Lend ear to listen amidst noise

Updated on: Tuesday, August 23, 2011

For the 21st century student, straddling homework and classes is not an easy task- for there are a dozen distractions vying to lure him away from books and deflect his attention from the teacher. Such a scenario calls for focussed listening by filtering out noises.

In the first module under the ‘Listening skills' programme in the NIE session at Srirangam Boys Higher Secondary School, Class VIII students learnt to fine tune their listening skills. Hearing and listening are two different things, noted resource person V.Chandra, explaining that music can be ‘heard' for pleasure and ‘listened' for instruction or observation of nuances. It is the purpose that determines categories: while pleasure drives the former, knowledge steers the latter.

Through a simple tale, she elaborated how listening is classified into three categories- some things should be listened and interpreted intellectually, some are meant to be taken close to the heart and shared with others, and some are simply not worth retaining.

In the final activity of the session, students were given 15 minutes to create a replica of their school or town on paper. As they set to working, the resource person deliberately generated a host of noises by tapping on the desk, talking aloud and using a mobile phone, to add to the general din. When they were asked to list out the noises they had heard, the list varied depending on the concentration level of the student. The most efficient of the students were the ones who managed to keep distractions at bay by filtering sounds and focusing on the work at hand.

Lend ear to listen amidst noise

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