What is Listening?

•Listening is the active intellectual process of decoding, interpreting, understanding and evaluating messages.

•Listening in its broadest sense, is defined as the process of receiving what the speaker actually says; constructing and representing meaning; negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding ;and, creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy.

•Listening is a complex, active processes of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know.

Why Listen?

The following are the good things good listening does for you in a speaking situation:

•It stimulates better communication between the parties involved.

•It contributes to and promotes better responses among the members of the group. It facilitates the meeting of the minds.

•It makes you appreciate and enjoy what you hear.

•It assists you in understanding what is being said.

•It helps you make better decisions.

•It enables you to react to what is said.

•It enlarges one’s experience.

•It enables you to correct your own problems of vocalization

•It decreases the tensions of life.

Requisite to good listening is a purpose. You listen for a purpose or for several purposes. It may be any or all of the following:

•To obtain information and gain knowledge.•To appreciate and enjoy what is said.•To be clarified and make intellectual judgements.•To draw inspiration.•To improve oneself.

The Best Kind of Listening

According to Mcburney and Wrage, the best kind of listening has the following characteristics:

•Voluntary Good listening begins with a

willingness to participate completely in a communicative situation.

•PurposefulYou choose to listen because of

some very good reason/reasons

•MotivatedWhen you have good reasons for

listening, you are all keyed up for the activity and nothing can stop you.

•CooperativeYou keep quiet and give your

wholehearted cooperation when you listen because you hope for nothing but only the best from the speaker.

•CriticalYou follow the speaker’s ideas carefully

and get things clear so that in the end you may be able to make intellectual judgements when you evaluate his ideas before responding.

The Listening Process

1. Receiving The stage of receiving involves

the basic need to getting or hearing the right conversation, as to, what the other person wants to say or express.

2. AttendingThe way, wherein, you should be

conscious and alert about what the other person has said.

3. Understanding An important and basic step

wherein you can analyze about the exact situation.

4. RespondingBy answering the query or by

reacting on a particular situation.

5. RememberingThis refers to the listener’s ability

to retain the ideas conveyed by the speaker.

Types of Listening

•Active listening as contrasted to passive listening.

The former which is a skill requires effort on the part of the listener while the other which is a natural process does not.

•Serious listening requires concentration of thought. It may be divided into:

•Critical or discriminative listening. It has four levels, to wit:

•Attentive Listening – is characterized with concentration of thought

•Retentive Listening – retains knowledge

•Reflective Listening – reflects on ideas heard

•Reactive Listening – with a readiness to react

•Social Listening. This may also be classified into the following:

•Appreciative Listening – listening for pleasure

•Conservational Listening – listening to maintain good relationships

•Courteous Listening – means more than just being silent

Levels of Listening

•Ignoring – the speaker is communicating but the receiver, who may be preoccupied with many other concerns, completely denies or ignores him.

•Pretending – the speaker is communicating while the other party stares at him blankly. This is listening on the eye level for the sake of courtesy.

•Selective Listening – the speaker is communicating but the other party chooses whatever she wants to listen to. It may be a joke, an anecdote or a story in a middle of the speech. This is listening on the eye and ear levels.•Attentive Listening – the listener looks at the speaker, hears his/her voice, and follows his/her thoughts with his/her mind. S/He concentrates on what/s he hears. This is listening with the eyes, the ears and the mind.

•Sympathetic Listening – aside from seeing, hearing and understanding the message, the affection or emotion is involved. This is listening at the levels of the eyes, the ears, the mind and the heart.

•Emphatic Listening – this is the highest level of listening. It involves the eyes, the ears, the mind, the heart, and the action of the listener’s active response or solution. It is not just on the pity level, but on being in the actual situation of the speaker. Emphasis is in listening.

Roadblocks of Listening

•Hostility to the speaker•Daydreaming•Prejudging•Selective Listening•Close-mindedness•Listener’s background•Distractions

10 Tips to Effective Listening

•Face the speaker.

•Maintain eye contact, to the degree that you all remain comfortable.

• Minimize external distractions.

•Respond appropriately to show that you understand.

•Focus solely on what the speaker is saying.

•Minimize internal distractions.• Keep an open mind. •Avoid letting the speaker know how you handled a similar situation. • Even if the speaker is launching a complaint against you, wait until they finish to defend yourself. •Engage yourself.

“Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.”

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most

people never listen.”

“A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.

”

“The first duty of love is to listen.”

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we

move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.”