Listening Skiils

Listening Skills
Listening
 Definition
 Why do we listen
 Types of listening
 The process of Listening
 Barriers to Listening
 How to improve on our Listening Skills

Listening Defined
 Is a deliberate effort to pay attention

 Listening attentively to yourself and others
 Hearing and understanding
 Responding purposefully and accurately
 Listening is an open commitment to engage actively in the
world and thought of the person or people to whom you are
listening and a corresponding commitment on the part of the
other person or people to enter into yours. It does not presume
agreement or disagreement; it presumes a striving for empathy
Listening Vs Hearing
 Listening" is active. "Hearing" is passive.

 "Listening," therefore, is an act of will.
"Hearing" can simply happen without desire or
intention or interest or preference. “Listening"
means you tune in specifically for something.
"Hearing" means you're listening in part to
avoid hearing something - namely anything
other than what constitutes a passive listening
experience (e.g., commercials, clutter, chit-
chat, etc.)
Listening Vs Hearing Cont....
 Listening" is emotional. "Hearing" is

passionless.”
 "Hearing" means never getting beyond the
glossy exterior.” Listening" means listeners
will seek out programming. "Hearing" means
the programming has to seek out the listener.
Active Vs Passive Listening
 Passive listening is mechanical and

effortless. You hear what your teacher says
and you might be able to tell the difference
between major and minor points of the
lecture, but that is about it. Lack of
enthusiasm and a "careless" attitude during
class characterize a student who is a passive
listener.
Active Vs Passive Cont....
 Active listeners, on the other hand,

concentrate on the content of the lecture and
not on the lecturer or any random distractions
in the room or their mind. They do more than
focus on facts, figures, and ideas and actively
associate the material presented with their
own experiences. The content heard at every
lecture is converted to something useful and
meaningful for the student.
Why we listen
 To receive/obtain information
 To be able to pass judgment/ make decisions
 To be entertained
 To show care/concern/empathy
Listening Types
 Listening for Information/ Informative Listening
 Listening for enjoyment/ Appreciative Listening
 Critical listening
 Conversational / relationship/ Empathetic listening
 Discriminative Listening
Informative Listening
 This is where we listen purposely to

understand the message. Listeners need to
use their vocabulary, concentration and
memorisation skills
Appreciative/ Listening for
Enjoyment
 This is the listening we do for the pure

enjoyment of it. We spend much money and
time on cassettes, CDs, concerts and
comedy. The message of the song or routine
may not be important to us, but we like the
musician, music style, or comic actors. In this
type, listening is a form of relaxation and
pleasure
Critical Listening
 In this type we listen to form an opinion or

make a decision. In making decisions and
forming opinions, we pay attention to three
things: the speaker’s credibility, the logic of
the presentation/ argument and the
psychological appeal of the message. If one
of these is lacking, we may make a
judgement based on a void.
Relationship/ Empathetic
Listening
 This type of listening refers to improvement of

relationships among people. It is the kind where
a listener allows a speaker to “vent’’; to talk out a
problem or situation. In this type, we pay
attention to the speaker, and to be supportive: to
keep the message in confidence; and not to be
judgemental. Its important to determine whether
the speaker wants you to suggest a solution or
simply to listen
Discriminative Listening
 By this type, we mean being able to picking the

gist of the matter i.e. Picking the electric guitar
from the base of the song. This is the ability to
identify and filter verbal and non verbal cues, to
get to the bottom of the message. This type of
listening as John Kline puts it, is the foundation
to all other types of listening, because we can
use it to infer both the speakers message and
their intentions
The Process of Listening
 Hearing
 Attending
 Understanding
 Remembering
 Responding
Barriers to Listening
Introduction
* Average persons spend 70% of waking hours
communicating, 45% of that listening.
* In a ten minute presentation there is 50%
retention, in two days only 25%.
* To improve listening comprehension, one must
overcome barriers arising from: content, speaker,
distractions, mind set, language, listening speed and
feedback.
Barriers continued....
There are majorly two categories of barriers
 Physical/ external barriers
 Internal/ psychological barriers

Barriers ctd
Barriers ctd
Improving your listening skills
 Understand the complexities of listening

 Prepare to listen; it is commitment
 Adjust to listening situations
 Focus on ideas and key points
 Capitalise on speed differential; thought is faster than
speech
 Correlate with what you have in mind; pick out what you
should remember
 Delay judgements
 Admit your biases
Improving listening contd..
 Accept responsibility for understanding

 Establish eye contact with the speaker
 Take effective notes
 Be physically involved listener
 Avoid Negative mannerisms
 Exercise your listening muscles
 Encourage others to talk
NOTE TAKING
 This refers to the process of creating notes from

oral or verbal sources especially listening
sessions. It differs from note making which is...
Note Taking tips

The key to taking notes from spoken
Communication is organisation; well organised
notes are effective notes.
Requirements for taking notes
 Prepare in advance for the Listening session and

note taking process
 Use large or standard sheets of paper or a note
book of many leaves
 Write the date in the upper right corner of the
paper as you start your session
 Put a title on your notes
 Draw a line from top to bottom about one fifth of
Requirements contd...
 Leave space between item/ points

 Indent to show levels of Organisation with less
important information indented further to show that
it is related to what is on the line above it
 Don't write everything that you read or hear
 Use short sentences since notes consist of key
words
 Take accurate notes
Requirements contd...
 Have a uniform system of punctuation and

abbreviation that will make sense to you
 Omit descriptions and full explanations
 Shortly after making your notes , go back and
rework your notes by adding extra points,
spelling out unclear items
 Recognise important material( main points)
 Read texts recommended or required reading
Requirement contd...
 Listen for repetition

 Listen for examples
 Pay attention to the instructors mannerisms/
cues
 Ask questions
 Review
 Make friends so as to compare notes where
necessary

Listening Skiils

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Listening Skiils

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Listening Skiils

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Listening Skills

 The process of Listening

 How to improve on our Listening Skills

 Is a deliberate effort to pay attention

 Listening" is active. "Hearing" is passive.

 Listening" is emotional. "Hearing" is

 Passive listening is mechanical and

 Active listeners, on the other hand,

 To be able to pass judgment/ make decisions

 Listening for Information/ Informative Listening

 Listening for enjoyment/ Appreciative Listening

 Conversational / relationship/ Empathetic listening

 This is where we listen purposely to

 This is the listening we do for the pure

 In this type we listen to form an opinion or

 This type of listening refers to improvement of

 By this type, we mean being able to picking the

There are majorly two categories of barriers

 Physical/ external barriers

 Internal/ psychological barriers

 Understand the complexities of listening

 Accept responsibility for understanding

 This refers to the process of creating notes from

Note Taking tips

 Prepare in advance for the Listening session and

 Leave space between item/ points

 Have a uniform system of punctuation and

 Listen for repetition

You might also like