The Importance of Listening
Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
Learning Objectives
Define active listening and list the five stages of the listening process
Key Takeaways
Key Points
- The listening process involves five stages: receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding.
- Active listening is a particular communication technique that requires the listener to provide feedback on what he or she hears to the speaker.
- Three main degrees of active listening are repeating, paraphrasing, and reflecting.
Key Terms
- Listening: The active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
- active listening: A particular communication technique that requires the listener to provide feedback on what he or she hears to the speaker.
Listening Is More than Just Hearing
Learning to Listen: Antony Gormley’s statue “Untitled [Listening],” Maygrove Peace Park
Listening is a skill of critical significance in all aspects of our lives–from maintaining our personal relationships, to getting our jobs done, to taking notes in class, to figuring out which bus to take to the airport. Regardless of how we’re engaged with listening, it’s important to understand that listening involves more than just hearing the words that are directed at us. Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
The listening process involves five stages: receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding. These stages will be discussed in more detail in later sections. Basically, an effective listener must hear and identify the speech sounds directed toward them, understand the message of those sounds, critically evaluate or assess that message, remember what’s been said, and respond [either verbally or nonverbally] to information they’ve received.
Effectively engaging with all five stages of the listening process lets us best gather the information we need from the world around us.
Active Listening
Active listening is a particular communication technique that requires the listener to provide feedback on what he or she hears to the speaker, by way of restating or paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words. The goal of this repetition is to confirm what the listener has heard and to confirm the understanding of both parties. The ability to actively listen demonstrates sincerity, and that nothing is being assumed or taken for granted. Active listening is most often used to improve personal relationships, reduce misunderstanding and conflicts, strengthen cooperation, and foster understanding.
When engaging with a particular speaker, a listener can use several degrees of active listening, each resulting in a different quality of communication with the speaker. This active listening chart shows three main degrees of listening: repeating, paraphrasing, and reflecting.
Degrees of Active Listening: There are several degrees of active listening.
Active listening can also involve paying attention to the speaker’s behavior and body language. Having the ability to interpret a person’s body language lets the listener develop a more accurate understanding of the speaker’s message.
4.4 Stages of Listening
Learning Objectives
- Explain the receiving stage of listening.
- Explain the understanding stage of listening.
- Explain the remembering stage of listening.
- Explain the evaluating stage of listening.
- Explain the responding stage of listening.
- Understand the two types of feedback listeners give to speakers.
Figure 4.3 Stages of Feedback
Receiving
Receiving is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s message, which happens when we filter out other sources so that we can isolate the message and avoid the confusing mixture of incoming stimuli. At this stage, we are still only hearing the message. Notice in Figure 4.3 “Stages of Feedback” that this stage is represented by the ear because it is the primary tool involved with this stage of the listening process.
One of the authors of this book recalls attending a political rally for a presidential candidate at which about five thousand people were crowded into an outdoor amphitheater. When the candidate finally started speaking, the cheering and yelling was so loud that the candidate couldn’t be heard easily despite using a speaker system. In this example, our coauthor had difficulty receiving the message because of the external noise. This is only one example of the ways that hearing alone can require sincere effort, but you must hear the message before you can continue the process of listening.
Effective Listening Skills
Most of what we do in the Writing Center is listen, but there’s a difference between hearing and understanding the words someone is saying and listening to their message. Listening to your writers and your coworkers is vital to maintaining good conversation and avoiding misunderstandings that might lead to unnecessary conflict.
Stages of Listening
Receiving
The first stage in the process of listening is receiving the speaker’s message, which involves isolating the message from all other sounds and interpreting what’s been said. Attending to the message is perhaps the most important part of the receiving stage because sounds have no meaning to them until they’re given context. During this stage, try to avoid thinking about other things while the speaker is talking to ensure no information is missed.
In the case of internal business communication, a manager practicing effective listening skills will hear all of an employee’s concerns and will be able to take appropriate action to solve an issue immediately. In external business communication, a salesperson will be able to understand all their client’s concerns or desires regarding a project, such as the anticipated budget.
Understanding
During the understanding stage of listening, we attempt to comprehend the message’s meaning. It’s during this stage that incorrect meaning can be applied to a message. Asking questions to fill any information gaps is the best way to better understand a message. To ensure information is understood correctly in the workplace, repeat any instructions or messages to the speaker.
Evaluating
Through the evaluating stage of listening, information is qualitatively and quantitatively assessed before a response is formed. To effectively evaluate the message, there should be no additional ambiguities or time spent sorting out insignificant points. According to Lumen Learning, this is the stage in which you determine if the information from the speaker is well constructed or disorganized, biased or unbiased, and valid. Try to determine if the speaker’s supporting points are valid, and then mentally review and summarize what’s been said.
Responding
The responding, or feedback, stage is when the listener indicates their involvement in the conversation through either verbal or non-verbal cues. This stage is based on both short- and long-term memories, and it creates action in what would otherwise be a passive procedure. During this stage, the listener may ask questions, nod, take notes, give applause or simply sit in silence. The key is to give the speaker regular feedback to display interest.
Remembering
If the listener is unable to remember what the speaker was saying, chances are they were not effectively listening. While complex messages that contain many details require developed listening skills, some messages can be misinterpreted because of a small distraction, in which the listener misses out on information before they focus on listening again.
Remembering all the pieces of information is crucial to moving forward in the conversation and with any future actions. According to Harvard Business Review, we tend to forget up to half of what we’ve heard within the first eight hours of listening to it. Some of the ways to improve memory is to use the information gained immediately, or to relate the information to what was learned in previous conversations for a wider context. Grasping onto the whole idea of the conversation rather than just the facts will also improve memory.
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