Understanding Listening

Man lives in a world of sounds, sounds made by machines, birds, insects, and men. In this
age of high technology where the media ‘of communication have become highly
sophisticated, it is necessary to sharpen our listening ability. As Stuart Chase said, “Listening
is the other half of talking.” If people stop listening, it is useless to talk.
No matter how good a speaker is, he cannot claim to be an effective communicator unless he
can listen efficiently. Listening, however, is not as simple as it seems to be. Many people
think that if they have two ears and they can hear, they listen well. This is a misconception.
Hearing is only the first step in listening. Listening further involves recognition and meaning-
giving which are its two other components.

Hearing versus Listening

Hearing and listening are not the same. First, hearing is a natural process, while listening is a
skill. Every normal human being can hear at birth. One develops efficient listening through
adequate knowledge, effort, and practice over a period of time. Thus, good listeners, like
good writers, are made, not born.
Second, as mentioned earlier, hearing or reception of sounds is only the first of the
components of listening. On this level, sound waves are picked up by the auditory system
where they are sorted out and sent to the brain. The second component called recognition of
sounds requires the individual to distinguish a particular sound from another sound. For
instance, what does the person hear? Is it the sound of a bee or a machine? The third
component of listening called meaning-giving requires the individual to attach meaning to the
sound. Once he recognizes the sounds to be that of a bee, he could immediately avoid it.
What he would do upon recognizing the sound would actually depend on the meaning that he
attaches to it. Listening is, thus, a sub process of communication that involves not only
hearing but also understanding and remembering. It involves discriminating sounds,
remembering them and retaining the ideas they convey, and later using these ideas in
interacting with others.

The Purposes of Listening

Listening should not always be difficult to do. If you are aware of your purposes, listening
could be easy. Why do you listen, in the first place?
1. to obtain and exchange basic information and gain knowledge
2. to make intellectual judgments and fair criticisms, and evaluate ideas
3. to be polite
4. to share interest or concern
5. to find out how to do something
6. to be able to make decisions on controversial issues
7. to share feelings
8. to engage in social rituals
9. to seek pleasure, entertainment or enjoyment, or personal satisfaction
10. to give logical and intelligent answers
What is Effective Listening?
Effective listening is listening with ears and eyes. It is listening with the third ear. One,
therefore, understands even those that are not spoken or even those that are buried between
the lines. For example, a birthday celebrator says, "I’m glad you came.” to one of the guests,
but the tone of her voice and the face shows no emotion. One who understands paralanguage
and facial expression will right away conclude that the birthday celebrator meant the opposite
of what she said.
Now, here are guides to effective listening.

Guides to Effective Listening

1. Listen not only to the words but for meanings behind the words
Watch out for metacommunication cues. which are communications about communication
that enable another person to interpret the language. Examples of such cues are: pounding on
the table, biting the lips, knitting of the eyebrows, tightening of the muscles of the face,
yawning, evasive look, shaking of the legs, and a lot more. The effective listener is aware of
how verbal and nonverbal messages interrelate. For example, a TV host tells a contestant to
relax and not to be nervous. The contestant quickly replies, “Oh, no, I’m not nervous” as he
knocks his knuckles and bites his lips. Is the contestant nervous or not?

2. Concentrate on the Message

Do not yield to distraction. Interferences or Noises could make the listener abandon his
mission. A good listener will focus on the message and try to resist all forms of interferences
may be by moving nearer the speaker, closing the door, or notifying a speaker of the
distraction.
Remember, however, that distractions are not always in the form of physical noise like the
sound of girls laughing boisterously. There is such a thing as psychological noise which
includes domestic problems, drowsiness, or emotional disturbance.

3. Avoid premature dismissal of the subject or speaker as uninteresting

At one time or another, we have probably prejudged a topic or speaker as boring or
uninteresting. Because we had earlier listened to the same topic or the same person and found
it or him boring, or because someone had told us that there was nothing new about the topic,
or that the speaker had only bored him to death, we now go to the lecture hall with one eye
and one ear closed. We had virtually stopped listening even before we heard his statement
and therefore failed to achieve our listening purpose. Biases and prejudgments should never
get into the way of our listening, or else we do not carry out our mission. Remember, too, that
people and events change. Something or someone might have been quite dull at one time, but
was most hilarious at another time.

4. Don’t fake attention

Sometimes, in our effort to be polite or pleasing to the speaker, we look at him in the eyes
and make encouraging facial expressions and head gestures even if we are no longer
listening. If you must listen, then listen to understand the message, don’t fake attention.
5. Don’t let emotional words arouse personal antagonism
Maintain an open mind. Control emotional reactions to loaded words so that you don’t lose
meanings that are important. The words “careless and immature sophomores” may offend
you because you are a sophomore yourself, but if you are an intelligent listener, you will be
able to control your emotion and continue listening effectively. Anyway, if you must hate the
speaker for those few negative utterances, you can do that for as long as you please, but be
sure you do it after, not during the speech.

6. Use your thought-speed advantage

How much spare time do you have? Do you realize that you have plenty of spare time even
during your class or lecture-discussion? For instance, when your teacher pauses after several
statements, or turns about to erase the board after a long explanation, you have the time to
think. But do you do this regularly?
The effective listener uses the pauses to review and analyze points the speaker has already
made, anticipate the ideas to come, evaluate and relate evidence for proofs to key points, and
make comments to themselves. Studies show that most people speak at a rate of 120 to 180
words per minute, and most people can listen at 400 or more words per minute. Therefore, try
to use your thought-speed time to make things memorable and to be sure you understand.

7. Avoid being critical of the speaker’s manner of delivery or of his physical appearance
Remember your friend nudging another's elbows, or raising her eyebrows and rolling her
eyes, or simply giggling because the speaker could not distinguish, between (f) and (p) and
between (i) and (e) and he was speaking English with the Ilonggo accent.
If you focus on the speaker’s speech or physical defect rather than on the message, you are
likely to miss important points. Just one word missed could make a lot of difference. “You
cannot communicate” is the same as “You cannot not communicate.”

8. Avoid negative metacommunication cues

The speaker’s mood and enthusiasm could be dampened by a poor listening audience or
stimulated by a receptive and responsive audience, If the speaker sees some members of the
audience yawning and others slumping in the seats, he might prematurely end his speech,
discouraged by such negative metacommunication cues. What do the listeners lose in the
process? They could miss the most vital part of the speech.

9. Be flexible in your note-taking

It is wise to take down notes while listening to outline a talk or a lecture but if you are slow in
note-taking you could miss more than you ever realize. Therefore, learn to adjust note-taking
to fit the need. Learn to use abbreviations or codes so that you can take down notes as fast as
possible. Later on, during your free time, you may transcribe your notes if you wish.
10. To get the information needed, use five thinking strategies: visualization,
association, memory magic, chunking, and focusing
Visualization or creating mental pictures will enable you to retain information. Association is
creating a connection between the new idea or information and something familiar. Memory
magic is playing memory tricks to remember information. Chunking involves listening and
sorting things into large sections. Often, the listener has to create order from a large set of
information. Focusing means identifying what is most important for you as a listener and
remembering hard the most important thing. Like when you listen to a lecture on listening,
you could zero in one or two points and work hard to remember them. Focusing involves
repeating the important parts to yourself until you are sure of remembering them.