Listening

DISCUSSION

I. What is Listening?

What is Listening ?
To listen is to give attention to sound or action. When listening, one is hearing what others are saying,
and trying to understand what it means.

Listening skill is key to receiving messages effectively. It is a combination of hearing what another
person says and psychological involvement with the person who is talking.

Listening is a skill for resolving problems. Poor listening can lead to misinterpretations, thus causing
conflict or a dispute. Other causes can be excessive interruptions, inattention, hearing what you want to
hear, mentally composing a response, and having a closed mind.

Listening is a skill of Language. It requires a desire to understand another human being, an attitude of
respect and acceptance, and a willingness to open one's mind to try and see things from another's point
of view. It requires a high level of concentration and energy. It demands that we set aside our own
thoughts and agendas, put ourselves in another's shoes and try to see the world through that person's
eyes

Listening is also linked to memory. According to one study, during a speech some background noises
heard by listeners helped them recall some of the information by hearing it again. For example, when a
person reads or does something else while listening to music, he or she can recall what that was when
hearing the music again later.
Receiving is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s message, which happens
when we filter out other sources so that we can isolate the message and avoid the
confusing mixture of incoming stimuli. At this stage, we are still only hearing the
message.
In the understanding stage, we attempt to learn the meaning of the message, which
is not always easy. For one thing, if a speaker does not enunciate clearly, it may be
difficult to tell what the message was
Remembering begins with listening; if you can’t remember something that was said,
you might not have been listening effectively.
The fourth stage in the listening process is evaluating, or judging the value of the
message.
Responding—sometimes referred to as feedback—is the fifth and final stage of the
listening process. It’s the stage at which you indicate your involvement. Almost
anything you do at this stage can be interpreted as feedback.
Types of Listening

1. Active listening - Listening in a way that demonstrates interest and encourages continued
speaking. It can be described in a lot of ways. It requires good listeners who are attentive,
nonjudgmental, non-interrupting. An active listener analyzes what the speaker is saying for
hidden messages as well as meanings contained in the verbal communication. An active listener
looks for nonverbal messages from the speaker in order to comprehend the full meaning of
what is being said. In active listening, one must be willing to hear what is being said and try to
understand the meaning of whatever has been said. Multiple benefits can accrue from active
listening. Being an active listener enables one to become a more effective listener over time. It
also strengthens one's leadership skills in the process.

Active listening is important in bringing changes in the speaker's perspective. Clinical research
and evidence show that active listening is a catalyst in one's personal growth, which enhances
personality change and group development. People will more likely listen to themselves if
someone else is allowing them to speak and get their message across.
2. Appreciative listening - Looking for ways to accept and appreciate the other person through
what they say. Seeking opportunity to praise. Alternatively listening to something for pleasure,
such as to music.

Appreciative listening A type of listening behavior where the listener seeks certain information
which will appreciate, for ex. That which helps meet his/her needs and goals. One uses
appreciative listening when listening to good music, poetry or maybe even stirring words of a
great leader.

3. Biased listening – also know as selective listening. Listening through the filter of personal bias
i.e the person hears only what they want to listen.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your superior is briefing you on a new project. You’re waiting to hear about the
details of this assignment because you’ve been excited for a long time about it.

Because you’re so focused on the details of the assignment, you don’t fully hear
everything your superior says. As a result, you hear your superior explain how you’ll be
judged on this project, but you don’t fully process it.

Because you don’t have this information, you may not perform as well as you could if you
had understood all the details.

4. Comprehension listening - Listening to understand. Seeking meaning (but little more).

Several other types of listening build on comprehensive listening. For example, you need to use
comprehensive listening to use informational listening and learn something new.

At work and in your life, you’ll likely use a combination of comprehensive and discriminative
listening to understand the messages people are giving you.

For example, let’s say your colleague briefs you on a project. You’ll need to use comprehensive
listening to analyze the words and understand the message.

5. Critical listening - Listening in order to evaluate, criticize or otherwise pass judgment on what
someone else says.
Using critical thinking while listening goes deeper than comprehensive listening. Instead of
taking the information at face value, you can use critical listening to evaluate what’s being said.

For example, you’d use this type of listening when trying to choose how to handle an unusual
and complex client request.You need to use this skill to analyze solutions offered by other
 people and decide if you agree or not. To do this, you don’t just need to hear their words. You
also need to look at the bigger picture and compare everything you know.

Critical listening Engaging in what you are listening to by asking your self question such as, “
what is the speaker trying to say?” or what is the main argument being presented?, “ how does
what I’m hearing differ from my belief, knowledge or opinion?’. Critical listening is therefore
fundamental to true learning.

6. Deep listening - Seeking to understand the person, their personality and their real and
unspoken meanings and motivators.
Deep listening involves listening, from a deep, receptive, and caring place in oneself, to deeper
and often subtler levels of meaning and intention in the other person. It is listening that is
generous, empathic, supportive, accurate, and trusting.
7. Empathetic listening - Seeking to understand what the other person is feeling. Demonstrating
this empathy (emotional identification, compassion, feeling, insight)
For example:
A student might say, “my dog hit by a car this morning,” an active listening response might be,
“your dog got hit by a car? Of was it Hurt?” another might be “I can see this has upset you. Do
you want to talk about it?” whatever the response, it is intended to clarify the facts or
information being presented (obtain understanding) and to identify and response to the
emotion of feelings of the other person.

8. Inactive listening - Pretending to listen but actually spending more time thinking.
For example:
communicating on the phone to your mother while checking facebook, twitter or Instagram,
texting your girlfriend during a lecture in school or listening to your spouse complain about
their day at work while watching news on TV.
9. Relationship listening - Listening in order to support and develop a relationship with the other
person.
This is the type of listening to we engage in with our closest friends and our relatives.
Sometimes the most important factor in listening is in order to develop or sustain a
relationship. This is why friends/lovers talk for hours and attend closely to what each other has
to say when the same words from someone else would seem to be rather boring.
10. Sympathetic listening - Listening with concern for the well-being of the other person.
For example
let’s say you run into a work colleague at the grocery store. They seem upset, so you decide to
listen to what they have to say.

You also use sympathetic listening to feel how they are feeling. In doing this, you notice how
frustrated they are about the lack of recognition they are getting at work.

As a result, you can offer your support and sympathize with their situation.