STEPS TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILL INTRODUCTION English is a language which because of its multifarious facets and features has these days, become most useful to the welfare of mankind.Language learning is a skill. A language can be learnt by an individual not simply by knowing about the language but by experiencing it.The recent experiments in language teaching proved that listening is an important skill associated with comprehension of ideas. But unfortunately, the English language instruction in Kerala today,has failed to equip learners with the communicative skills that are necessary for social interaction and individual career achievements.

Hearing is an involuntary act that happens automatically.But listening is a voluntary activity and hence it is delibrate. Listening is not a passive activity during which the listener recieves the thoughts and feelings of the speaker.Basic listening skills are the ability to hear clearly and to discriminate the sounds heard.Listening involves several mental processes like thinking,reasoning,synthesizing,analyzing,discrimi nating judging and evaluating.Listening is a creative process.Listening is an active knowledge guided process. Listening involves active cognitive processing.It involves the construction of a message.

Most of the language teachers in secondary schools today fail to prepare their pupils for listening and speaking. The following listening activites,which are communicative in function are suggested to develop listening skills among pupils; Listening to the news, announcements etc… Attending lectures or seminars Attending to telephone conversation Exchanging views with friends and acquaintances. Listening to the conversation of different persons or characters in a movie etc….

The listening tasks in the classroom should achieve two purposes the linguistic and the non lingustic. Most of the listening tasks in the classroom aim at realizing the linguistic aspect of listening. But we also listen to others with a purpose which is non linguistic in nature.These tasks should be designed in such a manner that they should match our expectations and purposes. Hence the teachers should plan varied listening activties and train the students to cope with the real life situations The following are some of the listening tasks which will improve the listening skills of the pupils. 1.The use of minimal pairs 2.The teacher says the following pairs of words and sentences and asks them whether they are the same or different. RICE-RISE FACE –PHASE PEACE-PEAS

3.The teacher gives them some commands and the pupils do the actions.If they do the correct actions their listening is correct. 4.The teacher can play a tape containing some recorded speech.He tells them what to expect on the tape and suggest a few questions for which they should find answers as they listen. 5.One more classroom activity that is useful to develop listening skill is narriating or reading simple short stories.Stories provide students practice in listening.

CONCLUSION Listening is not a passive activity during which the listener recieives the thoughts and feelings of the speaker. While listening, several thoughts run through our mind. A stony expressionless face can be very discouraging to the speaker. S o to be an active listener, learn to communicate through gestures and facial expressions.

REFERENCES 1. Methods of Teaching English in India- K.L.Sharma 2.Techniques of Teaching English In The New Millennium- A.L.Kohili 3.Principles of Teaching English- S.Venkateshwaran 1. Methods of Teaching English in India- K.L.Sharma 2.Techniques of Teaching English In The New Millennium- A.L.Kohili 3.Principles of Teaching English- S.Venkateshwaran