Module 1

Listening VS Hearing

Learning Objectives
1. Determine the differences between listening and hearing.
2. Explain the benefits of listening.

Listening skill is key to receiving messages effectively. It is a combination of hearing what

another person says and psychological involvement with the person who is talking. Listening is a
skill of Language. It requires a desire to understand another human being, an attitude of respect
and acceptance, and a willingness to open one's mind to try and see things from another's point of
view. It requires a high level of concentration and energy. It demands that we set aside our own
thoughts and agendas, put ourselves in another's shoes and try to see the world through that
person's eyes.
Listening is a language modality. It is one of the five skills of language i.e. listening,
speaking, reading, writing, and viewing. It involves an active involvement of an individual.
Listening involves a sender, a message and a receiver. It is the psychological process of
receiving, attending to constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or non-verbal
messages.
Listening comprises of some key components, they are:
discriminating between sounds
recognizing words and understanding their meaning
identifying grammatical groupings of words,
identifying expressions and sets of utterances that act to create meaning,
connecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues,
using background knowledge to predict and to confirm meaning, and
recalling important words and ideas.
 You may have heard the adage, “We have two ears but only one mouth”—an easy way to
remember that listening can be twice as important as talking. As a student, you most likely spend
many hours in a classroom doing a large amount of focused listening, yet sometimes it is difficult
to apply those efforts to communication in other areas of your life. As a result, your listening
skills may not be all they could be.

Listening or Hearing

Hearing is an accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires no

effort. We are surrounded by sounds most of the time. For example, we are accustomed
to the sounds of airplanes, lawn mowers, furnace blowers, the rattling of pots and pans,
and so on. We hear those incidental sounds and, unless we have a reason to do otherwise,
we train ourselves to ignore them. We learn to filter out sounds that mean little to us, just
as we choose to hear our ringing cell phones and other sounds that are more important to
us.

Listening, on the other hand, is purposeful and focused rather than accidental. As
a result, it other requires motivation and effort. Listening, at its best, is active, focused,
concentrated attention for the purpose of understanding the meanings expressed by a
speaker.
 Benefits of Listening

Listening should not be taken for granted. Before the invention of writing, people
conveyed virtually all knowledge through some combination of showing and telling. Elders
recited tribal histories to attentive audiences. Listeners received religious teachings
enthusiastically. Myths, legends, folktales, and stories for entertainment survived only because
audiences were eager to listen. Nowadays, however, you can gain information and entertainment
through reading and electronic recordings rather than through real-time listening. If you become
distracted and let your attention wander, you can go back and replay a recording. Despite that
fact, you can still gain at least four compelling benefits by becoming more active and competent
at real-time listening.

You Become a Better Student

When you focus on the material presented in a classroom, you will be able to
identify not only the words used in a lecture but their emphasis and their more complex
meanings. You will take better notes, and you will more accurately remember the
instructor’s claims, information, and conclusions. Many times, instructors give verbal
cues about what information is important, specific expectations about assignments, and
even what material is likely to be on an exam, so careful listening can be beneficial.

You Become a Better Friend

When you give your best attention to people expressing thoughts and experiences
that are important to them, those individuals are likely to see you as someone who cares
about their well-being. This fact is especially true when you give your attention only and
refrain from interjecting opinions, judgments, and advice.
 People Will Perceive You as Intelligent and Perceptive

When you listen well to others, you reveal yourself as being curious and
interested in people and events. In addition, your ability to understand the meanings of
what you hear will make you a more knowledgeable and thoughtful person.

Good Listening Can Help You in Public Speaking

When you listen well to others, you start to pick up more on the stylistic
components related to how people form arguments and present information. As a result,
you have the ability to analyze what you think works and doesn’t work in others’
speeches, which can help you transform your speeches in the process. For example, really
paying attention to how others cite sources orally during their speeches may give you
ideas about how to more effectively cite sources in your presentation.

 Hearing is the physiological process of attending to sound within one’s environment;

listening, however, is a focused, concentrated approach to understanding the message a
source is sending.
 Learning how to be an effective listener has numerous advantages. First, effective
listening can help you become a better student. Second, effective listening can help you
become more effective in your interpersonal relationships. Third, effective listening can
lead others to perceive you as more intelligent. Lastly, effective listening can help you
become an effective public speaker.

In three paragraphs, discuss how you find out when you haven’t been listening carefully.
What are some of the consequences of poor listening?