on particular information (e.g. instructions for operating a machinę, piece of important news on TV or radio, etc.). Listeners usually know beforehand what they want to know and what they are listening for, which is quite helpful when doing the task.

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