Art of Listening: It's Definition and Process

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we can speak."

-Epictetus

Definition/Meaning of Listening:

What do we mean by Listening?

Listening is very different from hearing. We hear multiple sounds and noises everyday like bird chirping, cars honking, kids playing, people talking etc. But we do not pay attention to them as we are not interested in them because they are not important for us. 

Listening is as important as Speaking/talking. Good listening involves several aspects like,

• Encouraging others to speaking
• Being sensitive by thoughts 
• Need to be Patient as it might lose the track of what is being said

Listening is an Art.

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary,

 "Listening means to hear something with thoughtful attention : give consideration."(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Cambridge Dictionary notes that,

'Hearing’ is an event; it is something which happens to us as a natural process. ‘Listening’ is an action; it is something we do consciously.(Cambridge Dictionary)

According to Joseph DeVito, 

"Listening, then, may be defined as the process of receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding to verbal and/or nonverbal messages."

Process of Listening:

Joseph DeVito divides the listening process into five stages in his 2000 book "The Elements of Public Speaking.  As he says "According to our contemporary definition, then, listening is a collection of skills involving attention and concentration (receiving), learning (understanding), memory (remembering), critical thinking (evaluation), and feedback (responding). You can enhance your listening ability by strengthening these skills, which make up the five steps of the listening process". (Devito)

• Receiving: Listening to what is said
• Understanding: Attending to, interpreting, and receiving content and relational messages
• Remembering: Linked to memory
• Evaluating: Judging the content of the message or the character of the speaker
• Responding: Expressing vocal and/or nonverbal responses

Receiving 

"In receiving messages, focus your attention on both the verbal and the nonverbal messages because both communicate meaning."

Hearing and listening are two distinctly different processes. Hearing begins and ends with the first stage of receiving, and it is something that just happens when you get within earshot of some auditory stimulus. Listening, on the other hand, is quite different; it begins (but does not end) with receiving a speaker’s messages. The messages a listener receives are both verbal and nonverbal; they consist of words as well as gestures, facial expressions, variations in volume and rate, and lots more, as we will see throughout this book. At this stage of listening you recognize not only what is said but also what is not said. For example, you receive both the politician’s summary of accomplishments in education as well as his or her omission of failed promises to improve health-care programs. Receiving messages is a highly selective process. You don’t listen to all the available auditory stimuli. Rather, you selectively tune in to certain messages and tune out others. 

Generally, you listen most carefully to messages that you feel will prove of value to you or that you find particularly interesting. At the same time, you give less attention to messages that have less value or interest. Thus, you may listen carefully when your instructor tells you what will appear on the examination but may listen less carefully to an extended story or to routine announcements. To improve your receiving skills:

■ Keep your eyes on the speaker. Make your mind follow your body and focus attention on the person speaking. 

■ Be mindful of verbal and nonverbal messages. Listen to the speaker’s verbal and nonverbal messages, on what is said and on what isn’t said. 

■ Focus your attention on the information. Consider what the speaker is saying rather than on any questions or objections you may have to what the speaker is saying. 

■ Ignore distractions. Avoid attending to light or noise distractions in the environment

Understanding 

"A stage in the listening process in which you decode the speaker’s signals and grasp their meaning."

Understanding a speaker means grasping not only the thoughts that are expressed but also the emotional tone that accompanies these thoughts; for example, the urgency or the joy or sorrow expressed in the message. To enhance understanding: 

■ Relate the new information to the old. Connect the information the speaker is giving to what you already know. 

■ See the speaker’s messages from the speaker’s point of view. Avoid judging the message until you fully understand it as the speaker intended. 

■ Rephrase the information. As you listen, paraphrase the speaker’s ideas into your own words. 

Remembering 

"To enhance your ability to remember messages, identify the central ideas, summarize the message in an easyto-retain form, and repeat (aloud or to yourself) key terms and names."

Messages that you receive and understand need to be retained for at least some period of time. In public speaking situations you can enhance the process of remembering by taking notes or by recording the messages.

What you remember is actually not what was said but what you think (or remember) was said. Memory for speech isn’t reproductive; you don’t simply reproduce in your memory what the speaker said. Rather, memory is reconstructive; you actually reconstruct the messages you hear into a system that seems to make sense to you. 

■ Identify the thesis and the main points. Knowing the central idea and main points will help you reconstruct the rest of the speech. 

■ Repeat names and key concepts to yourself. Fill in the crucial details or important qualifications that support the thesis and main points. 

■ Identify the organizational pattern. Knowing the organizational pattern will help you visualize and follow what the speaker is saying. 

■ Summarize the message in note form. Take notes in a retainable form that makes sense to you. 

Evaluating 

"A stage in the listening process in which you judge the messages you hear."

Evaluating consists of judging the message and the speaker’s credibility, truthfulness, or usefulness in some way. At this stage your own biases and prejudices become especially influential. They will affect what you single out for evaluation and what you’ll just let pass. They will influence what you judge to be good and what you judge to be bad. In some situations, evaluation is more in the nature of critical analysis—a topic explored in detail later in this chapter. 

■ Resist evaluating the speech until you understand the message. Wait until you feel you understand (at least reasonably well) the speaker’s point of view. 

■ Distinguish facts from inferences. Make sure you can tell the facts from the opinions or personal interpretations that you’re making as well as those made by the speaker. 

■ Identify any speaker biases. These include any self-interests or prejudices that may lead the speaker to slant unfairly what he or she is presenting. 

■ Identify any of your own biases. Your own biases may lead you to remember what supports your attitudes and beliefs and to forget what contradicts them. 

Responding 

"A stage in the listening process in which you react to the messages."

Responding occurs in two phases: (1) nonverbal (and occasionally verbal) responses you make while the speaker is talking and (2) responses you make after the speaker has stopped talking. Responses made while the speaker is talking should support the speaker and show that you’re listening. These include what nonverbal researchers call backchanneling cues—gestures that let the speaker know that you’re listening, such as nodding your head, smiling, and leaning forward (Burgoon, Guerrero, & Floyd, 2010). Responses you make to the speaker after he or she has stopped talking are generally more elaborate and might include questions of clarification (“I wasn’t sure what you meant by reclassification”), expressions of agreement (“You’re absolutely right on this, and I’ll support your proposal when it comes up for a vote”), and expressions of disagreement (“I disagree that Japanese products are superior to those produced in the United States”). 

■ Backchannel. Use a variety of supportive backchanneling cues. Using only one cue—for example, nodding constantly—will make it appear that you’re not listening but are on automatic pilot. 

■ Support the speaker. Say something positive in your final responses. 

■ Own your own responses. State your thoughts and feelings as your own, and use I-messages. For example, say, “I think the new proposal will entail greater expense than you outlined” rather than “Everyone will object to the plan because it will cost too much.”

Works Cited

Cambridge Dictionary. “Hear or listen (to) ? - Grammar - Cambridge Dictionary.” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/hear-or-listen-to#google_vignette. Accessed 23 July 2024.

Devito, Joseph A. Essential Elements of Public Speaking. Pearson, 2017.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary. “Listen Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/listen. Accessed 23 July 2024.

Raman, Meenakshi. Technical Communication: Principles and Practice. Edited by Sangeeta Sharma, Oxford University Press, 2022.