Listening is an important skill in all areas of human life. A healthy listening process is important in helping us to maintain proper personal relations, taking good notes in class, getting our jobs done easily and perfectly as well as figuring out which option best suits a particular situation. It is important that we understand that listening goes beyond just hearing whatever words are being hulled to us. Listening is an active process through which an individual makes sense, makes an assessment and gives a response to what they hear. As a process, listening considers five stages which include reception, understanding, evaluating, remembering and then giving a response. In active listening, the listener must provide feedback or response as per what the speaker says. Active listening goes through three main degrees; repeating, paraphrasing and reflecting. This paper takes an informative position to expound more on the importance and the mechanism through which active listening is executed during verbal conversations.
Listening is more than Just Hearing
The process of listening incorporates five stages where the effective listener should be able to hear and recognize the speech pattern of sounds which are directed unto them from the speaker or the source. After that the listener should be able to critically evaluate and assess the message as it was encoded, remember the whole content as spoken and thus give response either verbally or nonverbally appropriately responding to the information they have received. In active listening, the listener must be able to decode a message back to the speaker by just a way of restating or by a way of paraphrasing the original message in the listener's own words. A repetitive course takes place as a confirmation of what the two parties conversed (Johnson-Curiskis, 2009). Active listening demonstrates sincerity and that no assumption is being made or anything ignored. This is used to improve relationships in a personal sense by minimizing misunderstanding and conflicts while strengthening cooperation and fostering understanding. Whenever an individual has to engage with a defined speaker, the listener can employ about three degrees of active listening so as to be able to get defined qualities of communication with the speaker. These degrees include repetition, paraphrasing or even reflecting.
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In active listening, it is more important also to pay more attention to all non-verbal communication and body language so as to obtain details. The ability to interpret the speaker’s body language helps the listener to build up a more precise understanding of the speaker’s message.
Critical Thinking in Active Listening
The process of critical thinking involves a skillful intellectual and well-disciplined process where the listener should conceptualize, synthesize, analyze and evaluate the information generated by communication, reflection, experience or even observation to lead them to belief given actions. During the process, we qualitatively and quantitatively assess the accumulated information and the manner in which we can put that information into use so as to solve problems and realize new and better patterns of understanding. Being critical thinker is important since it aids in the clarification f objectives, re-examine all assumptions, discern all hidden values, evaluate evidence, accomplish actions and also give a better assessment of conclusions. Being a critical thinker as a listener, this finds many applications in the formulation of diagnosable solutions to complicated personal problems, deliberating in a group setting about which course of action should be taken in the analysis of assumptions as well as methods that are used to come to some scientific hypotheses. Thus, the process of critical thinking is applied in getting solutions to complex issues while comparing such with better options. Thus, critical thinking informs every aspect of our daily lives. Therefore, critical thinking becomes an imperative process to effective communication and consequently in public speaking.
When it comes to listening, critical thinking comes in whenever the listener has to figure out what to believe and what action to take in a reasonable and much reflective manner. Provided the receiver is able to correctly figure out and reflect well upon the nature of application, they may apply the principles and concepts of critical thinking to any case or context (Ordem, 2016). Thus in more generalized terms, critical thinking could be referred to as a way of taking up the difficulties of life. Therefore, to this regard, listening, reading, writing and speaking can all be done to critically or uncritically influence our thinking skills which can be applied to different activities. In listening, it’s important to observe all skills of critical thinking such as observation, interpretation, analysis, metacognition, evaluation, inference and explanation.
Critical thinkers are able to recognize issues and consequently find some workable answers to such problems while understanding the need to prioritize the hierarchy of problem-solving tasks. In addition, in critical thinking, it's important to gather useful information and as well read between the lines so as to obtain accurately whatever has been said or not (Ordem, 2016). The use of language in a clear, effective and efficient manner while interpreting data to form reasonable conclusions based on such data adds to the value of critical evaluators. A speaker or listener should also be able to determine the presence or lack of logical relationships and make sound decisions or generalizations based on a given set of data. Critical thinkers should further be able to test conclusions and generalizations, reconstruct a speaker’s pattern of beliefs based on the wider perspective or experience and also render accurate judgments of the particular things and qualities in daily life. This, therefore, justifies the rationale behind every listener being a critical evaluator of every information they receive from a defined source. In order to be more reasonable in whatever information, a listener receives, they must be able to hear, understand its context or relevance, recognize unstated assumptions, make logical connections in between ideas, determine truth values and also draw conclusions (Ordem, 2016). Effective listening allows people to gather enough information in a manner that promotes critical thinking and ultimately successful information.
Causes to poor listening
Effective listening can be interrupted by different barriers which impede the necessary flow of information. Such barriers are inclusive of distractions, the incapability to prioritize information, a tendency to assume or judge based on little or no information, generally called ‘jumping into conclusions’ as well as general confusion in regard to the topic under discussion. The barriers which impede effective listening could be physical such as noise and visual distraction and sometimes psychological such as the emotions of the listener (Embodied analytic listening, 2016). Common barriers to the effective conveyance of information include poor prioritization, poor judgment, and focusing on style instead of the substance as well as low concentration.
Steps to Effective Listening
As it has been so far understood, listening is an important aspect of effective communication. Being able to effectively listen means fewer errors and less waste of time with improved accuracy in handling matters. There are several steps to effective listening.
First, the listener should maintain good eye contact with the speaker, which shows attention. The listener should avoid other activities and stay focused on the conversation at hand. Secondly, it is important to avoid interrupting and wait for turn-taking in order to interject at the right time. This means that it is important to first receive the speaker’s point and avoid jumping in without any kind of interruption so as to avoid keeping the speaker off the lane of his conversation. Thirdly it is important as a listener to be prepared to listen. This goes in hand with relaxing one's mind, body and every kind of distracting thought by taking a deep breath. It is important to sit up straight and turn to the speaker so a to focus on the present while focusing on the speaker. Fourthly it is a great gain to learn to tame the mind from wandering away. This is to means that any mind which is untrained can easily be distracted by noises, random objects, or even one's thoughts. One can easily find themselves thinking of what should be done at the moment and this can put the speaker off. Additionally, I is important for any listener to be open-minded by avoiding judging, that is listening without being critical of the other person, avoiding justifying, that is truncating the need to justify one own thought or beliefs and also by avoiding jumping into discussion by being patient and not trying to figure out what one thinks the speaker is trying to say by finishing their sentences or blurting out their thoughts. It is also important to practice the art of mirroring- that is, giving similar energy as that of the speaker. The listener should be able to show that they are engaged in the talk by responding with a smile or a nod whenever they look for clues if the listener is getting. Finally, it is necessary to give positive non-verbal feedback including one's facial expression and body language. Excessive fidgeting, eye-rolling, face sternness indicate that the listener is detached from the talk (Steps to Effective Listening, 2018).
The first step to becoming a better listener is to eliminate poor listening habits. Then comes developing an open attitude and practicing positive listening skills. A good listener reaps the benefits and avoids the potential listening black-spots. It’s surprising that so many people spend time and effort focusing on things like time-management, communicating skills, or conflict resolution, but they overlook the core skill of listening. Effective listening is learnable, and it underpins many of the other skill-sets which people worry about. Effective listening produces better understanding which eases tension, helps the speaker to relax, and though you might not expect it, helps them think more clearly too! This results in easier collaborations and more fulfilling relationships. Becoming great listeners helps to achieved improved relationships, developed trust, good problem solving, boosted confidence and briefer conversations.
References
7 Steps to Effective Listening. (2018, April 9). Retrieved from https://www.careerattraction.com/7-steps-to-effective-listening/
Embodied analytic listening. (2016). Creative Listening and the Psychoanalytic Process, 88-118. doi:10.4324/9781315712369-6
Johnson-Curiskis, N. (2009). Importance of Effective Listening Infomercial. International Journal of Listening, 23(2), 167-170. doi:10.1080/10904010903014491
Ordem, E. (2016). Developing Critical-Thinking Dispositions in a Listening/Speaking Class. English Language Teaching, 10(1), 50. doi:10.5539/elt.v10n1p50
Understanding Listening | Boundless Communications. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-communications/chapter/understanding-listening/
