Listening

Examples of Listening in the following topics:

• Be an Open-Minded Listener: Suspend Judgment and Exercise Empathy

  • Open-minded listening requires empathy and a suspension of judgment on the part of the listener.
  • It does not mean that the listener should not have strong views of his or her own, but it does require the listener to be willing to consider the merit of what other people say.
  • Judgmental listening also occurs when the listener is only listening to the speaker in order to determine whether he or she is right or wrong, rather than listening to understand the speaker's ideas and where they come from.
  • Listeners may have overwhelmingly positive or negative associations with particular people or ideas, and those associations can affect how listeners interpret.
  • Empathetic listening helps promote effective listening because it allows the listener to take into account where the speaker is coming from, both emotionally and in terms of the content of his or her speech.

• The Importance of Listening

  • Fully engaged listening might involve listening to a lecture, taking notes, considering what's being said, and asking questions.
  • Regardless of how we're engaged with listening, it's important to understand that listening involves more than just hearing the words that are directed at us.
  • When engaging with a particular speaker, a listener can use several degrees of active listening, each resulting in a different quality of communication with the speaker.
  • This active listening chart shows three main degrees of listening: repeating, paraphrasing, and reflecting.
  • Define active listening and list the five stages of the listening process

• Rules to Follow When Listening

  • Develop a practice of active listening to be an effective listener.
  • Active listening is a skill that can make you a more effective speaker in the long run.
  • There are a number of other courteous behaviors that an active listener should practice:
  • Active listening refers to the practice of not just hearing someone, but really listening and paying attention to what they have to say.
  • The art of active listening is more than just hearing what the speaker has to say: it's about being an engaged, attentive listener able to paraphrase what has already been said.

• The Receiving Stage

  • The first stage of the listening process is the receiving stage, which involves hearing and attending.
  • The first stage of the listening process is the receiving stage, which involves hearing and attending.
  • As obvious as it may seem, in order to effectively gather information through listening, we must first be able to physically hear what we're listening to.
  • The clearer the sound, the easier the listening process becomes.
  • In order to best listen to what she's saying, the listener needs to ignore the ambient street sounds.

• The Understanding Stage

  • The second stage in the listening process is the understanding stage.
  • In the office, people listen to their superiors for instructions about what they are to do.
  • At school, students listen to teachers to learn new ideas.
  • We listen to political candidates give policy speeches in order to determine who will get our vote.
  • After receiving information via listening, the next step is understanding what we've heard.

• Causes of Poor Listening

  • The act of "listening" may be affected by barriers that impede the flow of information.
  • When listening to speech, there is a time delay between the time a speaker utters a sentence to the moment the listener comprehends the speaker's meaning.
  • If this process takes longer, the listener has to catch up to the speaker's words if he or she continues to speak at a pace faster than the listener can comprehend.
  • Often, it is easier for listeners to stop listening when they do not understand.
  • This psychological process has a detrimental effect on listening for several reasons.

• The Responding Stage

  • The responding stage is when the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions to what she hears.
  • The responding stage is the stage of the listening process wherein the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions based on short- or long-term memory.
  • Nonverbal responses like nodding or eye contact allow the listener to communicate her level of interest without interrupting the speaker, thereby preserving the speaker/listener roles.
  • When a listener responds verbally to what she hears and remembers—for example, with a question or a comment—the speaker/listener roles are reversed, at least momentarily.
  • If a listener is smiling and nodding or asking questions, the speaker may feel that the listener is engaged and her message is being communicated effectively.

• The Evaluating Stage

  • The evaluating stage is the listening stage during which the listener critically assesses the information she's received from the speaker.
  • This stage of the listening process is the one during which the listener assesses the information she's received, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
  • Evaluating allows the listener to form an opinion of what she's heard and, if necessary, to begin developing a response.
  • The evaluating stage occurs most effectively once the listener fully understands what the speaker is trying to say.
  • This stage of critical analysis is important for a listener in terms of how what she's heard will affect her own ideas, decisions, actions, and/or beliefs.

• The Remembering Stage

  • The remembering stage occurs as the listener categorizes and retains the information she's gathering from the speaker.
  • In the listening process, the remembering stage occurs as the listener categorizes and retains the information she's gathered from the speaker for future access.
  • Memory is essential throughout the listening process.
  • In listening to a lecture about the symptoms of depression, for example, a listener might make a connection to the description of a character in a novel that she read years before.
  • In this sense, establishing common ground in terms of context is extremely important, both for listeners and speakers.

• Be a Serious Listener: Resist Distractions and Listen Actively

  • Resisting distractions and listening actively are two ways to become a more effective listener.
  • Active listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker.
  • If someone is actively listening, then he or she is typically not distracted.
  • The ability to listen actively demonstrates sincerity on the part of the listener and helps to make sure that no information is being assumed or taken for granted.
  • Explain how resisting distractions and listening actively can make you a more effective listener