Hearing and Listening

Hearing and Listening

Hi Everyone !
Welcome back for Chapter 3 ! 

We have learned about listening.

What is listening??? 

Listening is process of receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or non-verbal messages. It can be also conclude as the process where you receive auditory signals.

Facts : Listening and Hearing are different action. Why ? 

It is because when a person is listening, he/she focuses on the receiver's message. However, when a person is hearing, it does not mean he/she is focusing on what the receiver is trying to tell them.

Stages of Listening 

There are (5) stages of the listening with effective ways that should be practiced:

1. Receiving

- The message can be either verbally and non-verbally.

- This stage would be effective if we :

•  Focus.
•  Avoid distractions.
•  Refrain from thinking how to respond.
•  Be a listener.

2. Understanding

- This is when you learn about what others tell you. 

- This stage would be effective if we:

• Relate message to what we have known.
• See message from sender's point of view.
• Ask question to double confirm.
• Paraphrase the message for better understanding.

3. Remembering 

- This is to remember what have been received and understand.

- Not everyone have the abilities to remember everything. 

• For example : 
  

You would need to memorize the 20 words here in 3 minutes. Next, write down in a paper and look back at the picture. Count how many you have got it right ! :D

-The best way to remember is :

• Identify main point and supportive keys.
• Summarize message.
• Repeat names and key concept.

4. Evaluating

- The way we judge a message.

- To be effective at this stage, you would need to:

• Fully understand the message,
• Clarified what has been told.
• Keep facts away from inferences and opinions.
• Identify any biases, self-interest or prejudices that might affect the message.

5. Responding

- This is to let the sender knows that you get the message.

- Two phases to do this :

1. back channeling cues.
2. response after listening. 

Listening is difficult. Why do we say so?

This is because all of us have different cultures and different way of interpreting message. There are a few diversity of listening and culture. 

1. In the form of language. For example in Malaysia. There are many type of languages in Malaysia like Bahasa Melayu ( Malay Language), Chinese, Tamil and many more. And, in every state, the way of speaking the language is different which is called as dialect. This can cause misunderstandings and confusion.

2. Non verbal behavioral differences. When non verbal message does not align with the verbal message, it eventually causes distractions and noise to the listener. This is because " listen = non verbal+ verbal"

3. Direct and indirect styles. In direct styles, people just says what they want to say. Unlike in indirect styles, people tends to look on politeness and maintaining positive image.

4. Balance of story Vs. Evidence. Most people believe that it is important to have evidence instead of critical thinking to support their listening. But, there are still people who are vice versa of this case.

5. Credibility. Everyone have different credible towards the speaker.

To listen effectively, here are some of the ways:

-participatory & passive listening
We must be active enough to participate and be ready to just listen with acceptance.

-emphatic & objective listening
We must understand how the speaker feels and means when interpreting the message. It helps to enhance the understandings and relationships. However, at times, we will still need to be a objective listener too.

-non judgmental & critical listening
We must be open minded towards everything we listen so that the message can be interpreted in a correct way. We need to learn to Listen, Understand, Evaluate then only Judge.

-surface & depth listening
We must be able to distinguish the meaning of the communication. This is because some easy question can actually bring a very deep meaning behind it.