THE LISTENING PROCESS

Differences between Listening and Hearing

Hearing is biological and it involves receiving of a message through sensory channels. It is the
physiological process of decoding sounds in order to figure out what they signify. The process of
listening is how we make meaning of what we hear. Receiving, generating meaning from, and
reacting to verbal and nonverbal cues is a complex process.

The Listening Process

Listening involves five activities:

- Selecting
- Attending
- Understanding
- Remembering
- Responding

i) Selecting:
To choose a sound, you must concentrate on one sound-bite while sorting through a sea of
sounds vying for your attention. To listen is to be sensitive to another person. During listening,
one must select the sound or non-verbal behaviour that symbolizes meaning. In addition to using
the hearing mechanisms, people make use of visual cues to understand a message in a better way.
A listener will notice a person's facial expression, movement, posture, and look, which convey
vital indications that may not be apparent only by listening to the message's spoken portion.
Interpersonally inert people do not pick on cues because they are oblivious to the information. To
listen you must select which of the sounds or behaviours will receive your attention.

ii) Attending
To attend means to concentrate on a single stimulus chosen from among all those received at any
one time. Other stimuli fade away, allowing us to focus on a single word or symbol.

iii) Understanding
This is done to give communications meaning and make sense of what we hear. You can pick and
choose which noises and nonverbal signs to pay attention to, but you cannot understand what you
see and hear. Seeing and hearing are physiological processes. Understanding comes when we
relate what we see and hear to our experiences and knowledge.

iv) Remembering
This is to recall information. It is included in the listening process because it is the primary way
we determine whether a message was understood or not. But we cannot retrieve or remember all
the bits of information. We tend to remember what is important to us or something we try to
remember or have practiced to remember We also tend to remember dramatic information

v) Responding
Communication involves giving feedback to others as well as simply expressing and articulating
our messages. We respond and give feedback to people to let them know how we understand
their message. Our lack of response may signal that we did not understand the message.

2.3 Importance of Listening

1. For academic success: When learners and students listen keenly, they are assured of
acquiring knowledge and information and thus succeed academically.
2. To avoid disasters- When people listen and take instructions positively, it is possible act
appropriately and thus avoid disastrous occurrences. In disaster management, the staff
have to listen keenly for details, and then act appropriately to manage the issue at hand.
3. For employment success: Being a good listener is part of the communication process.
When one is a good listener, they receive information with accuracy and act accordingly.
4. For personal happiness: Being a good listener builds healthy interpersonal relationships
which are useful for happiness and psycho-social wellness.

Types of Listening
i) Discriminative Listening: This type of listening helps one to understand differences in
verbal sounds (e.g. dialects) and non-verbal behaviour (gestures, facial reactions). We are
 able to determine the hidden, for example, if a person is being sarcastic, cautious,
negative, etc. This type of listening is also useful in assessing the operational efficiency
of non-human apparatus. When we come into contact with nonhuman aspects of our daily
lives, such as listening to domestic equipment to see if they are operating correctly,
listening to the car’s engine to determine its state, etc.
Discrimination is typically the most crucial hearing skill for those in industries like
music, medicine, and technology.

ii) Comprehension Listening: This is a type of listening aimed at recognition and retention
of information. A listener must first distinguish a message in order to detect its auditory
and visual components in order to grasp it. However, hearing for understanding goes
beyond the goal of distinguishing a message. For effective comprehension, the listener
must concentrate on the message. In academia, heightened comprehension is vital and to
enhance comprehension, taking notes is a paramount skill.
iii) Therapeutic Listening: This is a type of listening which is employed in the medical and
social welfare fields. The listener should know when to pay attention, when to stimulate a
discussion, or when to respond and to give advice. This type of listening is important for
those in fields such as mental health, social works, speech therapy and counselling.

iv) Critical Listening: This is concerned with the listener's comprehension and evaluation of
the message received. A critical listener evaluates a message's reasoning and appeals
before deciding whether to accept or reject it.

v) Appreciative hearing: occurs when a person enjoys or is stimulated by a message, such as

while listening to comedic speakers, comedians, or music videos..

Barriers to Listening
Research suggests that most people remember a day later only about half of what was said and
an additional day later our listening comprehension drops by another 50%. Not just when we
listen to speeches and lectures, but also when we interact with others, our listening skills
diminish.. Three most critical elements keep us from listening well:
1. Personal habits that work against listening well form what is referred to as personal
barriers.
2. The way we cognitively organize information creates information processing hurdles.
3. Context factors such as place and time can also affect the quality of our listening.