When you listen selectively, you will listen what is of your interest. Selective ListeningĪnother problem is selective listening. Self-centered listeners shift their attention from the speaker to themselves.įor example, if a speaker mentions a problem (perhaps a manager is trying to deal with the conflict between team members), self-centered listeners relate their own problems with the conflict. Self-centeredness causes some people to take control of conversation rather than listen to what’s being said. If you have a certain prejudice against the speaker, you will not like to listen to the speaker. When you like someone, you pay attention to him. PrejudiceĪll of you have personal opinions, attitudes, or beliefs about certain things. Among the negative factors are noisy fans, poor or glaring lights, extreme weather, sloppy dressing, and so on.

Actually, the entire physical environment affects listening. Not only the verbal messages but also the non-verbal cues affect listening. Listeners who jump to conclusions close their minds to additional information. It can be difficult to overcome because it is an automatic process. Prejudgment is one of the most common problems to listening. As a result, you fail to recall the contents of the message. So you feel boredom and become a passive listener. Sometimes you are not willing to receive an oral message but you are forced to do so. In passive listening, you are physically present but mentally absent. Listening without talking and without directing the speaker in any non-verbal way is known as passive listening. Ask questions to ensure further understanding of the speaker’s thoughts and feelings.Express the understanding of the speaker’s feelings.Restate the speaker’s meaning in your own words.Three simple techniques that are useful in the process of active listening as follows:. The function and purpose of active listening are to check on the accuracy of understanding. Your body language indicates your interest in the message. In the active listening, you are both mentally and physically prepared. active listeners and passive listeners which formulate the following two terms.Īctive listening is the process of understanding fully what the speaker has said both in content and in feeling. They can learn communication skills by hearing and observing the speeches of the role models. Role models are helpful to young people entering the business world. Listening also improves your own communication. By listening attentively, they get inspired and ready to take action. Sometimes people listen to get inspiration.

They try to uncover the speaker’s point of view and credibility. Good listeners test those facts and opinions and then question the speaker to know the truth. When a speaker talks, he actually presents the message based on facts and opinions. Companies that listen effectively stay informed and up to date. You get knowledge by listening to the lectures in class. New ideas are received daily by oral medium. Effective listeners welcome new information and ideas. Most of the learning comes through listening.

To listen successfully we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words on particular occasions and not simply to understand words themselves.Īccording to Kathleen Gulvin, there are five main reasons for listening:Įffective listening requires a conscious effort and a willing mind. Listening is an important activity of paying attention and trying to get meaning from something we hear. Baker reports in Listening Behaviours that 70-75% of a person’s working day is spent in the communication of which:Ĭommunication of average person Purpose of Listening Storing means putting the accepted message in mind for future use.

It means hearing or receiving sounds.įocusing means paying attention to the sounds.ĭeciphering means decoding the words received and focused upon.Īccepting means interpreting the message as intended by the speaker. Receiving: The first process is receiving sounds. Listening takes place only when all the processes are present.

Active listening definition