Effective listening

Effective Listening assignment

Listening is one of the main senses that people use every day all day. We listen in class, we listen to the radio, the news going on around the world, what the boss says at meetings, and what loved ones have to say. It’s a main communication to understand what is going on around us but some tend to ignore and not listen effectively and fallacies then play a part of the conversation. Effective listening can be done in many ways. It’s a listening process; receiving, attending, and understanding. Listening can either be heard or fail in being heard. When listeners aren’t hearing what is being said to them it is because they are not “tuned in”. But at times that is not the case. For example, the problem can be physiological, a hearing deficiency. It can be helped by the use of mechanical devices that restore hearing loss. Remember that hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is the reception of sound; listening is the attachment of meaning. Hearing is, however, a necessary prerequisite for listening. People listening are often ineffective. Receiving occurs but attending doesn’t. Stimuli plays a part in listening. It can be external, such as words spoken by another person or events occurring around us. It can also be internal, such as a term paper is due, a body ache from working too hard, or your tummy grumbling from hunger. Whatever the source of the stimuli is we can’t always focus on it all the time. We then attend the stimuli and reject others. Selective hearing is what we chose to listen to. You tend to only listen when it’s a concern or something familiar to you. When your name is called you listen intently to hear what is being said about you. But if another persons name was called you would chose to listen or not because it’s not your concern, and if you do listen in then you’re just ease dropping. Attention is not only selective it requires effort and desire. Complete attention can be given to only one stimulus at a time. For example, when writing a term paper you need to put your complete attention in to it. And that is why most people go to the library or often go to a place where it’s absolute quiet for concentration. “Communication begins with understanding”. Effective communication depends on understanding. Understanding most result for communication to be effective. There are several possible reasons for misunderstanding. For example, a message sent to another and they misunderstood what was being said. Neither one of us are necessarily “at fault”, we attach different meanings to the word. Two barriers obstruct our understanding of verbal communication. Barrier #1 is common, it’s the same words mean different things to different people. For example, the weather is feeling warm to me and to others it feels cool. Barrier #2 can cause just as much problems of communication. Barrier 2 is different words sometimes mean the same thing. For example, in different areas people will call “fall” – “autumn”. We listen more effectively when we consider the message in relation to its source.