LISTENING SKILL: KEY TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

​

Dr. Shambhavi Kumari

WHAT IS LISTENING?

• Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting to the messages received from the communication sender.
• It is an active, purposeful process of making sense of what we hear.
• It is the first skill that learners develop while acquiring first language.
• This is the most basic skill which may be considered as indispensable for learning all other skills.

FALLACIES ABOUT LISTENING

• Listening is not my problem!
• Listening and hearing are the same.
• Good readers are good listeners.
• Smarter people are better listeners.
• Listening improves with age.
• Listening skills are difficult to learn.

LISTENING VS HEARING

• Hearing involves the vibration of sound wave on our eardrums and the firing of electrochemical impulses from the inner ear to the central auditory system of the brain.
• Listening involves paying close attention to, and making sense of, what we hear.
• Thus hearing is the first step of listening.

SKILLS OF COMMUNICATION: PROFILE

PRE REQUISITES FOR LISTENING

• Discriminating between sounds.
• Recognizing words.
• Identifying stressed words and grouping of words.
• Identifying functions (such as apologizing) in conversations
• Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
• Using background knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning.
• Recalling important words, topics and ideas.
• Giving appropriate feed back to the speaker.
• Reformulate what the speaker has said.

PROCESS OF LISTENING

Process of Listening

​

TYPES OF LISTENING

​

• Active listening
• Selective listening
• Empathetic listening
• Ignoring listening
• Casual listening

​

​

​

APPROACHES TO LISTENING

• Bottom up processing -With Bottom-up processing, listeners start with the component parts: words, grammar and the like
• Top down processing - Top down process is the opposite of Bottom-up, listeners start from their background knowledge

​

During listening process, a combination of the two processes is used to make the text sensible for the listener. Thus, it is generally accepted that top-down and bottom-up processes are utilized together during the listening process.

PURPOSE OF LISTENING

• Listening for gist: listening to get a general idea
• Listening for specific information: listening just to get a specific piece of information
• Listening in detail: listening to every detail, and try to understand as much as possible
• Listening to infer: listening to understand how listeners feel
• Listening to questions and responding: listening to answer questions
• Listening to descriptions: listening for a specific description

IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

• God gives us two ears but only one mouth, because listening is twice as hard as talking.
• Better understanding of assignments and what is expected of you.
• Build rapport with friends, co-workers, bosses, and clients.
• Show support.
• Work better in a team-based environment.
• Resolve problems with customers, co-workers, and bosses.
• Answer questions; and find underlying meanings in what others say.

BARRIERS TO LISTENING

• Environmental factors
• Personal factors
• Attention span
• Listener’s attitude
• Lack of background knowledge
• Content is too difficult
• Language
• Speaker

​

​

LISTENING AS SOFT SKILL

• Be attentive while listening
• Do not hurt the speaker’s feeling.
• Provide problem solving environment.
• Understand emotion and feeling of speaker.
• Use body language while listening
• Use words like “I understand you‟ or “I see‟
• Do not interrupt/interrogate/teach/give advice/rehearse in your own head.
• Use open ended question

STAGES OF LISTENING

• Pre listening stage
• While listening stage
• Post listening stage

PRE LISTENING STAGE�

In this stage called" introductory or preparatory", listeners are required to bring their attitudes, previous knowledge about the topic etc., they are going to tackle. They should be given a reason to listen, a chance to discuss and predict what they are going to listen.

WHILE LISTENING STAGE�

This phase refers to the duration of listening. While- listening activities guide the listeners to collect or catch the necessary information for an overall listening comprehension. Those activities ensure the active nature of the process in the fact that grasping every word while listening is not necessary. It consists of getting the information and immediately performing something with it.

POST LISTENING STAGE

This phase includes feedback to a listening activity. This, in general, is very important. It is good for listeners to realize that they have been doing something useful and interesting. For that reason, post listening activities refer to all activities which can be practiced after the while-listening phase. Those listening activities are used as a springboard onto other language skills such as reading, speaking and writing.

ACTIVE LISTENING

• It is the process of converting an idea or thought into message with complete involvement.
• Listener encourages the speaker to express his ideas by showing interest in the speech.
• It is a two way process where listener plays an active role.
• Active listener never neglects the physical aspects of the speaker such as appearance, expressions, and bodily movements
• To encourage the speaker active listener responds verbally or non-verbally
• Active listening leads to effective and sound listener-speaker relationship.
• Active listener shows his thirst for knowledge by asking relevant questions frequently

VERBAL PROMPTS FOR ACTIVE LISTENING

• “Tell me more…”
• “Why do you say that?”
• “For example?”
• “How so?”
• “And?”
• “Then?”
• “Such as…”
• “So?”
• “Because?”

PASSIVE LISTENING

• It is the process of just absorbing the message without any involvement.
• The listener discourages the speaker by expressing boredom on his face.
• It is a one way process where the listener plays no role.
• Passive listener has nothing to do with these physical aspects as he wants to bring out no meaning from the spoken words.
• Passive listener also responds non-verbally by yawning and showing boredom on face and discourages the speaker.
• No scope for listener-speaker relationship and in fact the speaker wants to avoid such listeners.

HOW TO LISTEN EFFECTIVELY

• Stop Talking –Be Silent
• Show Interest
• Empathize
• Ask Questions
• Maintain Eye Contact
• Take notes
• Listen Creatively
• Send feedback
• Avoid or eliminate distraction
• Try to gather information about the topic to develop interest and familiarity.

Thank You For Listening!