Effective Listening Skills

In order to effectively listen, you need knowledge of the stress and rhythm of the English language. These skills will not only improve your speaking ability, but will also help you improve your listening skills. Mastery of the stress and rhythm of English will help you learn to zero in on the important information in a conversation, lecture, or news broadcast. The following information was adapted from Rebecca Dauer's Accurate English.

Word Stress

In order to listen effectively in English, a knowledge of word stress if helpful. One aspect of stress is the rhythm of the language. The rhythm of English involves an alternation of strong or stressed syllables and weak or unstressed syllables. The stressed syllables are longer, clearer, and sometimes higher pitched; the unstressed syllables tend to be shortened or reduced. In addition, a stressed syllable is usually preceded or followed by one or two unstressed syllables.

One-syllable content words are usually stressed. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. You can look them up in a dictionary and translate them. These words carry the basic meaning of a sentence.

One-syllable function words are usually unstressed and reduced. Function words include articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs. They show grammatical relationships and are difficult to translate. Their meaning can change greatly depending on how they are used in a sentence.

Rhythm

In order to achieve a good rhythm in English, you need to slow down, stretch out, and very clearly pronounce one-syllable content words and the stressed syllables of longer words. And you must reduce unstressed function words and other unstressed syllables. The two most common mistakes made by non-native speakers are pronouncing one-syllable content words too quickly, by rushing them or dropping final consonants, and not reducing function words and unstressed syllables enough. As a result, the listener will have difficulty perceiving which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed. Since stress is the main cue to word boundaries in spoken language (equivalent to spaces in written language), the listener will therefore have problems figuring out where words begin and end. It is extremely important to make a clear difference between stressed and unstressed syllables when you are speaking English.

Good rhythm in English, as in any language, also means speaking at a regular speed with correct phrasing and pausing. Speaking at a regular rate allows your listener to predict where the next stress will fall. Grouping function words together with content words into phrases helps the listener establish grammatical units. Pausing (equivalent to punctuation marks in writing) lets the listener know where major grammatical units end and gives the listener time to figure out the meaning. If you've made some mistakes, the listener may need extra time to go back and "reprocess" what you've said. You shouldn't speak too slowly or suddenly change speed in the middle of a sentence. However, it's even worse to speak too quickly or to rush everything together without pausing long enough between sentences.

Pausing

Good rhythm in English involves not only making a clear difference between stressed and unstressed syllables but also grouping syllables together into larger units. That is, you must pause in the right places and link words together within a phrase.

Pauses occur:

1. before punctuation marks (.,;:?!"")

2. before conjunctions (and, or, but, which, that, since....), and

3. between grammatical units such as phrases, clauses and sentences.

Phrases include prepositional phrases, noun subjects (article + adjective + noun), verbs with their objects and adverbs, gerund phrases (verb + <ing> and its objects), and infinitive phrases. Every pause group must contain at least one stressed syllable. Therefore, you cannot pause between unstressed function words (such as pronouns, auxiliary verbs, or conjunctions) and the content words they go with. Pauses can be marked with a vertical line (|).

Depending on how fast you speak, | pause groups will be longer,| with three to five stressed syllables,| or shorter,| with one or two stressed syllables.| If people have difficulty understanding you,| it is usually a good idea| to pause more frequently| and for a longer time.| In English,| syllables before pauses are lengthened.| In the middle of a sentence,| such as at the end of a prepositional phrase| or long subject,| many people lengthen the last word in the group| without coming to a complete stop.|

Bibliography

Dauer, R. (1993). Accurate English. Prentice Hall Regents: Amherst, Mass.