Listening

What is Listening?

• Listening is the active and dynamic process of

attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering and
responding to the spoken and/ or non-verbal
messages.
• “Listening means taking a vigorous, human interest
in what is being told us," said poet Alice Duer Miller.
"You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid
auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and
richer."
 Listening

• Listening is not just about being Quiet while

someone else is speaking.
• Listening is with the Mind.
• Hearing with the senses.
• Listening is conscious.
• To improve our interpersonal & oral exchange.
 Reasons for Effective Listening
• Listening is an important aspect of business communication. It
stands third after writing and speaking. A business
communicator has to listen to various customer, employees,
officer, suppliers, financiers etc. Obviously, it is an
unavoidable task for a business person. This important reason
as to why a business communicator should known about
listening is enumerated as under.
• To gain new information and ideas.
• To question and test evidence and assumptions.
• To be inspired and motivated.
• To improve overall communication.
 Importance of Listening

•  It helps us to understand the people and the world around us.
•  In our society, listening is essential to the development and
survival of the individual.
•  Relationships depends more on listening skills than on
speaking skills.
•  A good listener is always in a better position to deal with his
problems and relationships.
•  It helps a person to grow in his career.
•  It keeps a person well informed
 Guidelines for Effective
Listening
• Listening is very important aspect of communication. Around 20% of
overall communication is listening. Therefore, one should strive for
adopting good listening habit.
• There are following guidelines for good listening:
•  
• Preparation before listening.
• Listening to understand, not to refute.
• Focusing the attention.
• Concentration on context.
• Taking notes.
 Stages of Listening

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage3 Stage 4 Stage 5

Receiving Understanding Evaluating Remembering Response

 Stage 1 : Receiving

• 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. Notice in that this stage is
represented by the ear because it is the primary tool
involved with this stage of the listening process.
 Stage 2: Understanding

• In the understanding stage, we attempt to learn the

meaning of the message, which is not always easy.
• Even when we have understood the words in a
message, because of the differences in our
backgrounds and experience, we sometimes make the
mistake of attaching our own meanings to the words
of others. For example, say you have made plans with
your friends to meet at a certain movie theater, but
you arrive and nobody else shows up. 
 Stage 3 : Remembering

• Remembering begins with listening; if you can’t

remember something that was said, you might not have
been listening effectively. The most common reason for not
remembering a message after the fact is because it wasn’t
really learned in the first place.
• Highly complex messages that are filled with detail call for
highly developed listening skills. Moreover, if something
distracts your attention even for a moment, you could miss
out on information that explains other new concepts you
hear when you begin to listen fully again.
 Stage 4: Evaluating

• The fourth stage in the listening process is evaluating, or

judging the value of the message.
• Because everyone embodies biases and perspectives learned
from widely diverse sets of life experiences, evaluations of
the same message can vary widely from one listener to
another. Even the most open-minded listeners will have
opinions of a speaker, and those opinions will influence how
the message is evaluated. People are more likely to evaluate
a message positively if the speaker speaks clearly, presents
ideas logically, and gives reasons to support the points made.
 Stage 5: Responding
• 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.

• For example, you are giving positive feedback to your instructor if at the end of
class you stay behind to finish a sentence in your notes or approach the instructor
to ask for clarification. The opposite kind of feedback is given by students who
gather their belongings and rush out the door as soon as class is over.

• •This stage is represented by the lips because we often give feedback in the form of
verbal feedback; however, you can just as easily respond nonverbally.
 Types of Listening

• Discriminative Listening
• Comprehensive Listening
• Critical Listening
• Evaluative
• Empathetic
• Therapeutic
• Active
• Passive
 Discriminative Listening

• Discriminative listening is the most basic type of listening, whereby the difference
between difference sounds is identified. If you cannot hear differences, then you
cannot make sense of the meaning that is expressed by such differences.
• We learn to discriminate between sounds within our own language early, and later are
unable to discriminate between the phonemes of other languages. This is one reason
why a person from one country finds it difficult to speak another language perfectly,
as they are unable distinguish the subtle sounds that are required in that language.
• Likewise, a person who cannot hear the subtleties of emotional variation in another
person's voice will be less likely to be able to discern the emotions the other person is
experiencing.
• Listening is a visual as well as auditory act, as we communicate much through body
language. We thus also need to be able to discriminate between muscle and skeletal
movements that signify different meanings.
 Comprehensive Listening
• The next step beyond discriminating between different sound and sights is to
make sense of them. To comprehend the meaning requires first having a
lexicon of words at our fingertips and also all rules of grammar and syntax
by which we can understand what others are saying.
• The same is true, of course, for the visual components of communication,
and an understanding of body language helps us understand what the other
person is really meaning.
• In communication, some words are more important and some less so, and
comprehension often benefits from extraction of key facts and items from a
long spiel.
• Comprehension listening is also known as content listening, informative
listening and full listening.
Difference between Discriminative
and Comprehensive Listening:
 Critical listening

• Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and

judge, forming opinion about what is being said.
Judgment includes assessing strengths and
weaknesses, agreement and approval.
• This form of listening requires significant real-time
cognitive effort as the listener analyzes what is being
said, relating it to existing knowledge and rules,
whilst simultaneously listening to the ongoing words
from the speaker.
 Evaluative listening

• In evaluative listening, or critical listening, we make judgments about what

the other person is saying. We seek to assess the truth of what is being said.
We also judge what they say against our values, assessing them as good or
bad, worthy or unworthy.
• Evaluative listening is particularly pertinent when the other person is trying to
persuade us, perhaps to change our behavior and maybe even to change our
beliefs. Within this, we also discriminate between subtleties of language and
comprehend the inner meaning of
• what is said. Typically also we weigh up the pros and cons of an argument,
determining whether it makes sense logically as well as whether it is helpful
to us.
• Evaluative listening is also called critical, judgmental or interpretive listening.
 Empathetic listening

• When we listen empathetically, we go beyond sympathy

to seek a truer understand how others are feeling. This
requires excellent discrimination and close attention to
the nuances of emotional signals. When we are being
truly empathetic, we actually feel what they are feeling.
• In order to get others to expose these deep parts of
themselves to us, we also need to demonstrate our
empathy in our demeanor towards them, asking
sensitively and in a way that encourages self-disclosure.
 Therapeutic listening

• In therapeutic listening, the listener has a purpose of not only

empathizing with the speaker but also to use this deep
connection in order to help the speaker understand, change or
develop in some way.
• This not only happens when you go to see a therapist but also in
many social situations, where friends and family seek to both
diagnose problems from listening and also to help the speaker
cure themselves, perhaps by some cathartic process. This also
happens in work situations, where managers, HR people,
trainers and coaches seek to help employees learn and develop.
 Active Listening
• 'Active listening ' means, as its name suggests, actively listening. That is
fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively ‘hearing’
the message of the speaker.
• Interest can be conveyed to the speaker by using both verbal and non-verbal
messages such as maintaining eye contact, nodding your head and smiling,
agreeing by saying ‘Yes’ or simply ‘Mmm hmm’ to encourage them to
continue.  By providing this 'feedback' the person speaking will usually feel
more at ease and therefore communicate more easily, openly and honestly.
 Signs of Active Listening

• Smile
• Small smiles can be used to show that the listener is paying attention to what is being said or as a way of agreeing or being happy
about the messages being received.  Combined with nods of the head, smiles can be powerful in affirming that messages are
being listened to and understood.
• Eye Contact
• It is normal and usually encouraging for the listener to look at the speaker. Eye contact can however be intimidating, especially
for more shy speakers – gauge how much eye contact is appropriate for any given situation.  Combine eye contact with smiles
and other non-verbal messages to encourage the speaker.
• Posture
• Posture can tell a lot about the sender and receiver in interpersonal interactions.  The attentive listener tends to lean slightly
forward or sideways whilst sitting.  Other signs of active listening may include a slight slant of the head or resting the head on
one hand.
• Mirroring
• Automatic reflection/mirroring of any facial expressions used by the speaker can be a sign of attentive listening.  These reflective
expressions can help to show sympathy and empathy in more emotional situations.  Attempting to consciously mimic facial
expressions (i.e. not automatic reflection of expressions) can be a sign of inattention.
• Distraction
• The active listener will not be distracted and therefore will refrain from fidgeting, looking at a clock or watch, doodling, playing
with their hair or picking their fingernails.
 Passive Listening

• When a person is practicing passive listening, he is sitting

quietly without responding to what the speaker is saying.
When you listen to music or a podcast or even the news, you
are practicing passive listening. Sometimes passive listening
may require a few open-ended replies to keep the speaker
talking, however, this technique generally requires focused
concentration and minimal verbal feedback from the listener.
Listening to a lecture in school or watching a movie both
require passive listening skills, and the technique can improve
your communication and your ability to clearly understand the
information being presented.
 Difference netween Active and
Passive Listening
Passive Listening Active Listening

Description Passive listening is one where the receiver Active listening is where the receiver
doesn’t provide feedback or asks questions demonstrates through interruption,
and may or may not understand what is asking questions, nodding and giving
being communicated.   responses as a sign that he or she
understands what is being
communicated.  
Attitude In passive listening, the listener has a In active listening, the listener has a
negative attitude which is demonstrated positive attitude which is demonstrated
through selective and ignoring attitude.    through body language, eye contact and
reception.  
Nature Of In passive listening, the listener pays little or n active listening, the listener pays
Communication no consideration to everything that is being consideration to everything that is
communicated. He or she pays attention to a being communicated and gives
few areas and phrases.  additional time to listening.  
Effect Passive listening is one way kind of Active listening is a two-way
communication since the listener is not communication because both the
interested in paying attention.   listener and the communicator are
engaging one another.  
Examples Examples of passive listening include Examples of where active listening is
listening to a speaker during a presentation very much required include; roundtable
or meeting, listening to radio, podcasts, and meeting discussions, job interviews,
 Barriers to Listening

• Pre-judgments about the speaker.

• Assuming that the speaker is going to give some unimportant information .
• Arriving late for a speech, presentation or lecture .
• Avoiding listening to difficult, boring or complex information and selectively
listening only to what is considered interesting.

• Speaker or listener being distracted by

disturbances .

• Lack of concentration/interest .
Thank You.