Listening is always an important part of communication. For the process of communication to be effective, both parties must seek to understand the positions and information presented by the other party. Effective listening ensures that the people involved in the process of communication can listen to understand the message being communicated as well as the underlying meaning and intentions of the other party. As such, lack of effective listening often impairs the entire process of communication as it hinders the transfer of information from one party to the other. Therefore, the process of communication heavily relies on the ability of all parties to the communication process listen to each other effectively.
The lecture video by Dr. Tracey Sarah entitled “ Listening and the Free Listening Project ” puts into perspective the importance of listening in communication. In the video, she begins by highlighting and explaining three types of listening. These types of listening include listening for information, listening to judge or evaluate and listening to understand someone else. She explains that ‘listening for information’ happens when the listener wants to obtain information about a topic as a speaker speaks about it. In ‘listening for judgment,’ the listener takes a critical perspective on the information provided with the desire of knowing whether it is true or not. Lastly, the ‘listening to understand someone else’ type requires someone listens with the intention of considering the perspective of the other person. Dr. Tracey posits that listening to understand someone else creates empathy. The video further explains how one can improve his or her listening skills. Therefore, seeking to understand the intentions of the speaker as well as the underlying meaning of the message would greatly enhance the entire process of listening.
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The video by Dr. Tracey espouses several concepts from the book “ Human Communication in Society .” The first concept is the concept of listening. Albers, Nakayama, & Martin (2018) defines listening as the process of receiving both nonverbal as well as verbal messages, constructing meaning from them and finally responding to such messages. Therefore, effective listening enables an individual to understand the message that the speaker seeks to presents and equally understand the intentions of the speaker. From this definition, communication is largely impaired in the event there is a breakdown of the process of listening. Therefore, listening involves an understanding of both verbal as well as non-verbal messages. Therefore, one must not ignore the nonverbal aspects of communication such as signs, facial expressions, as well as other body languages.
In the video, Dr. Tracey elaborates on this definition of the concept of listening and explains its importance to the process of communication. She divides the concept of listening into three distinct types highlighted above. She defines each of the three types of listening. All her three definitions depict aspects of listening highlighted in the textbook. The approach highlights the aspects of receiving information, constructing meaning out of such information and responding (Tracey n.d.). These aspects are in line with the textbook’s definition of listening. Albers, Nakayama, & Martin (2018) highlight the importance of listening to the entire process of communication. The book notes that a breakdown in listening results into a breakdown in the entire communication process. In her video, Dr. Tracey gives specific examples of how a breakdown in listening can indeed breakdown the entire process of communication. For instance, she gives an example an employee who seeks a new computer from his boss, but a breakdown in listening from the part of the boss misconstrues the message and leads to miscommunication. As such, effective listening is an integral part of effective communication.
The second concept from the book that Dr. Tracey emphasizes is the concept of listening style. According to Albers, Nakayama, & Martin (2018), a listening style constitutes a set of attitudes, prepositions or beliefs about how who, what, when and where of the process of receiving information and encoding that information in the process of communication. Therefore, the listening style is mainly related to what a person listens to, when he listens, why he listens, and whom he listens to. Dr. Tracey has largely borrowed this concept of listening styles, particularly in her presentation while elucidating the various types. She makes her classification based on the reasons that make people concentrate on a particular speaker. These three types of listening based on listening styles include listening for information, listening to evaluate, and listening to understand. This demonstrates that the entire concept of listening can be broken into different types depending on the concept of the style of listening. Moreover, the style of listening equally informs the success or failure of a listening process. For instance, people who listen with the view of understanding others have a better chance of getting the message compared to people who listen primarily for judgment.
The third concept highlighted in the textbook and espoused through the video is the concept of informational listening. Albers, Nakayama, & Martin (2018) define informational listening as the listening skill required in the context of listening where attention to content is required. Informational listening occurs when the listener intents to pay attention to the content being communicated. As informational listening may involve taking notes or recording as may seek appropriate. Dr. Tracey also explains the importance of informational listening under her definition of listening for information. She notes that such listening mainly occurs in cases where the listener is interested in the content of information being provided. Therefore, informational listening occurs in the context of learning. For instance, the classroom setting in which the learners listen to the teacher with the intention of getting as much content as possible is a typical example of content listening. Moreover, informative talks in which a person who is more versed about a given topic gives a talk about that topic while the listeners gather content is another type of informational listening. Therefore, informational listening is a concept that is mainly applied within the context of learning.
In summary, effective listening is critical for the success of a communication process. Albers, Nakayama, and Martin (2018) highlight three major concepts that Dr. Tracey addressed in her lecture video as well. They include listening, listening style and informational listening. Dr. Tracey’s definition of listening depicts aspects such as receiving information, constructing meaning out of such information and responding. All these aspects are depicted in the textbook. She further utilizes the concept of listening styles to classify the types of listening. Her classification is largely based on the reasons for listening. The style of listening adopted by an individual determines whether they will be effective listeners or not. Lastly, Albers, Nakayama, and Martin (2018) define informational listening as the listening type that seeks to gather content. Dr. Tracey uses this definition in the classification of listening. One of the types of listening is listening for information. Informational listening is mainly applied in the context of classroom learning or informative talk.
References
Albers, J., Nakayama, T., & Martin, J. (2018). Human communication in society (5 th Ed.). Pearson.
Tracey, T. (Dr.) (n.d.). Listening and the free listening project . [video file]. Retrieved from https://asu.instructure.com/courses/12839/pages/module-4-learning-materials?module_item_id=642795
