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Following Instructions
The typical school day is packed with instructions. Students must be able to decide what to do with information from lessons, test and homework directions, activity directions and transitions. Teachers evaluate a students active listening skills by observing if they can follow instructions.

One of the most difficult things for many students is to comprehend (receptive language) more than two-step directions. Often a child cannot perform a required task due to multiple oral instructions being given. In this case, it is critical that simple directions be written down in a list format or shorten instructions and give more only after completion of a required task. We also expect our students to follow implied directions, such as how to act in certain situations. We expect students to infer our meaning, or "read between the lines." Students who lack these skills often cannot succeed with implied directions.

Assessing Listening for Instructions


Understands and responds appropriately to direct requests Understands inferential requests for information Follows multi-step directions as appropriate for grade level Follows directions for both familiar and unfamiliar routines Can listen and adjust behaviors according to new information and directions Understands differences between student-teacher talk and peer-peer talk Applies rules for interaction in different social situations at school

Characteristics
A student with listening comprehension skills needs may not fully understand oral instructions and may ask for information to be repeated. Sometimes he/she may say huh?, even though it seems like information may have been heard. They may take increased time in responding to oral requests and could have a reduced vocabulary.

7 Tips to Improve Your Childs Listening Comprehension Skills


1. Speed of delivery
For most listening comprehension tests and practices, kids cannot control the speed of delivery. Speed of speech is a key factor in the understanding of the listening material, and many language learning sites/software provide the option of playing back words and sentences at a slower speed. It is best if learners are able to control the speed of speech or conversations in the listening comprehension practice.

2. Repeating of words and phrases


In a standard listening comprehension passage, listeners cannot always choose to have words repeated. While each passage is specifically designed to assess your childs ability, this can be a serious problem in learning situations. Sometimes learners need specific words or phrases repeated for better understanding, but in most classroom situations only the teacher can decide what and when to repeat listening passages. It is also difficult for the teachers to judge whether or not the students have understood any particular section of what they have heard.

3. Limited vocabulary
The limitation of vocabulary is what educators need to pay attention to when giving out listening comprehension exercises. Listeners will tend to stop and think about the meaning of the word that they do not understand and thus they will miss the next part of the speech or listening material. In listening comprehension practice, allow your child or student ample time to repeat the passage and help them understand the meaning of new words.

4. Recognizing speech signals


Younger or weaker listeners may have difficulty recognizing speech signals which indicate that the speaker is moving from one point to another. In formal listening comprehension passages, signals such as next, then, or secondly are comparatively more evident than in informal passages (e.g. dialogue), where speech signals are often vague or dropped. In such cases, allowing a longer pause in between parts of the passage will help.

5. Lack of contextual knowledge


Sharing mutual knowledge and common context makes communication easier. If listeners lack background knowledge of the listening material, they may have difficulties understand the purpose of the passage even if they can grasp its superficial meaning. For example, a listening comprehension passage about Thanksgiving will be rather daunting for a Singaporean child. Therefore, using appropriate or relevant materials for listening practice is important for young beginners.

6. Length of listening materials


Kids, especially younger ones, have short attention spans. In listening comprehension, children may lose concentration easily if the listening material or passage is too long. For beginner learners, listening material of 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes is optimal. In addition, concentration is easier when learners find the topic of the material interesting.

7. Habit of understanding every word


Kids and learners whose first language is not English (or any subject in question) tend to have established certain learning habits, such as a wish to understand every new word they come across. This will become a hurdle for them in listening comprehension. They tend to become worried if they fail to understand a particular word or phrase and they may get so discouraged that they abandon the entire passage completely. Hence, it is important for them to understand that tolerance of vagueness and incompleteness of understanding is necessary.

In addition to the above, here are some general pointers for helping your child practice listening skills:

Repetition of passages is encouraged Use graphical or even video cues. In fact, schools in Singapore are already using graphical cues in the majority of primary school listening comprehension tests.

Use authentic and real-life material instead of composed/pedagogical material Use speech or passages that learners that will be interesting to learners Due to the complex nature of listening comprehension, passages representing a variety of situations where listening is required will further enhance the learners listening skills.

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