Listening & Speaking

 Q.:- What are the essential requirements to be a good listener

            Or

How are listening and Speaking related to each other?

Ans.:- 

             Introduction:-

Communication is essential in all walks of life whether it is home, office, school, college, or business. Good communication skills enhance the effectiveness of communication. They play a vital role in the progress of an individual. They are acquired through conscious efforts. They are: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. All the skills have their own importance. Each one is related to the other. Listening is directly related to speaking, whereas reading is related to writing. Listening and reading are used for input while speaking and writing are used for expression.


Listening and speaking go hand in hand. One is incomplete without the other. People generally ignore the skill of listening, but its importance cannot be denied. It is an important communication skill that makes oral communication effective. It involves the understanding
of spoken language. It can be cultivated and developed like other communication skills-speaking, reading and writing. It involves reception and decoding of oral messages. It is an essential part of communication.

Listening:-

Listening to others is an elegant art. It is the absorption of meanings of spoken words or sentences by the speaker. It includes the understanding of information shared by the speaker. It is the process of receiving and interpreting the received message. It also includes observation and comprehension of the message. It involves not only the hearing of message but also includes the observation of body movements. Listening begins with physical hearing
of the message and taking mental notes. The listener also derives meaning from body movements of the speaker. 


Then s/he decodes the coded message into meaningful
interpretation. It involves the following four steps:

(a) Hearing: The process of listening starts with the hearing of sound signals made by the speaker. The vibrations of sound enter into our eardrums and vibrate them. The signals are transferred to the brain to derive meaning of the signals. It is the first step of the process.


(b) Interpreting: In this step, the listener not only understands the sound signals, but also derives meaning from gestures and expressions of the speaker. S/he observes body movements of the speaker and relates the movements to the words uttered by her/him.


(c) Evaluating: In this step, the listener evaluates the received information. S/he understands the meaning of communicated message and evaluates the message inl lightof her/his knowledge.


(d) Responding: In this step, listener conveys her/his response to the speaker. The response can be positive, negative, verbal or non-verbal.

Listening and Hearing-

Listening is often thought to be synonymous with hearing, but there is difference between the two. Listening is more than hearing. Hearing refers to the physical act of receiving sound signals. It is a part of the process of listening. While hearing is only a physical process, listening is both physical as well as mental process. Listening includes receiving, perceiving interpreting, assessing and responding. Hearing is a passive process while listening is active. Hearing happens automatically as it is an involuntary physical act. It does not require attentiveness of the hearer, but listening requires conscious involvement of the listener.


Advantages of Listening-


As discussed above, listening is an important communication skill. It has following advantages:

  • It enhances comprehension ability of the listener.
  • The listener listens to the correct pronunciation, voice modulation, and observes body movements of the speaker which enhance speaking skill of the listener.
  • It helps the listener to acquire fluency of spoken language.
  • It helps the listener to form the habit of using correct sentence patterns.
  • It lays the foundation of good speech.
  • It helps the listener to become a good orator, debater, and participate in discussions.
  • It helps the listener to overcome hesitation and shyness which induce confidence and encouragement to him/her.
  • It helps to improve performance and competence of the listener.

Types of Listening:-


Listening can be classified into the following categories:

(a) Attentive listening: Attentive listening means listening attentively. It demands complete attention of the listener. The listener pays attention to every part of the message as well as body movements of the speaker. It is productive and interactive. It requires conscious effort on listener's part, and demands concentration, attention, interaction and active involvement. This kind of listening is generally carried out in formal meetings, group discussions, job interviews, or so.

(b) Selective listening: This is most common type of listening that we practice in everyday life. The listener focuses only on specific part of the message. S/he does not take the message as a whole rather adds or deducts according to her/his wish and requirement, S/he selects the desired part and ignores the undesired one to listen. The selection also depends on interest and mood of the listener.

(c) Appreciative listening: This type of listening is carried out for the purpose of musement or entertainment. The listener enjoys the listening and sometimes takes part in the entertainment process. Examples include listening to songs, jokes, entertaining stories, etc.

(d) Evaluative listening: This type of listening involves the evaluation of oral messages.The listener analyzes the information and interprets the implicit as well as explicit meaning of the message. S/he evaluates the message to derive appropriate information. The output can be produced in the form of immediate response, or at later stage of the communication. Examples include listening to classroom lectures, workshops, seminars and so forth.

(e) Empathetic listening: In this type of listening, the listener tries to put her/himself in the speaker's place in order to understand his/her feelings, emotions and state of mind. It involves listening not only through ears but also through eyes and heart. The listener needs to understand speaker's body language. Empathy for speaker is an essential requirement for this type of listening. Listener lays stress not only on the communicated words, but also aims at how they are spoken. The listener needs to understand the implied meaning, intention, and attitude of the signals made by the speaker. It is most often needed at workplace while dealing with customer complaints, employees' feedback and problems, or so. 

However the above types of listening differ from each other in some aspects, but they are interrelated as well. The listener uses either of them according to the requirement. Each one facilitates better understanding of the message.

Barriers to Listening-


There are certain factors that come in the way and make listening difficult. Some of them are discussed below:

(a) Noisy environment: The noise in surrounding can defeat the very purpose of listening. It interrupts the sound signals made by the speaker to reach to listener's ears and acts as a barrier.


(b) Speaker's voice: Speaker's voice plays an important role in the process of listening. Sometimes speaker's voice is not audible to the listener. The accent or pronunciation of speaker can also be different than that of the listener which creates problems to derive exact meaning.


(c) Preconceived notions: Many-a-times the listener forms some opinion about the speaker in advance. It can be positive or negative. The listener takes the message
in light of speaker's reputation in mind. The negative impression can affect the process of listening.


(d) Disinterest: Sometimes the listener is not interested in the message. S/he does not pay proper heed to the message which acts as a barrier.


(e) Lack of background knowledge: Sometimes the listener lacks background knowledge of the subject. S/he takes the message in other sense and derives different meaning. It acts as a barrier to listening.


(f) Greater expertise: Sometimes the listener possesses greater expertise in the subject than speaker. S/he knows better than the speaker. The listener will not be interested in listening to the speaker in that case.


(g) Long or complicated message: Long message tires the listener. S/he feels discomforted which distracts her/his attention to the message. Sometimes the speaker conveys complicated message which needs time to interpret. The listener fails to relate the message with upcoming information and does not understand exact meaning.

Strategies for Effective Listening-


The listener can enhance listening experience by applying certain strategies. Some of them are mentioned below:

  • The listener should listen to the speaker with complete attention. S/he should understand the value of listening. S/he should focus not only on words, but also derive meaning from body movements of the speaker.


  • The listener should have patience. Sometimes s/he fails to understand the message. S/he should not lose patience. The speaker can clear the point in the next. The listener should not reach at hasty conclusion and be slow to pass judgement.


  • The listener, especially in academic pursuits, should try to read mental state of the speaker. S/he should keep speaker's background and area of specialization in mind. S/he should listen to the key points and main ideas with focused attention, and note them down for future use.


  • The listener should have positive attitude. S/he should have unbiased approach and respectful behaviour towards speaker. S/he should ignore outward disturbance and concentrate on listening.


  • The listener should make eye contact with the speaker. S/he should reflect interest in the message through eyes. It motivates the speaker as well as facilitates better listening.


  • The listener should ask questions to clear doubts. But s/he should not disturb the speaker in between, rather note down the queries and ask at the end of the lecture.

Speaking:-

Speaking is an important communication skill. It is essential in all walks of life. It provides a person an ample opportunity to express her/himself. The speaker makes use of some precise and distinct sounds; and the listener listens to the sounds and understands them through listening and decoding process. Each spoken word is created out of phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units. Hence, knowledge of pronunciation is essential for both the speaker as well as the listener.


Speaking is an interactive process in which both the speaker and the listener play their respective roles. Speaker communicates a message through oral symbols and listener listens to the symbols, converts them into original message, and interprets meaning of the message.
Speaking is essential in all the situations, whether it is formal or informal. We talk to our friends, relatives and family members informally. But we also speak in formal situations.

Every academic, professional, or business situation requires effective speaking, whether it is a meeting, group discussion, interview, workshop, seminar, conference or symposium. Effective speaking gives greater visibility to the speaker and enhances the rate of success. This skill is cultivated and developed by putting conscious efforts and practice.

Types of Speaking-


Speaking is a skill. It is used to converse, express feelings, thoughts, emotions, or so. It can be divided into the following categories:

(a) Interactive speaking: In this type of speaking, both the speaker and the listener equally contribute in the process of speaking. Speaker conveys a message through oral symbols, and listener receives the symbols, decodes them, derives meaning, and gives feedback. In case of feedback, listener acts as a speaker and speaker acts as a listener. Both play their reciprocal roles. Sometimes listener does not give feedback and remains passive listener. When listener gives feedback to the speaker, the process is known as interactive speaking. Both the speaker and the listener interact with each other and share their ideas, feelings, thoughts, etc. It can be held in both formal as well as informal situations. Conversation, dialogue, interview, group discussion are some of the examples of interactive speaking.

(b) Partially-interactive speaking: In this process, the speaker speaks more and listener plays a minor role. S/he interacts only to ask questions, clear doubts, or so. It can also be held in formal as well as informal situations. For example, when the teacher teaches the class, the students listen to the teacher and ask few questions to clear their doubts. The maximum speaking is done by the teacher.

(c) Non-interactive speaking: This is one-sided activity. The speaker speaks, and the listener(s) listens to the speaker passively. The listener(s) neither interacts nor asks any question(s). Announcement of policy decision, speech by a leader, are examples of non-interactive speaking.


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