Web Resources

Web Links

  1. International Listening Association TThe International Listening Association is a professional organization whose members are dedicated to learning more about the impact that listening has on all human activity. The International Listening Association promotes the study, development, and teaching of listening and the practice of effective listening skills and techniques. The association holds an annual convention and publishes an international journal as well as several books and educational and training resources. Check out some of the tests and assessments that explain how listening skills are evaluated in a variety of fields and disciplines.
  2. Skillswise Check your listening skills with some fun games and exercises offered at this site. 
  3. Englishforuniversity.com “Academic Listening.” This website offers support for students for whom English is not a primary language and offers suggestions for academic improvement.
  4. University of Toronto, Scarborough/Academic Listening Skills This website offers a brief description of skills and tips that can help improve a student’s academic listening skills and comprehension in lecture classes.

Activities

  1. Thoughtcasting: One form of therapeutic listening now occurs in online and mobile environments, making listening more of a sight stimulus than an auditory stimulus. Social network services such as Facebook (www.facebook.com), Twitter (www.twitter.com), and Tumblr (www.tumblr.com) invite individuals to describe how they are feeling in a given moment and then send that status update out to friends via mobile phone, IM, or their website. Texts, links, photos, audio files, and video clips can immediately send out messages to friends about an individual’s state of mind, location, feelings, or ideas.

    Have you ever been surprised to learn of a friend’s relational status or emotional state via his or her online profile? Have you ever used one of these platforms to tell friends about changes in your relational status or emotional state? Why did you choose that channel to share personal and intimate information? How do you show others that you are “listening” to their emotional and relational messages?

  2. Listening Parties:  Listening parties are a new phenomenon becoming more popular thanks to the use of MP3 players, podcasts and other mobile media.  Listening parties are interactive public conversations featuring musicians, guest critics, and music enthusiasts who “gather” online to talk about new musical releases.  Search for your favorite artist or musical group and look for their ongoing listening party to find out what people like you are saying about your favorite music.  Sign in to participate.

    How does reading what others say about the music affect your appreciation for the music?  Did you find yourself becoming defensive?  Did you join in?

  3. Using your computer and downloading technology (or, if you have a friend or relative from whom you can borrow), listen once to a song recorded by the Rolling Stones, writing down the lyrics as best you can. THEN, listen again, this time trying to pick up lyrics that you might have missed the first time. Repeat this exercise until you are relatively sure that you have the COMPLETE and CORRECT lyrics. Then, go to http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling+stones/ and find the actual song lyrics to compare the lyrics you wrote with those listed on the site.

    Make notes regarding how long it took (how many times it took listening to the song) to get the right lyrics (if you did). Did you need to listen to every word to get the lyrics or did certain phrases help clarify what lyrics might come next? Were you more engaged in trying to understand the song because you were “assigned” to do so?