The Important of Listening

Hearing is the common sense of human being which its function is accepting information in voice form. In other hand we compare it with a human who can hear normally but he can not understand that the information that he heard. It means that what he or she has heard doesn’t mean anything. It is out of the listening purpose that is to get the information from the sound streaming into the sense of hearing.

Therefore in learning foreign language listening skill is so important, it supported by H Douglass Brown who said “every teacher of language knows that one’s oral production ability is only as good as one’s listening comprehension ability”[1]. And on his other book Douglass Brown compared between listening and other competence “the important of listening in language learning is hardly be overestimated. In classroom, students always do more listening than speaking. Listening competence is always universally larger than speaking competence.[2] In the real fact mostly found that there is no many foreign language learners master overall listening skill.

Definitely, Listening is an important skill. Successful communication depends on not only receiving messages but also decoding them correctly. No communication process is complete without listening. Most of students take much time to improve their listening skill, they should through this placidly. They do not only learn to listen what their teacher taught but also they should learn by their self by watching TV or listening radio.

Effective listening is extremely important for students as they spend most of their time listening to lectures. For professionals, the higher of the position, the greater of the listening responsibility. In some companies, it is important to listen carefully to the instructions of one’s superiors at the workplace. We can also measure the morale and enthusiasm of coworkers and subordinates by listening closely to them. On a personal level, a person who listens and pays attention is rated as highly popular and socially compatible.

As a result, listening has an important role for human life. It is one of the basic skills that everyone is required to master it as well as possible. Unconsciously, many activities related to the listening which many students always do. For example; listening to radio, song, or watching English movie. However listening help people to enjoy their life.

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[1] H Douglass Brown, Language Assessment ( New York: Pearson Education Incorporation, 2004) p 119

[2] H Douglass Brown, Teaching By Principle: An Interactive approach to Language Pedagogy, Second Edition ( New York: Pearson Education Incorporation, 2001) p 247