Lecture#8

Listening

Type of communication Percent of time

Writing 11

Reading 15

Speaking 32

Listening 42

We spend more time listening than we spend at any other method of communicating. College students
averaged 53 percent of their waking hours listening.

Involving your listeners in what you have to say is the key to effective communication. The speaker and
the listeners are interrelated. An effective listener therefore must assume some of the responsibility for
effective communication. Good listeners become good communicators, and skillful listeners learn from
others. Good listeners exert a positive effect on a speaker, helping to improve the speakers effectiveness.

Listening
When listening is mentioned, we think primarily of the act of sensing sounds. In human communication,
of course, the sounds are mainly spoken words. Listening perceives sounds from the speaker, attaching
meaning to the words, and designing an appropriate response, which involves remembering what the
speaker has said long enough to interpret what, is meant. Listening involves grasping what the speaker
means by seeing the ideas and information from his/her point of view.

The Process of Listening

1. Receiving/Hearing
The first element in the listening process is hearing, which is the automatic psychological process of
receiving aural stimuli.
Sound waves are received by the ear and stimulate neurological impulses to the brain. We place these
sounds in a meaningful order or sequence so that they may be recognized as words. We recognize words
in a pattern that constitutes a language, which then helps to convey the message from the communicator
to us.
Another factor in hearing is the speakers rate. The average speakers rate is between 100 to 150 words
per minute. However most of us are able to comprehend rates up to 400 to 500 words per minute.

Unlike listening, hearing begins and ends with this first stage of receiving. Listening begins (but does not
end) with receiving the messages the speaker sends. The messages are both verbal and nonverbal.
Hearing is the faculty of perceiving sounds. It is believed to be the first active sensory organ in human
beings, even before birth: it has been established that babies in the womb hear external sounds as early as
the fifth month. Interestingly enough, hearing seems to be the last sense to cease its activity before death,
and there are many examples of dying people who although cannot speak or see anymore, can still hear
what is being said to, or around, them. The fact that hearing is the first and last of our senses may induce
2. Filtering.
Filtering is the process of giving symbols meanings through the unique contents of each persons mind.

3. Understanding.
Understanding is the stage at which you learn what the speaker means.

4. Remembering.
Messages that you receive and understand need to be retained fro at lease some period of time. What you
remember is actually not what was said, but what you think (or remember) was said. Memory for speech
is not reproductive. Rather, memory is reconstructive.

5. Evaluating.
Evaluating consists of judging the messages in some way. At times you may try to evaluate the speakers
underlying intent. Often this evaluation process goes on without much conscious thought. Evaluation is
more in the nature of critical analysis.

6. Responding
Responding occurs in two phases:
i.Responses you make while the speaker is talking.
ii. Responses you make after the speaker has stopped talking.
These responses are feedback. E.g. I see, yes, uh-huh etc. etc.
Levels of Listening

1. Active Listening
Active listening is a special kind of listening. It is a process of sending back to the speaker what you as a
listener think the speaker meantboth in content and in feelings.
Active listening is less common but more beneficial and in order to get good grades, you have to be able
to really listen to what is being said in the classroom. The most practical reason for a college student to
improve listening skills is that good listeners are not only better students, but they also spend less time on
their studies and enjoy them more than who are poor listeners. Students who are attentive in
class and attend class regularly are far more likely to receive higher grades and to learn more.

Characteristics of Active Listeners
1. Active listeners are willing to give the speaker a chance to develop his or her ideas.
2. Active listeners are open-minded about people who look or sound different from themselves.
3. Active listeners can follow several methods of organizationeven poorly organized material will be
listened to with some degree of tolerance.
4. Active listeners are likely to listen even more attentively when the material becomes difficult. It
becomes a challenge to them.

2. Protective Listening
Listeners may not listen to a speaker because they have learned to tune out certain kinds of stimuli.
Listeners become speakers, and speakers become listeners and the sequence goes on.

3. Partial Listening
Listening must be a complete process where all the communicative stimuli transmitted by the speaker are
acknowledged and evaluated. A speakers voice, mannerism, grammar, and pitch will increase or
decrease the listeners tendency for partial listening. As a listener and a positive speaker, you should
consciously control the urge for partial listening. This will help create an environment that produces
greater understanding, and, in turn, more effective oral communication.

4. Preferential Listening
Listening that is directly affected by a persons beliefs, interests, or emotions is preferential listening.
Just as people may see what they expect to see, listeners may listen for what they want to hear. Personal
background, experiences, habits, and family tradition will many times change or distort the speakers
intended meaning into what the listener really wants to hear. Miscommunication is usually the result of
preferential listening.

Types of Listening

1. Critical Listening
Critical listening is usually needed when we suspect that we may be listening to a biased source of
information. Critical listening is also associated with being able to detect propaganda devices employed
by a communicator.
In adjusting your critical listening, focus on the following guidelines:
Keep an open mind.
Avoid filtering out difficult messages.
Recognize and combat the normal tendency to sharpen.
Analyze the audience and adapt the message to the listeners.
Clearly organize the speech so that the listeners can follow the train of thought.

2. Empathic Listening
As the term suggests, the listener tries to demonstrate empathy for the speaker. It can also be described as
listening between the lines. When we listen between the lines we heighten our awareness and
interpersonal sensitivity to the entire message a person may be trying to communicate.
Empathy is perception and communication by resonance, be identification, by experiencing in ourselves
some reflection of the emotional tone that is being experienced by the other person.
Empathic listening serves as a reward or encouragement to the speaker. It communicates your caring and
acceptance and reaffirms the persons sense of worth. This style of listening seems to be most important
in terms of strengthening or improving a positive interpersonal relationship between the parties involved.
Empathic listening often requires the opposite frame of mind from that required for critical listening.
Empathic listening implies a willingness not to judge, evaluate, or criticize but rather to be an accepting,
permissive, and understanding listener.
Becoming an empathic requires focusing on the following guidelines:
A greater emphasis on listening than on talking.
Responding to that which is personal rather than abstract.
Clarifying what the other person has said about his own thoughts and feelings rather than
asking questions or telling him what we believe he should be thinking, seeing, or feeling.
Trying to get into the other persons inner frame of reference rather than listening and
responding from our own frame of reference.
Listen respectfully
Minimize misunderstandings.
Recognize and identify emotions.