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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 ones 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.

Purposeful

You choose to listen because of some very good reason/reasons

Motivated

When you have good reasons for listening, you are all keyed up for the activity and nothing can stop you.

Cooperative

You keep quiet and give your wholehearted cooperation when you listen because you hope for nothing but only the best from the speaker.

Critical

You follow the speakers 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. Attending

The 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. Responding

By answering the query or by reacting on a particular situation.

5. Remembering

This refers to the listeners 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 listeners 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 Listeners 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.

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