The 3rd International Conference on Advances and Systematic Research ECNSI – 2009

8th Special Focus Symposium on ICESKS: Information, Communication and Economic Sciences in the Knowledge Society, Zadar, Croatia

COMPETENTION OF CROATIAN TEACHERS FOR LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING OF SPEAKING IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

Marija Jukić, Jasmina Božić, Ana Globocnik Zunac

Marija Jukić, Elementary aSchool Granešina, Zagreb, Republic of Croatia,

Bozic, Jasmina, M.A., Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia;

Ana Globocnik Zunac, The College of Business Zagreb, Croatia,

ABSTRACT

The ability of listening is the fundamental communication skill which influences the quality of communication process through which most of the interaction between people happens. Quality listening means active and effective listening, the ability to follow the communication flow, to adapt, to ask for feedback, to show the interest for colocutor, to respect their opinion. Teachers’ listening competence directly influences the relationship between the teacher and the student, which is very important for quality teaching. As with other skills, some people are born as good listeners, some as not so good, but quality listening can be learned. Most of the people during their formal education were not taught how to be quality listeners, and during teacher education very little care is taken to develop the ability for quality listening. Therefore, the goal of the study was to explore the listening competence among teachers in primary education. The results of the study showed that class teachers are better listeners than subject teachers. The hypothesis that the quality of listening is influenced by experience was not confirmed by this study.

Key words: listening competence, active listening, effective listening, teacher, student, primary education.

INTRODUCTION

The success of the education process is closely connected with the quality of human relationship between the teacher and the student (Bratanić, 1993; Brajša, 1994; Neill, 1994). It is a process in which both sides influence each other through their interaction and as a consequence change in relation to themselves and to others. Most of this interaction is realised through communication, which, in a teacher - student case, is direct and interpersonal communication. It is a two-way communication, a conversation in which you listen, think and speak (Brajša, 1994; 1996), that includes both verbal and nonverbal response (Reardon, 1998).

There are four basic elements in the process of communication: the sender of the message, the message itself, the receiver of the message and the context (Brajša, 1994). Teachers and students should balance their roles of senders and receivers in the communication process (Škarić, 1988; Brajša 1994). Sender (teacher / student) sends the message in a coded form to the receiver(student / teacher) who then decodes the message and decides on their own consequent behaviour. If the sent message equals the one received, the communication is successful. To avoid misunderstandings it is necessary to check what happened with the message by asking, giving and accepting feedback from the colocutor (Brajša, 1994; 1996). The way the receiver reacts to the given message depends on the way he has interpreted it, which is connected with the relation to the content of the message, sender and receiver’s individual biases. The teacher reacts to the message received from the student and responds. It is difficult to expect that the teacher’s message will stimulate the student to action if the content of the message is not understandable, if the teacher has a negative notion of the student, or if the student is not interested in the content of the message.

The quality of the communication greatly depends on the communication competence of the communicator and the level of development of his communication skills. Spitzberg and Cupach (1988: 66) define communication competence as “the ability to demonstrate appropriate communication in a specified context”. The higher the level of competence, the better the communication is.

Listening

Listening is a basic communication skill, on which all other communication skills develop: speaking, reading and writing. While some researchers look at listening exclusively as additional activity and neglect the importance of the nonverbal, researchers of interpersonal communication stress the importance of both verbal and nonverbal reactions of a person during the process of listening (Neill, 1994; Brajša 1994; Hargie and Dickson, 2004). According to Bostrom “listening is acquisition, processing and retention of information in interpersonal context “ (Hargie and Dickson, 2004: 172).

The listening process starts by registering the incoming stimuli, their filtering, and retaining on conscious level of only the most important messages, which are then coded and memorized (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). Listening is a complex process since it requires mostly subconscious validation, planning and practicing of the response before the actual reply. To avoid the danger of responding before the other speaker finishes talking, we must be careful that this activity does not interfere with the activity of listening. During conversation we must think about what the other person says, and not only about our answer (Brajša, 1996). If this does not happen the result is non-effective listening (Hargie and Dickson, 2004).

Studies have shown that adults spend 70% of their waking time in communication with others, and 45% of this time is spent listening (Adler, 2001, according to Hargie and Dickson, 2004). The studies of Galton, Simon and Croll have shown that teachers in elementary schools speak 78% of the time, and students 84% of time do not interact verbally i.e. they listen (Galton, Simon and Croll, 1980; according to Neill, 1994), while more recent studies show that students spend 65% - 90% of time listening (Gilbert, 1997). Although it is evident from these results that the process of listening is predominant, none of us learns how to quality listen whereas we learn other communication skills– speaking, reading and writing.

Good listeners are active and effective listeners. Through active listening (Gordon, according to Brajša, 1994; 1996) teachers should strive to recognize the students’ needs and check the understanding of students’message using verbal feedback. This kind of listening results in verbal responses expressing content and nonverbal reactions that explain the meaning of the message as well as expressing our relation to the message and the sender (Hargie and Dickson, 2004; Neill, 1994; Pease, 2002). If a teacher replies with judgemental, incomplete and generalized messages, messages based on unverified opinions and assumptions, the student becomes increasingly withdrawn and avoids any further communication with the teacher. Instead of that, the student should be sent descriptive, complete and specific messages, messages based on proved opinions and assumptions, which will encourage student to express freely their thoughts and feelings without fear of criticism. In this way we create a supportive, open and helpful climate, which encourages students for cooperation and communication (Brajša, 1994). If the nonverbal part of the feedback is lacking, we interpret it as no listening by the listener. The pseudolistening also exists, and it means that the listener shows nonverbal sings of attentive listening, but is not listening at all.

To listen effectively (Bormann, Bormann, 1988; according to Brajša, 1994: 77; 1996) means “wanting to be a receiver of the messages, to focus attention on the messages, to check their meanings, to structure the received message, to ask for explanations, to ask questions, i.e. to ask, receive and give feedback constantly.“ The process of effective listening combines meanings of both verbal and nonverbal parts of colocutors’ message. The message is considered congruent when verbal and nonverbal parts of the message are in accordance with each other.

Verbal and nonverbal indicators of the listening process

Škarić (1988), Neill (1994), Brajša (1994), Pease (2002) and Hargie, Dickson (2004) write about verbal and nonverbal indicators of effective listening which encourage the interlocutor to speak because they feel the interest and attention of the listeners. Teachers who want to encourage communication with students should use verbal reinforcers when needed (like “yes“, “very good“), refer to students’ past statements, use disjunctive markers (like “Before I forget“, “May I ask you something else?“) to shift topic, ask related and probing questions for clarification and use summarization during process of closure (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). It is especially important to ask for feedback while talking to students because they are often not able to express a message in a clear and understandable way because of their level of development. By summarizing and asking probing questions we check whether we understood the student’s message, and at the same time we help the student to realize and improve their communication.

Teachers, competent for listening and understanding of students’ speech, show attention and readiness for listening with nonverbal cues, which are mostly unconscious. They encourage students to talk by smiling, they use direct eye contact and appropriate paralanguage (e.g. tone of voice, emphasis on certain words, listening without interrupting), with facial expressions they show sympathy and empathy with the emotions expressed in the message, with their posture they express the attention (e.g. body leaned forward, sideways leaned on a chair or head tilted to the side), with a head-nod they show agreement and attention, avoid disruptive actions such as writing, reading, fidgeting and looking at the watch.

Obstacles to listening

There is a great number of obstacles that influence the process of listening in every phase starting with assimilation, attending, and understanding, up to memorizing the speech (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). Environmental influence, like street noise or noise in the classroom, and inadequate temperature of classroom disturb the process of listening. In communication between a teacher and a student, listening to the message can be distracted by the student’s low speech ability which is a limitation caused by student’s development level, and therefore it is necessary to check the accuracy of the understanding constantly. Fatigue is also one of the factors that considerably affect quality of listening; the greater the fatigue – the more the quality of listening deteriorates. Selective listening, teacher’s negative attitude toward the student, especially young teacher, all affect understanding of the message. It is impossible to listen effectively to the student if we listen to several students at the same time (dichotomy), if we do not focus our attention to the student and their message, if because of our individual preferences we bend the meaning of the message, if we make conclusions based on our previous experiences and attitudes or if we do not want to continue the initiated communication (Hargie and Dickson, 2004).

Teachers should listen to the students with four “ears”: “an ear” for the subject, “an ear” for self-expression, “an ear” for the relationship, and “an ear” for appeal (von Thun, 2001). The content of students’ message which informs us of something, also tells us about the student themselves, expresses their relationship to the teacher and toward the message through which they are trying to stimulate the teacher for something.

Students turn to the teacher with a need that someone understands and appreciates them, and the teacher who is listening should show a willingness to listen, try to understand students’ thoughts, beliefs and feelings with the goal to help them, listen emphatically, “listen with heart” (Halone and Pecchioni, 2001., according to Hargie and Dickson, 2004: 176).

People like to be listened to by the others because in this way they satisfy some of their needs, feelings and wishes and confirm their value. By listening the teacher influences the development of students’ self-esteem showing to them that he or she takes their words seriously, that their ideas and feelings are recognized, and that they are respected (Nichols, 1995). If we do not let students express their needs, wishes and attitudes by quality communication, they will seek other ways for their expression, which are mostly inadequate, and thus the students end up labelled as “hard, undisciplined and problematic”.

Teachers who are good listeners contribute to the pleasant atmosphere in the classroom which encourages the students to study, and they also make better pedagogical decisions and provide a model of well-behaved listener for the students (Bozik, 1987; according to Gilbert, 1997).

Development of the listening skill

Nowadays, when information is gathered mostly by reading, and less by listening, one ponders on what has been written, and what is being heard is quickly forgotten. The listening skill, which is a foundation of all other communication skills, is in this way neglected. Exept persons who are not able to hear and understand speaking language because of the brain damage, in the general population there are persons who are naturally more competent listeners than others. But listening is a skill that can be learned and perfected. Škarić (1988: 92) says that “where natural skills fail, a method jumps in.“ He talks about three natural ways of listening: imaginative, logical and anticipation listening. Through their realization and voluntary utilization we can improve our competence in the activity of listening. The message that we listen to is visualized in pictures, logical connections and sequences of spoken words are grasped and we listen “in advance” to the meaning we anticipate to be said next (Škarić, 1988).

With age vocabulary grows side by side with the experience of cooperation with people in various situations, therefore the ability to listen effectively also improves (Hargie, Dickson, 2004). In accordance with this statement, results of research of effective listening by educators which was done by Gilbert (1997) shows that the quality of listening is considerably better in more experienced educators when compared with the students of Faculty of Teacher Education. Apart from age, there are some other factors that influence listening competence, like gender (Hargie and Dickson, 2004). It has been noted that males are more oriented towards the facts (factual essence) and verbal aspect of the message, while females are more oriented towards the relationship (emotions) expressed by the message and its’ nonverbal aspect. Considering listener’s gender, differences have been noticed in using nonverbal signs during the process of listening. Males use head-nod as sign of affirmative response, affirmation of the statement spoken by the speaker, while females use head-nod as confirmation of their listening or paying attention.

With their listening competence teachers influence the atmosphere in the classroom, which in turn enables the success of the students; and they are also role models for students to learn how to listen effectively (Gilbert, 1997). To make a successful communication with students, teachers must be open, patient, ready for cooperation and sincere with students. During the process of communication teachers must adapt all the time; “for the communication to be adaptive to the needs of others, they must listen themselves.” (Reardon, 1998: 85). There must be constant check-up of understanding of sent and received messages together with care of verbal and non verbal communication in order to foster quality communication. If students feel that the teacher respects their opinion even when it is different from their own, that the teacher does not judge students, students gain trust in the teacher and are more free in expressing their thoughts and more motivated to study.

GOALS AND PROBLEMS OF THE RESEARCH

In his paper Gilbert (1997) stresses that most of the people have never learned the skill of listening including educators who demand from their students to listen to them. The question is: “How can we expect students to listen carefully if none has ever thought them to do it, and if teachers can not show a good example of it?” The results of the study done by Gilbert (1997) show that, with some other characteristics, by gaining experience teachers become more competent listeners. During formal education in Croatia not enough attention is paid to teaching listeningskills. In this paper the results of the research are interpreted, with the goal of validating the competence of Croatian primary education teachers, for listening and understanding students’ speech, and it is based on self-evaluation of some characteristics that make a teacher competent for listening and keeping high level of quality teaching.

Problems set in this study:

Are Croatian teachers in primary education competent listeners? Are they good models of proper communicating and listening? Are teachers in primary education aware of their (low) quality of listening and of the role of listening skills in the communication process? What consequences does (low) quality listening lead to? How to improve this skill?

This study starts with the hypotesis based on the claim that primary education teachers are competent of listening and understanding students’ speech, that there are differences in the quality of listening with respect to the years of service and the gender of teachers, and that there is a statistically significant difference in the quality of listening between class and subject teachers.

METHODS

Respondents

The study was conducted on a sample of 137 teachers of primary education in five elementary schools in Zagreb. Of this number 59 are class teachers and 78 subject teachers.