Listening process

Lesson 2:  Listening Process

What is listening?

Listening involves taking the words and sounds we hear and converting them into something that makes sense to us.
Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages.

Why Do We Listen?

1.    We listen to gather information about something.

2.    We listen to understand.

3.    We listen for enjoyment.

4.    We listen to socialize.

5.    We listen to give others chance to reason out.

6.    Learning new things requires that we listen. 

Stages in the Listening Process

There are many factors that can interfere with listening, so you need to be able to manage a number of mental tasks at the same time in order to be a successful listener. 
Listening process was divided into five stages.

A. The Receiving Stage - The first stage of the listening process, which involves hearing and attending.

Hearing is the physiological process of registering sound waves as they hit the eardrum.

As obvious as it may seem, in order to effectively gather information through listening, we must first be able to physically hear what we're listening to. The clearer the sound, the easier the listening process becomes.

Listeners are often bombarded with a variety of auditory stimuli all at once, so they must differentiate which of those stimuli are speech sounds and which are not. Effective listening involves being able to focus in on speech sounds while disregarding other noise.

Paired with hearing, attending is the other half of the receiving stage in the listening process. Attending is the process of accurately identifying and interpreting particular sounds we hear as words. The sounds we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in context.

Attending also involves being able to discern human speech, also known as "speech segmentation. "  Identifying auditory stimuli as speech but not being able to break those speech sounds down into sentences and words would be a failure of the listening process. Discerning speech segmentation can be a more difficult activity when the listener is faced with an unfamiliar language.

Listening at the Receiving Stage
The first stage in the process of listening is receiving the message. At this stage you listen not only to what is said (verbally and nonverbally) but also to what is omitted.

Remember:

1. Focus your attention on the speaker’s verbal and nonverbal messages, on what is said and on what isn’t said. Avoid focusing your attention on what you’ll say next; if you begin to rehearse your responses, you’re going to miss what the speaker says next.

2. Avoid distractions in the environment; if necessary, shut off the stereo or and turn off your cell phone. Put down the newspaper or magazine; close your laptop.

3. Maintain your role as listener and avoid interrupting. Avoid interrupting as much as possible. It will only prevent you from hearing what the speaker is saying. This is not to imply that you should give feedback cues—minimal verbal or nonverbal responses (“I see,” “you’re right,” head nodding, widening of your eyes)—that say, “I’m listening.”

 
B.  The Understanding Stage - The stage of listening during which the listener determines the context and meanings of the words that are heard.

comprehension - The totality of intentions that are pertinent to the context of a given discussion.

Understanding or comprehension is "shared meaning between parties in a communication transaction" and constitutes the first step in the listening process. Determining the context and meaning of individual words, as well as assigning meaning in language, is essential to understanding sentences. This, in turn, is essential to understanding a speaker's message.

Once the listeners understand the speaker's main point, they can begin to sort out the rest of the information they are hearing and decide where it belongs in their mental outline.  Understanding what we hear is a huge part of our everyday lives, particularly in terms of gathering basic information, but without understanding what we hear, none of these listening would relay any practical information to us. 

One tactic for better understanding a speaker's meaning is to ask questions. Asking questions allows the listener to fill in any holes he or she may have in the mental reconstruction of the speaker's message. 

Listening at the Understanding Stage
After receiving the message, you process it; you extract the meaning from the message. You can improve your listening understanding in a variety of ways:

1. Avoid assuming you understand what the speaker is going to say before he or she actually says it. If you do make assumptions, these will likely prevent you from accurately listening to what the speaker wants to say.

2. See the speaker’s messages from the speaker’s point of view. Avoid judging the message until you fully understand it as the speaker intended it.

3. Ask questions for clarification, if necessary; ask for additional details or examples if they’re needed. This shows not only that you’re listening—which the speaker will appreciate—but also that you want to learn more. Material that is not clearly understood is likely to be easily forgotten.

4. Rephrase (paraphrase) the speaker’s ideas into your own words. This can be done silently or aloud. If done silently, it will help you rehearse and learn the material; if done aloud, it also helps you confirm your understanding of what the speaker is saying and gives the speaker an opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings.

 
C.  The Evaluating Stage - Once we understand what we hear, we can focus in on the relevant information.  The stage of the listening process during which the listener critically assesses the information she's received (both qualitatively and quantitatively) from the speaker. Evaluating allows the listener to form an opinion of what she's heard and, if necessary, to begin developing a response. 

·         tangential - Merely touching, referring to a tangent

·         assess - To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate

During the evaluating stage, the listener determines whether or not the information she's heard and understood from the speaker is well constructed or disorganized, biased or unbiased, true or false, significant or insignificant. She also ascertains how and why the speaker has come up with and conveyed the message that she's delivered. This may involve considerations of a speaker's personal or professional motivations and goals.

The evaluating stage occurs most effectively once the listener fully understands what the speaker is trying to say. While we can, and sometimes do, form opinions of information and ideas that we don't fully understand--or even that we misunderstand--doing so is not often ideal in the long run. Having a clear understanding of a speaker's message allows a listener to evaluate that message without getting bogged down in ambiguities or spending unnecessary time and energy addressing points that may be tangential or otherwise nonessential. This stage of critical analysis is important for a listener in terms of how what she's heard will affect her own ideas, decisions, actions, and/or beliefs. 

Listening at the Evaluating Stage.
Once you’ve received, understood, and have the message in memory, you need to evaluate it. After all, not all messages are equal—some are lies, some are truths; some are significant, some are trivial; some are constructive, some are destructive.

Remember: 

1. Resist evaluation until you fully understand the speaker’s point of view. This is not always easy, but it’s always essential. If you put a label on what the speaker is saying (ultraconservative, bleeding-heart liberal), you’ll hear the remainder of the messages through these labels.

2. Distinguish facts from opinions and personal interpretations by the speaker. And, most important, fix these labels in mind with the information.

3. Identify any biases, self-interests, or prejudices that may lead the speaker to slant unfairly what is said. It’s often wise to ask if the material is being presented fairly or if this person is slanting it in some way.

4. Recognize fallacious forms of “reasoning” speakers may use. Some of the more popular ones.

D.  The Responding Stage - The responding stage is when the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions to what she hears.

There are many ways, both verbal and nonverbal, to respond to what you hear.

The responding stage is the stage of the listening process wherein the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions based on short- or long-term memory. 

A listener can respond to what she hears either verbally or non-verbally. Nonverbal signals can include gestures such as nodding, making eye contact, tapping her pen, fidgeting, scratching or cocking her head, smiling, rolling her eyes, grimacing, or any other body language. These kinds of responses can be displayed purposefully or involuntarily.  Nonverbal responses like nodding or eye contact allow the listener to communicate her level of interest without interrupting the speaker, thereby preserving the speaker/listener roles. When a listener responds verbally to what she hears and remembers—for example, with a question or a comment—the speaker/listener roles are reversed, at least momentarily.

Responding verbally might involve asking a question, requesting additional information, redirecting or changing the focus of a conversation, cutting off a speaker, or repeating what a speaker has said back to her in order to verify that the received message matches the intended message.

Responding adds action to the listening process, which would otherwise be an outwardly passive process. Oftentimes, the speaker looks for verbal and nonverbal responses from the listener to determine if and how her message is being understood and/or considered. Based on the listener's responses, the speaker can choose to either adjust or continue with the delivery of her message.

Listening at the Responding Stage
After you evaluate the message, you’re likely to respond in some way. And, of course, a speaker expects a response.

Remember:
1. Support the speaker throughout the speaker’s conversation by using (and varying) listening cues, such as head nods and minimal responses such as “I see” or “mm-hmm.” Using the “like” icon, poking back, reposting, and commenting on another’s photos or posts will also prove supportive.

2. Own your responses. Take responsibility for what you say. Instead of saying, “Nobody will want to do that” say something like “I don’t want to do that.” Use the anonymity that most social networks allow with discretion.

3. Resist “responding to another’s feelings” with “solving the person’s problems” (as men are often accused of doing) unless, of course, you’re asked for advice. Oftentimes, people simply want to vent and just want you to hear what they have to say.

4. Focus on the other person. Avoid multitasking when you’re listening. Show the speaker that he or she is your primary focus. You can’t be a supportive listener, if you’re also listening to a CD, so take off the headphones; shut down the iPhone and the television; turn away from the computer screen. And, instead of looking around the room, look at the speaker; the speaker’s eyes should be your main focus.

5. Avoid being a thought-completing listener who listens a little and then finishes the speaker’s thought. This is especially inappropriate when listening to someone who might stutter or have word-finding difficulties. Instead, express respect (and a real willingness to listen) by giving the speaker time to complete his or her thoughts. Completing someone’s thoughts often communicates the message that nothing important is going to be said (“I already know it”).

 
E.  The Remembering Stage - The remembering stage occurs as the listener categorizes and retains the information she's gathering from the speaker.  Remembering what you hear is key to effective listening.

·         recall - Memory; the ability to remember.

·         memory - The ability of an organism to record information about things or events with the facility of recalling them later at will.

The result--memory--allows the person to record information about people, objects and events for later recall. This happens both during and after the speaker's delivery.Memory is essential throughout the listening process. We depend on our memory to fill in the blanks when we're listening and to let us place what we're hearing at the moment in the context of what we've heard before. 

Remembering previous information is critical to moving forward. Similarly, making associations to past remembered information can help a listener understand what she is currently hearing in a wider context. In listening to a lecture about the symptoms of depression, for example, a listener might make a connection to the description of a character in a novel that she read years before. 

Using information immediately after receiving it enhances information retention and lessens the forgetting curve, or the rate at which we no longer retain information in our memory. Conversely, retention is lessened when we engage in mindless listening, and little effort is made to understand a speaker's messages.

Because everyone has different memories, the speaker and the listener may attach different meanings to the same statement. In this sense, establishing common ground in terms of context is extremely important, both for listeners and speakers. 

Listening at the Remembering Stage
 It would help little if you received and understood the message but didn’t remember it. If you want to remember what someone says or the names of various people, this information needs to pass from your short-term memory (the memory you use, say, to remember a phone number just long enough to write it down) into long-term memory (or relatively permanent memory). Short-term memory is limited in capacity—you can hold only a small amount of information there. Long-term memory is unlimited. To facilitate the passage of information from short- to long-term memory, here are FOUR suggestions:

1. Focus your attention on the central ideas. Even in the most casual of conversations, there are central ideas. Fix these in your mind. Repeat these ideas to yourself as you continue to listen. Avoid focusing on minor details that often lead to detours in listening and in conversation.

2. Organize what you hear; summarize the message in a more easily retained form, but take care not to ignore crucial details or qualifications. If you chunk the material into categories, you’ll be able to remember more information. For example, if you want to remember 15 or 20 items to buy in the supermarket, you’ll remember more of them if you group them into chunks—say, produce, canned goods, and meats.

3. Unite the new with the old; relate new information to what you already know. Avoid treating new information as totally apart from all else you know. There’s probably some relationship and if you identify it, you’re more like to remember the new material.

4. Repeat names and key concepts to yourself or, if appropriate, aloud. By repeating the names or key concepts, you in effect rehearse these names and concepts, and as a result you’ll find them easier to learn and remember. If you’re introduced to Alice, you’ll stand a better chance of remembering her name if you say, “Hi, Alice” than if you say just “Hi.”

Source: Boundless Communications. Jul. 2014. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/communications