English Listening Practice Based on Your Personality
All of us are different- we have different taste, personality, likings, prospects, opinions, and way of looking into things. This principle of individuality is applicable to our listening skills as well. Different people listen in a different way and comprehend the same thing differently. Some of us may simply hear a sound while some may listen to it. Now, what is the difference between the two things?
It’s pretty simple- hearing refers to mere perceiving of the sound while listening refers to paying attention to every single detail while perceiving sound. For instance, you may hear your favorite song while carrying out your household chores but while watching the news, you pay attention to it and listen to it properly.
Since different individuals have diverse personalities, their listening style differs to a greater extent. To engross in the most effectual English listening practice, you should go for that method which is based on your personality or that properly aligns with your listening skills. So, let us first find out the type of personality that you possess.
Types of personality
Your personality includes your traits, attitude, abilities, and everything that sets you apart from others. Here are different types of personalities categorized by All Meyers Briggs:
1. Extrovert: A person who likes to express his feelings with others and is totally comfortable with people around
2. Introvert: A person who likes to be alone and spend most of the time by reading books. Such people keep themselves away from the crowd
3. Sensing type: A person who pays heed to the physical world- what he sees, smells, tastes, hears and feels
4. Intuition type: A person who looks into the bigger picture and focuses on the overall message that one gets from different things
5. Thinking type: Those who make decisions just based on the facts are thinking type.
6. Feeling type: Those people who care about the people and their emotions more than the facts are feeling type
7. Judging: A person who wants to have details about different things is judging type
8. Perceiving: This type of person has an open attitude. These type of people try to look for new information
Check this for importance of listening skills in IELTS preparation.
Listening styles
Just as different types of personalities are there, so are the styles of listening. Each style focuses on a different aspect of communication. Let’s have a look at the different listening styles:
People-oriented: This style focuses on the speaker. The listener will try to find out the reason behind speaker making those notes. The listener looks into the background of the speaker
Action-oriented: These listeners will focus on the ideas put forth by the speaker. They pay attention to the instructions, ideas, and goals given by the listener.
Time-oriented: This listening refers to understanding the main gist of the communication in the least possible time. These listeners do not prefer long stories or flowery language.
Content-oriented: These listeners pay attention to the message that the communication gives. They understand the main points and find their relevance.
English listening Practices to suffice different personalities
Activities that are best suited for the people-oriental listeners
1. English language interviews of famous personalities
Interviews of famous personalities can help in a big way. They provide an opportunity to perceive natural conversations and understand it from our own comfort. There is an abundance of interview videos available on the web, so one can easily find some. This activity is best for the introverts as they can practice English listening right from the comfort of their dwellings.
It involves understanding the person giving the interview (interviewee). Both the thinking and feeling type of listeners can take this practice. The thinking types will pay attention to the points given by the interviewee while the feelings types will consider the emotions of the interviewee which are attached to the conversation. Check this course to know more about Interview Preparation Classes.
While listening, try to pay attention to the tone, intonation, and accent of the speakers. After listening, you should jot down the points that you comprehended from the conversation. This tells you how well you understood the entire conversation. Different speakers have different styles of speaking. So, this will greatly aid you in improving your listening skills.
2. Role-playing that solely involves English conversations
Role-playing is a fun-filled activity that you can carry with your friends, colleagues or any other person. It involves changing your way of speaking and behavior according to the role assigned to you. It is the best way to prepare for real-life situations where you’ll always meet different people with different speaking skills. You can take a real-life situation like ordering coffee/pizza in a restaurant or taking interviews. Extroverts enjoy this activity to the fullest.
To start with a role play, first select the scenario, select characters and the role that each one of you will play. Next, you’ll have to act like you are actually in the situation and interact in a natural way. While interacting, listen to other people carefully, understand their opinions and respond according to the traits of your character. You can record the role play to listen to it later.
While listening, identify the errors in pronunciation and practice later to speak it in the appropriate way. You should note down the feelings or thoughts that you felt the other characters were depicting. After the play, you can discuss with them to find out how well you understood.
Activities those are best suited for the Content-oriented English Listening
3. Listening to Podcasts of your choice in English
This activity is generally ideal for people having any kind of personality and is especially meant for the content-oriented listeners. Podcasts are the talk shows that are available on the web. These are available on almost any subject and on any language. You can find plenty of English language podcasts on any subject of your interest. You can listen to them alone on your smartphone or along with your friends.
You can go for RadioLab that is an amalgamation of science, interesting stories, and fascinating events. It is ideal for long practice sessions. Apart from this, you can also go for IRL (In real life podcasts) or podcasts related to strangers that depict their true stories. It is advisable to note the intonation and accent of each character to accustom with the every-day language of the natives.
Activities for Action-oriented English Listening
4. Playing games that involve lot of conversation among the participants
The action-oriental people love to learn and practice English speaking through engaging activities. The best activities involve Origami and Treasure Hunting. Origami is a paper folding game where different shapes are made with a paper. On the other hand, treasure hunting is a game where a group of people finds different hidden objects by following the clues.
You can play these games with your colleagues and the more you converse, the better you’ll be able to practice. You can listen to others and comprehend their feelings during the course of the game. It is best for those people who love to be outdoors.
Activities for Time-oriented English Listening
5. News Headlines
Listening to the News is the best way to enhance your English listening skills. This method is best suited for almost any kind of people- introverts, thinking, feeling type or judging, and perceiving types. It is an amazing tool to learn and to grow your awareness pertaining to status-quo.
This further facilitates you to have conversations with English speakers and enhance your skills. After listening to the news stories, note down one-line summaries of all the current stories in a scrapbook. This helps you to test how well you understood the news.
Conclusion
Different people have different personalities. If we take an English language listening practice that suits our personality, then we’ll be able to achieve our goals in the best way that too in the least amount of time. So, always go for those methods that you’ll love to take as that will ultimately help you to learn better.
We at WizMantra, have different English listening practice methods where you can easily choose the one that you are comfortable with, and the one you’d love to do.
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