Listening Skills Listening No oral communication is complete and effective without proper listening by the receiver.

Listening assumes various styles depending on the listeners state of mind, like Listening accounts for over 40 percent of your communicative time. Through conversations, classroom lectures, group meetings, electronic media, and other forms of communication, you acquire an amazing amount of information. You also learn to anticipate the expectations of others and to gauge their feelings and moods through listening. Definitions of Listening: The process of recognising, understanding, and accurately interpreting the messages communicated by others. According to ILA (1996): Listening is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages; to hear something with thoughtful attention. Hearing and Listening: Hearing is the psychological process of receiving sound waves. Sound waves traveling through the air set up vibrations on the ear drum and these vibrations, in turn, are transmitted to the brain. Hearing is affected by both the laws of physics and the neuro-physiology of the body. Hearing is interfered by the following factors a. Distracting noises in the environment

b. Sounds too soft or too loud for the aural mechanism c. Physiological impediments (illness or hearing loss) Generally, the hearing process is beyond the speakers control except for the ability to change speaking volume and to eliminate distracting sounds. Listening, on the other hand, is the cognitive process whereby people attach meanings to aural signals. After sound waves are translated to nerve impulses by the middle ear and the auditory nerve, they are sent to the brain for interpretation. The process of interpretation registering impulses, assigning them to meaningful contexts, and evaluating them constitutes listening. Barriers to Listening: 1. Prejudiced mind-experience, expectations, delete unmatched information, distorted reception (no insight into the matter) 2. Differences in Evaluation. 3. Preoccupation with my needs. [giving importance to I rather than U i.e., speaker] 4. Not being fully present. [speaker speaks max of 200 words whereas listener can deal with 800 words a minute.] 5. Emotional filters. 6. Distraction: glare, telephone, visitors, physical discomfort. 7. Underlying assumptions about listening. [blunt excuses like no time, in a hurry] 8. Lack of listening skills.

Cost of Ineffective Listening: Economic Costs Physical Costs Psychological and Emotional Costs Purposes of Listening: To understand the speaker and his speech. To encourage the speaker. Releases tension of the listener. Increases the capacity of the listener to influence the speaker / customer / client. Helps in persuading and selling. Helps problem solving and decision making. Resolve disagreements and solve mutual problem. Better team work. Helps learn. Gives confidence. Enhances your joyfulness. Benefits of Effective Listening: Effective listening habits pay off in several ways: Good listeners are liked by others because they satisfy the basic human needs of being heard and being wanted. Job performance is improved when downward oral messages are received and understood. Accurate feedback from subordinates provides evidence of job performance. Both superiors and subordinates may acquire greater job security from fewer mistakes or ignored messages. People who listen well are able to separate fact from fiction, to cope with false persuasion effectively, and to avoid having others use them for personal gain.

Listening opens doors for ideas and thus encourages creativity. Effective listeners are constantly learning gaining knowledge and skills that lead to increased job performance, advancement, and increased job satisfaction. Job satisfaction increases when people know what is going on, when they are heard, and when they participate in the mutual trust that develops from good communication.

The Listening Process Step 1: Hearing Hearing occurs when sound waves strike the ear Sound is transferred along neural pathways to parts of the brain Hearing is a prerequisite to listening Temporary hearing loss may occur with exposure to the same loudness or tone Hearing Techniques Be in close proximity to the speaker Minimize distractions if possible Move to a quiet location if needed Focus on what the speaker is saying Common Distractions External: Other peoples noise Television Stereo or radio Alarms or loud noises

Telephone Speakers mannerisms or volume

Internal: Emotions toward speaker Prejudice or bias Lack of interest Stress Conflicting priorities Negative attitude

Step 2: Attending Attending involves filtering out some messages and focusing on others Attending is a psychological choice Some sounds are brought to the foreground while others stay in the background People may attend more when there is a benefit for doing so Attending Techniques Get ready to listen by being ready, both mentally and physically Adjust to the listening goal of the scenario; intensity will vary Avoid rehearsing responses and watch interrupting Step 3: Understanding Understanding refers to making sense of a message by assigning meaning to it Vocabulary affects understanding Its possible to hear and attend to a message without understanding

 Interpretation

of a message leads to evaluating its

importance Understanding Techniques Ask if unsure about the meaning of a word or phrase Watch nonverbal cues to gauge tone and mood Focus on the purpose of a complex message Step 4: Responding Responding consists of providing feedback to the speaker Feedback may be verbal and nonverbal Responding demonstrates active rather than passive behavior Responses must be appropriate to the situation Responding Techniques Practice letting the speaker complete all thoughts Match the response to the goal of the listening Ask questions if needed to gain clarity Types of Responses Verbal acknowledgment (oh, I see, mm-hmm, etc.) Nonverbal (nodding head, leaning forward, smiling) Paraphrasing: putting into words another persons statement Questioning for clarification How can we improve our listening skills? Paraphrasingtry it out!

Paraphrasing is simply restating what another person has said in your own words. The best way to paraphrase is to listen carefully to what the other person is saying. Paraphrase often so you develop the habit of doing so. Practice some of the following techniques on your colleagues. In other words I gather that If I understand what you are saying What I hear you saying is Pardon my interruption, but let me see if I understand you correctly

Summarizingtry it out! Summarizing pulls important ideas, facts or data together to establish a basis for further discussion and/or review progress. The person summarizing must listen carefully in order to organize the information systematically. It is useful for emphasizing key points. Questioninga critical facilitation skill 1. Closed questions generally result in short yes/no or other one word answers. They should be used only when you want precise, quick answers. Otherwise, they inhibit thought.

2. Open-ended questions an actual expla invite nation for a response. Questions that begin with how, what and why are typical. Poor Responses Interrupting: breaking in before the speaker has a chance to finish a statement or thought Ignoring: not paying attention to the speaker or providing an irrelevant response Deflecting: changing the subject, intentionally or unintentionally, to shift emphasis away from speaker Conflicting: exhibiting nonverbal behaviors in conflict with the verbal response (e.g. shaking head while agreeing to something) Step 5: Remembering Remembering is the process of recalling information from memory People may forget as much as half of what they hear immediately General impressions of people and situations may be retained more often, especially if feelings are present Remembering is important in building relationships Remembering Techniques Take notes Use a mnemonic device (memory aid) to help with recall Acronyms: take first letters of items and form a word Word association: think of trigger words or rhymes to connect to items Chronological order: assign dates or sequences to items Group similar ideas together

 Repeat names

and keywords

Types of Listening Listening is of five types basing on the purpose of the listener to listen to speaker/speech: a) Appreciative listening focuses on something other than the primary message, like just participating, seeing the listener, to enjoy the art of good public speaking, pleasing vocal modulation, clever uses of language, impressive phraseology, and the skillful use of supporting material. b) Discriminative listening requires listeners to draw conclusions from the way a message is presented rather than from what is said. c) Therapeutic listening is intended to provide emotional support to the speaker. d) Comprehensive listening occurs when the listener wants to gain additional information or insights provided by the speaker. Examples are people listening to radio TV, class room lectures etc. e) Critical listening requires listeners to both interpret and evaluate the message.