Teaching Listening

In real life, there are two ways in which we often listen to something:

A. Casual listening, when we listen with no particular purpose in mind and without much concentration.

e.g. - to the radio while doing some housework;

- chatting to a friend;

- to the people on a bus, etc.

B. Focused listening, when we listen for a particular purpose or to find out information we need to know.

e.g. - to an important piece of news on the radio;

- to somebody explaining how to operate a machine, how to cook, etc.

- to loudspeaker announcements at the station / airport, etc.

We do not listen to everything we hear with equal concentration. We listen for the most important points or for particular information. Usually, we know beforehand what we are listening for and this helps us to listen.