He is quite right, most of us never listen in most cases when we are in bad need of listening carefully and keenly what is being spoken in class environment or wherever we are. Listening is an integral part of effective communication but a few students are taught how to listen effectively. Many students believe that hearing what is said is the same as listening to what is said. In reality, they are distinctly different.
Hearing: is a physical yet passive act involving the process and function of perceiving sound.
Listening: is hearing the sounds with deliberate intention. Therefore, unlike hearing, listening is a skill that improves through conscious effort and practice.
Purposes of Listening
Students will extend their abilities to listen effectively in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes.There can be different aims and purposes of listening for which the process of listening is being done. The purpose of doing this clarifies its procedure and results. Using the techniques of listening, actually depends upon the specification of the purpose of listening. There can be normally 4 purposes of listening:
1. -Listening for Enjoyment
2. -Listening to Discriminate between Ideas or Approaches
3. -Listening to Learn Something
4. -Listening to Critically Evaluate and Judge
All of these are good reasons to listen but will require different listening attitudes. The purpose is determined by priorities at the time. It is hard to listen critically or to listen for learning when one is rushed or under stress. One may need to control listening environment when listening effectiveness is critical. For instance, if one needs to pass a course one should prepare for the listening experience by bringing note-taking materials and reading assignments, being on time, and arriving with a desire to learn. It’s common for students to attend classes with the notion that they will learn by osmosis. They often aren’t aware of the energy and attention required for the listening process.
CAUSES OF BAD OR POOR LISTENING
There can be chiefly four causes of poor listening:
-Listening Too Hard
-Listening With No Concentration
-Diverted By Appearance And Delivery
-Jumping To The Conclusion
1. Listening Too Hard
The listener becomes a poor listener when s/he goes to listening more closely and too hard. The listener tries to cover in short time maximum details and as a result the listener loses everything. In the attempt to listen too hard, the process of listening becomes poor.
2. Listening With No Concentration
When the listener tries to do other tasks while listening to the speaker’s lecture, he loses some details out of the spoken matter. In this way, the listener tries to gesture his mates in the class, chat with the mate, ask something or repeatedly involves in other activities. All this is caused by the poor concentration taht is resulted in losing the message or information given by the speaker.
3. Diverted By Appearance And Delivery
When the listener’s attention gets diverted by the speaker’s appearance or the style of delivery, whole the information given by the speaker is lost. The listener sometimes notices the dress, certain gestures of the speaker or his hair-style or some repeated movements in the course of the lecture or speech. All these activities cause poor listening.
4. Jumping To The Conclusion
When the listener, contrary to the hard listening, tries to jump to the conclusion, he misses many important details and information given by the speaker. The listener in this case tries to comprehend the outcome or conclusion of the speech and as a result, loses necessary details from the speech matter. It often occurs when the listener is feeling bored by the speech or thinks the matter not relating to him. This is also a type of poor listening.
How to Become a Better Listener
The way to improve your active listening skills is through practice. You should not allow yourself to become distracted by things that may be going on around you. Try to make a conscious effort to hear not only the words, but to truly hear what the other person is saying. Further, the following things can be adopted for becoming a better listener:
1. DO NOT JUMP TO HE CONCLUSION
We often develop bad habits of not listening because we assume it will be of no interest or use to us. We also make prior judgments about the matter we are listening. With these prior notions we act without hearing or waiting to hear the speaker. We could improve our listening skills significantly by exercising patience and, even if we think we know what will be said, allow the speaker to finish.
2. DO NOT BE BIASED WHILE LISTENING
We all have certain prejudices and stereotypes that influence how we receive speakers. You may refuse to listen to someone because they are overdressed, foreign, overweight, too loud, too old, or even because they’re opinionated. Attitudes such as this affect our listening habits by making us defensive and argumentative, or cause us to shut them out altogether.
3. CONCENTRATE ON THE SPEEAKER
Remember that you’re the other half of the communication process and your reactions are critical to producing good communication for both you and the speaker.
4. CONCENTRATE ON THE MESSAGE
This purpose may be stated or unstated. It’s the basic reason the speaker has for speaking. We often assume early on that some speakers don’t know why they’re speaking. Often this is true but lets not be took quick to judge. I have often found that a speaker who has some difficulty getting started, or who was a little disorganized, might recover and provide worthwhile information. Concentrate on what the speaker states as a purpose rather than what you have supposed is his or her purpose.
5. DO NOT BE DIVERTED TO APPEARANCE & DELIVERY STYLE
Our lives are noisy and confusing but we shouldn’t use this as a convenient excuse for not listening. We can overcome some of the distraction by reducing noise and adjusting the listening environment. If we have no control over the distractions then we must rely on intense concentration to get as much as possible from the speaker.
6. TAKE NOTES WHILE LISTENING
If it is appropriate and it will not be distracting to the speaker, make a few notes as you listen. This will help you organize and frame the speaker’s thoughts. It will also give you a reference to refer to at a later date if the material is technical or complex.
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