ELLE's Webinar : Listening Competency

When the whole world is locked down and are under the grip of pandemic of Covid-19, work from home has become the routine of everyone. Schools and colleges also are closed so teachers’ known work of teaching is stopped. The most vigorous task of studying, updating and preparing for the next session (which is not considered as work by society) can never stop. ELLE Mumbai has taken initiative to organize a webinar for updating teacher fraternity of entire Maharashtra to meet the challenges of newly introduced course book of Std XII.

ELLE (English Language & Literature Explorers) Mumbai organised a webinar. The second session of the webinar was conducted on competencies of Listening Skill on 6th May 2020 at 4 p.m. The session was hosted by the tech-savy pioneer of English language training Mr Nadeem Khan . Mr. Pravin Muley a noted resource person introduced the speaker Mr. Avinash Rade from Palghar. The session was organised on Zoom Cloud Meeting. Almost 75 Jr. College teachers were the direct participants by joining Zoom. Many teachers have enjoyed the live session on FB.
Mr Avinash Rade who is one of the creators

of Std 12 Book of English initiated his

presentation explaining listening as an ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in communication process. It is a receptive basic skill of language. He threw  light on objectives for developing listening competencies. He stated the types of listening skills as informational, critical and therapeutic. Later he pointed out areas for developing listening skill and competency . Prose, poetry, novel extracts, icebreaking, brainstorming instructions, projects and exercises are the areas in the course book for developing listening skills. When teacher reads, explains, asks and instructs in English, students listen. Other areas which can be used for developing listening skills of students are oral test, audio clip, note taking exercise.
Mr Avinash Rade allowed his lecture to smoothly flow to the process of developing listening skill. He categorised the process in 4 levels as basic, intermediate, advanced and expert. Under basic he suggested to set activities, make students listen, allow speaker to speak and consider other’s points. At the intermediate level students are expected to (enable them) to listen carefully, pay attention to speaker, be patient to listen to people and consider opinion even when disagree. In an advanced level listeners are polite and patients during conversation. They are competent to digest before responding and keep eye contact with speaker. They refrain from interruption and allow speaker to make his point. Expert listeners practice attentive and active listening. They can paraphrase message for entire understanding and gets gist of the message. They can restate others opinion even when they disagree. The process of developing listening competency goes smoothly following the tricks of mouth closed , eye contact, no fidgeting, paraphrase, patient listening till the end, listening for content, non-verbal signals, unbiased listening.

He focussed on the teacher’s role in developing listening competency. According to him teacher should be a good speaker and innovative to avail the students opportunities of listening. He should be ideal for pronunciation and body language. He advised to be a friend and facilitator for the students to make them listen. Teachers need to tech-savvy as students are. Teachers can use technology for developing listening competency.

In the development of listening competency students play a vital role. Students should participate actively in the process of learning. They should be patient, self-learner and tech-savvy. They should try to remember, understand, clarify and respond to the content.

He pointed out classroom learning activities for developing listening competency. He suggested some of the activities such as use of audio-video device, assigning listening task, listen and follow, session for talk less ,listen more, finding key words , predicting speakers purpose. He clarifies testing and evaluating of listening skill.

The webinar was outstanding experience towards updating and upgrading teachers at far remote places. Avinash Rade enabled the participants to meet the challenges of newly introduced course book of Std XII. He
focused on different strategies applicable in classrooms. My dream of learning from the state level person came true with this webinar. The webinar has given the opportunity to teacher like me to upgrade well in advance. My effort of writing the detailed report on the session is to cement the information, knowledge and vision I got through the webinar. 

Post your views regarding the session in comment box.

The speakers  in a series of webinar :

Mrs. Manjushree Sardeshpande
Dr.Dipak Damodare .
Dr. Pravin mulay
Mr. Avinash Rade
Mr.Nadeem Khan

ELLE MUMBAI TEAM

Mr. Tushar J. Bagwe
Mrs.Sangeeta Bagade.
Mr.Anil Bagade

TECHNICAL SUPPORT.
Mr.Nadeem Khan
Mr. Avinash Rade.
Mr. Sahebao Mahajan

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