Department of electrical engineering

Group G

Submitted to:
Sir Sajid Hussain Magsi

K-18EL14
K-18EL26
K-18EL44
K-18EL53
K-18EL101
 Listening v/s Reading
Listening:
 What is listening?
 Difference between listening and hearing.
 Concept of active listening
 Kinds of listening.
 Barriers and how could they have been avoided?

Reading:
 What is reading?
 Reading speed.
 Categories on the basis of reading speed.
 Categories on the basis of the kind of reading.
 SQ3R techniques.

Conclusion:
 Listening v/s Reading

Listening:

“We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.”

Listening can be described as a skill that involves receiving, interpreting and responding to the
message sent by the communicator. This skill also needs to be learnt and developed for effective
communication. Poor listening can become a major barrier to communication. It can result in
break-down of communication, or improper and incomplete communication. Massages can be
lost, misunderstandings may crop up, and people may perceive wrongly.

Now the question arises what is difference b/w ‘Hearing’ and ‘Listening’?

‘Hearing’ is primarily a physical act that depends on the ears. Unless there is a physical disability
or problems such as noise or distance, it happens automatically.it requires no special efforts from
the listener. While ‘Listening’ is a much more conscious activity that demands a lot more than
just hearing. It requires the conscious involvement of the listener, the acknowledgement of
understanding and response. The listener has to hear, analyze, judge and conclude.

There is a quote that:

Active Listening:
A person, who listens well and observes his body language appropriately, is seen as a ‘good
conversationalist’ even though he actually speaks less. this is active listening.
Most of the problems in listening arise due to discrepancy in our speed of talking and listening.
On an average, we can speak 120 to 150 words a minute. But the brain can process 500 to 750
words a minute. In active listening, the listener after grabbing the content of the speaker gets
engaged in trying to understand him and giving the listener constant feedback.

Kinds of Listening:
Depending on the quality of listening, it has been divided into four types.

1. Ignoring
2. Selective listening
3. Attentive listening
4. Emphatic listening

Ignoring: this is the kind of listening where the listener is entirely ignoring the message as well
as the message giver. He/ she might just be ‘pretending’ to listen while doing or thinking
something else. This can be very damaging because the listener’s lack of participation becomes
evident through the body language, which may results in total break-down of communication.

Selective listening: most of the brain is idle when we are just listening. Attention, thus, gets
dissipated and the mind starts getting engaged in other things. As a result, our listening becomes
partial or selective. Often instead of listening and trying to understand what the other person is
saying, we get more involved in forming our counter arguments.

If the listeners are listening only selectively, the structuring of content may need to be altered;
the material may have to be more relevant, or repetitions have to be avoided.

Attentive listening: this is a kind of listening where there is no selective dismissal. The listener
listens to the speaker completely, attentively, without ignoring any part of the speech.

Emphatic listening: this is the ultimate kind of listening that is done not just to listen and
understand, but understands the speaker’s world as he sees it. It is getting into another person’s
frame of reference.
Barriers to Good Listening: Sometime or the other, all of us listen partially, we do
selective listening. Sometimes we also ignore some messages. There are many reasons as to why
we do not listen completely. Some of them are the following:

1. Physical Reasons: One chief cause of bad listening could be person’s inability to hear
properly. Apart from this, noise and distance could become barriers to listening properly.
2. Age and Attitude:

Difference of age often makes one feel that the person speaking cannot possibly have anything
interesting or relevant to say, which results in the listener ignoring the message.

3. Mental Set:

Sometimes, the listener is already conditioned to think that the speaker will adopt a particular
attitude or a line of argument. If a conversation begins with this kind of mind-set, it is obvious
that no communication will take place. The listener might entirely ignore what says or listen to
only what he/she thinks the speaker will say. It makes one blind to the factthat people might be
willing to change, or be more accommodative.

4. Language:

Language can be yet another reason why people do not hear correctly. The mother-tongue
interference plays a major role and prevents the listener from listening correctly i.e. the problem
of a French speaker conversing in English. It is important, therefore, to make sure that we speak
the language we are conversing in with reasonable clarity.

While speaking English, especially, it is important to be aware of our pronunciation, tone, pitch,
modulation and stress.

5. Careless Listening:

It is a common sight to see people looking at papers, or fidgeting with objects while listening. In
this type of situation, Speaker has no clue of what the reaction of the listener is or even whether
the listener is listening to him or not, that may results in break-down of communication.

Reading:
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”

Reading is intimately connected with thinking. When we read anything, we actually rest the eye
at places and take in a certain amount of material at a time. We therefore read in jerks. Our eyes
can only take in information when they are stopped. So we proceed in a move-stop-read-move-
stop-read movement. The secret of quick and effective reading is to minimize the number of
stops and maximize the number of words ones sees at each stop.
Points to Remember:
To increase the speed of reading, you should:
 Stop looking at every word, one at a time.
 Try to take in words in groups
 Deliberately try to increase the number of words taken in at a time, thereby decreasing
the number of times we stop to make meaning of what we are reading.

Speed Reading:
With ever-increasing literature in every field, having a good reading speed is inevitable. Given
below are ways through which one can increase reading speed:

1. Reading Selectively:

To read fast and to read efficiently, you have to learn what to skip, ignore, and choose what to
focus on. Effective reading, thus, is not necessarily the act of reading word by word, line after
line.

Points to Remember:
Important factors while reading are:
 Focusing on key words and ignoring filler words.
 Skipping what you already know.
 Skipping material that does not apply to you.
 Skipping material that seems particularly confusing and coming back to it if necessary
after reading other sections.

2. Reading without sub-vocalizing:

When reading silently, we tend to pronounce the words in our mind. This slows down our
reading speed, almost as if we were reading things aloud. This also forces us to read every word,
making it impossible to skip. It is necessary, therefore, to stop this method of reading and
processing with the eyes only.

 We categorize the speed of reading into the following two types:

Skimming is a strategic, selective reading method in which you focus on the main ideas of a
text. When skimming, deliberately skip text that provides details, stories, data, or other
elaboration.
Scanning is done to locate a particular piece of information while going through a general
document. This kind of activity needs close reading and detailed look at information. i.e. we
scan the index when we need certain information.

 The categorization done above is based on reading can also be a categorization on the
basis of kind of reading. They are:
1. Extensive reading
2. Intensive reading

Extensive reading does not focus on particular details but look at ideas and fact patterns. One
does extensive reading while looking for a research problem, getting a grasp of work done in a
particular field, looking at the trends of publication at a particular time or even reading for
pleasure.

Intensive reading, this involves reading to get specific information. But while scanning
generally refers to the close checking of lists and tables, this pertains to reading texts and
longer material, i.e. preparation of teaching very often involves intensive reading. It requires
paying attention to minute details and understanding detailed facts. Reading for research
activity, too requires intensive reading.

The SQ3R Method:

Survey:
Before reading, survey the material. Look through the main and the sub-headings and try to get
an overview.
Question:
Ask yourself what this chapter is about. What is the question the reading material is trying to
answer? Asking questions focuses your concentration on what you need to learn.
Read:
Read one section at a time, looking for the answer to the question proposed by the heading.
Consider what the author is trying to say, and think about how you can use that information.
Recite:
Once you have read an initial section, write down a key phrase that sums up the major point of
the section and answers the question. Research shows that we remember our own connections
better than the ones already provided.
Review:
After reading the entire material, again ask yourself the questions that you have identified right
at the beginning. Review your notes for an overview of the chapter. Consider how it fits with
what you already know. Think of the significance it has in your general learning scheme.
Listening v/s Reading
Both the listening and reading abilities closely related to each other.
Similarities:
Both are receptive language processes.
Both use internal conceptualization of information.
Differences:

READING LISTENING
Learned skill Developmental acquisition
Can re-read Cant re-listen
Reading time controlled by reader. Listener received at rate of speaker.
Decoding visually and auditorily . Decoding auditorily only.
Words separated by spaces. Prosody and intonation used
Use to communicate over time and Occurs within social environment , face
distance (isolated) to face.

Conclusion:
Both the listening and reading abilities closely related to each other. And both are important as
well. They are the same in that both are language comprehension with the same set of strategies
available. They differ in the cognitive demands imposed by text characteristics, situational
factors, and the cognitive skills and sensory modality available.