Listen with Understanding, Speak to Communicate

In order to meet the demands of being a worker, a learner and a family and community member, adults need to be active listeners and to be able to speak so that others can understand them.

The listening and speaking strands are underpinned by the notion that listening and speaking are not passive acts but interactive and social skills.¹⁷ These two strands are closely connected and the Interactive Listening and Speaking progression is included in both strands.

The interactive progression specifically focuses on the management of dynamic interaction between participants in conversational contexts. The listening and speaking strands also consider other aspects of a developing communication repertoire. The strands take account of the fact that expertise is characterised by the important ability to move beyond small-group contexts.¹⁸

The listening and speaking strands acknowledge the transactional or information transferring function of listening and speaking.¹⁹ Any learning progression in the skills of listening and speaking must include the development of comprehension and the increasingly expert use of comprehension strategies. It must also describe the development of increasing expertise in communicating information effectively. The listening comprehension progression incorporates a view that with increasing expertise comes increasing metacognitive awareness in the monitoring of comprehension,²⁰ a view that is also included in the reading strand. The development of increasing expertise in communicating information effectively needs to be considered alongside the development of awareness of purpose and audience.