TESL 0120 Unit 3: Reflection

Unit 3 Reflection: Passive Listening vs. Active Listening

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While completing the assigned readings, one point that stood out to me was from “How to Teach Listening” by J.J. Wilson (2008). On page 21, Wilson writes about the myth that “Listening is a ‘passive’ skill.” For me, I have never considered listening to be a passive skill, but rather one that takes effort and concentration. Even in one’s native language I feel that a good listener is someone who pays close attention to what is being said, whether it be when listening to a discouraged friend share their struggles, or to a lecturer in a university class. Sure we have times when we passively listen, but I feel that this is can become a bad habit. How often do we catch ourselves ‘passively’ listening to someone or something, and then realize after how little we were able to pick out. While it can be useful in some situations to be able to ‘passively’ listen, I feel that we get more out of life by being active listeners.

J.J. Wilson goes on to explain that there are many processes that go through our mind while listening. We are constantly guessing, predicting, inferring, criticizing and interpreting (Wilson 2008). It’s not that listening is actually passive, but rather that it becomes a subconscious process that we often don’t think twice about. Taking this into consideration, I think that there is a difference between being a “passive” listener, versus being an active listener, someone who can process information effectively. As ESL students work on their listening skills, I hope that their end goal is not to be able to achieve a listening ability where they can listen “passively”, but rather that they can become active listeners.

References:

Wilson, J. J. (2008). How to teach listening (pp. 21-24). Harlow, Essex: Pearson

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