Language learning starts from:

In language pedagogy, listening is treated as the skill that develops first, ahead of speaking, and well before the literacy skills of reading and writing are introduced — a developmental sequence widely referred to as the LSRW model (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing). This reflects how learners are typically exposed to spoken language long before they are expected to produce speech or handle written text.

Among the four skills named in the options, listening is the one placed at the very start of this sequence: a learner first hears and internalises the sounds, words, and patterns of a language, and every later skill builds on that foundation.

• Speaking follows this initial stage, since a learner can only produce sounds and words that have already been heard and internalised — it cannot be the starting point.

• Reading depends on decoding written symbols into meanings that are already known orally, so it is introduced only after a base of spoken-language exposure exists.

• Writing is the most demanding of the four skills, requiring both an oral vocabulary and familiarity with reading conventions, so it comes last, not first.

Because this developmental sequence places prior exposure to spoken language ahead of the other three skills, listening is the correct starting point of language learning among the options offered.