This is an interview that I made for Jorge in order to know his "weak skill".
Questions:
The one that's been hard for me is the listening skill. First, it was hard for me to stay focused on the audio. After ,let's say, 30 seconds, I started to think of other stuff like plans, dreams or whatever it came to my mind. To this, I'd also add the environmental noise. If there's to much noise, it's hard for me to get concentrated. Finally, listening is a process which is develop with lots of practice.I found difficult to learn how to deal with all of those unrelated thoughts that impede a good understanding of what we listen to in a specific moment. Thank God, now I know some techniques to get concentrated.
2. What have you done to improve it?
As listening is a receptive skill, I took advantage of the internet and started to look for websites which helped me in the process. I used podcasts. They are pretty nice since the variety of topics they offer makes it easy to look for something you're interesting in. Picturing what I was listening to worked very well for me. Also, making associations is good. You make a chain or timeline in your mind so that you have an order of what's being listened to, in that way, I tend to remind more information thant if I pay attention to isolated data.
3. What kind of activities did you like your teachers to develop in regards to your weak skills?
The activities which I liked were the ones that revealed information on how to be an effective listener. For example, listen to a story and write down specific details (maybe names, characters, objects, etc) about it , so that we were looking for specific data.Then, I did the oposite with the same story which was to look for pretty general information.
Drawing a picture of what I was listening to was also an activity that I consider really useful. Deliberate mistakes was also helpful; Ilistening to information that was not right so that I had to notice it and at the same time correct it made my brain to stay focused on what I was listening in that moment. There are probable more, but those are the ones I liked the most.
4. Do you still have problems with that skill? Explain.
I think I do, but not in the same way as it used to be. As there are no rules to be learned as in grammar, listening is something that is developed by practicing a lot. It's developed gradually, over time. However, I still have problems because I have to deal with different intonations and ways of expressions. So I consider is a skill I will be developing all my life. I still need to practice; from time to time is good to download some podcast and have some practice to see how good I'm doing it. The more practice, the better;I think it's never enough.
As I could see, Jorge has developed well his skill althoug he has some problems, but they are not an obstacle that cannot be overcome. Keep up, George. The activities you like your teachers to develop in class are very good, but do not depend only on that. I know you do not, so I encourage you to continue with it. Try some other ways to develop it better. In that way, you will be a better listener than you already are now. Keep it up!
Excellent answers! I think most of us have problems with the listening skill. It´s hard to develop it; We must be aware that we develop that ability with a lot of effort; furthermore, we have to understand that is a process which is gradually achieved. It's not something which is learned from one day to another. Techniques and strategies are more than helpful in this process.
ResponderEliminarEvarybody has problems developing a specific skill. For me the laborious skill is writing. I congrat you George because you use nicely the sources in the Internet! I'll will try to do the same!
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