Reflection About Listening

Listening is ‘Not an attempt to understand something that is being said’ but ‘Just an attention to the activity of sounds’

Effective communication is not just about speaking and listening. It is also about watching and feeling. Our body language and tone of voice actually communicate more strongly than the words we use. So, listening effectively involves tuning in closely to the other person’s body language and tone of voice as well as their words.

As Sole describes in her book, Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication, ” Listening involves hearing, but it is much more than just the physiological act of your ears perceiving a sound and transmitting the auditory sensation to your brain. Listening is a complex psychological process that can be defined as the process of physically hearing, interpreting that sound, and understanding the significance of it. (Sole,K. 2011)

Active listening is also an integral part in the receipt of a message. Part of a listener’s responsibility is to provide feedback, making communication a two-person affair, and as important, senders must seek out and attend to the feedback that is offered by their receivers (Cheesebro, O’Connor, Rios, 2010). By actively listening to the sender, we can translate and respond to the message appropriately. Through active listening, we can develop respect and trust with the sender, increase productivity, maintain a “cooler head”, increased confidence and remembering the important information that the sender is trying to convey to us (Cheesebro, O’Connor, Rios, 2010). It is believed that we only take in 50% of what we are listening to at any given time so it is crucial that in communication, we extend to each other the same courtesy as the sender as we do as the receiver. Active listening is more than just hearing what the sender is

Turner (2009) mentioned that ‘Listening is used at least three times as much as speaking and at least four times as much as reading and writing. Listening is an essential skill

Listening skill is a vital skill that everyone must obtain in order to succeed in any career field. According to Elmhost (2013), “Talking instead of listening can lead professionals to miss important information. One analysis of physician–patient interviews revealed that the more doctors talked, the more they got off track and failed to address concerns raised by the patients.” (p.61). All the listening styles in the textbook are all valuable and all of them are essential for developing and improving listening ability. There two types of listening styles that are very functional at a working environment which are critical listening and task-oriented listening and most people are using these styles every day at work. Critical listening is when

A good method on how to be a decent listener is learning to have an open and approachable understanding. As you look for openings to widen the awareness when listening, and to obtain fresh thoughts or perceptions, instead of supporting the current ideas or interpretation. The need to listen to others as well as to be heard. It occurred to me that the need to be heard is probably one of the most fundamental needs a individual can have. We need acknowledgement. We need someone to look at us. We need to know that others know we exist. We need to know that not only do others know we exist but that our existence means something. In my overview I gave a short analysis on the significance of listening. I discover that effective listening is vital and essential to communicating in cooperation to desires and demands inside an interactive

In this unit I have learned that listening to others when they are speaking is very important, and that you need to listen to them when they talk. Also, when you listen to them, that means that they will want to listen to you.

One powerful component of constructive communication is the capability to be an effective listener. Our conversations will continue to reach dead ends if we do not realize where we may lack in our listening skills, decide to make improvements, and follow through. Therefore, we are left with two options when we learn we do not listen well, continue to listen the way we have been or make the conscious effort to improve and become sharpened listeners.

The first reaction of most people when they consider listening as a possible method for dealing with human beings is that listening cannot be sufficient in itself, Because it is passive, they feel, listening does not communicate anything to the speaker. Actually, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Listening is often confused with hearing. This serious misconception can lead us to believe that good listening is instinctive. In fact, good listening is an active, sophisticated process – a learned behavior – that demands focus and attention. Listening takes place on

What is active listening, it the process of information, which uses all of our senses to convey a message through perceiving of sound? Our, hearing, smell, taste and touch are part of our senses that we sometimes use without knowing we are doing it. Moreover, listening correctly, can be a crucial part of encoding and decoding the message, for clarification and understanding what the message is conveying. While deciphering messages, you get a sense of understanding what the message is trying to express. Next, is trying to remember or recall what the message is so that you can retain it. Also, evaluating what you hear and decoded or deciphered it is essential to understanding what the message is. When we actively listen, there is some paraphrasing during this process, where you have to restate the information given by the speaker into your own words. Lastly, responding to the message with an answer, it could be for learning purposes, personal, enjoyment or even employment, it is important to listen to ensure understanding actively. As we respond, there is an answer and feedback given (DeVito 2016) as a response.

Listening is more complex, and it encourages one to analyze and think about an idea, rather than to simply accept it (or “hear” it). Hearing is a skill that is beneficial for every aspect of life. As long as we have our ability to hear, we will always perceive different sounds, music, and voices. Listening, however, is beneficial to us in specific instances. It is important for us to attain good listening skills in education, the work force, and in our relationships with others in order to succeed. Good listening in education will bring about confident participation in class discussions; good listening in the workplace will lead to cooperation and good teamwork among colleagues; good listening in relationships is healthy and positive, for it is important to hear what an individual has to say in order to know how they feel.

Active listening is an attentive and interactive form of listening. One of the primary objectives of active listening is establishing and achieving empathy among all parties engaged in communication together. The words a person uses during communication are important, yet active listening includes listening to a person's words as well as interpreting and intuiting what a person feels and thinks. Active listening is a highly engaging activity. Active listening requires the person doing the listening to have a very keen awareness of all aspects of the communication. Active listening then is a sensory activity that challenges the listener to see, hear, sense, perceive, understand, feel, empathize, and reciprocate.

Listening is more than just hearing. The process of listening involves receiving and constructing meaning, and responding to verbal and/or nonverbal messages. In other words, listening is not always easy and being a good listener is all about developing listening skills. To receive messages appropriately we have to listen actively. Active listening can be broken down into three important skills; first of all you have to reflect the feelings that the person is communicating, secondly reflect the content that they are communicating and finally ask good, meaningful questions.