The Skill of Listening!

Listening, though being an essential element of effective discussions, dialogues and communication is often neglected by many to pay heed on. Being informed of the proper listening procedure one can attain a good grip in process of discussions and in process of learning. This knowledge can prove vital for all those seeking to go into Public speaking, sitting in group discussions to even in personal interviews. So this knowledge can rightly be termed as a win-win situation for all aspirants of different fields, where in one way or another, this knowledge can be helpful. Listening can be defined as a process of giving attention to something so as to hear, as per various dictionaries. But in terms of communication studies we differentiate hearing from listening. Hearing is an involuntary process which for example a person passing by a lecture of someone may hear involuntarily. Whereas listening is a voluntary process where we focus our attention to something in order to learn, critically evaluate and respond to the message delivered. As for the speaker who has to deliver a speech, a following guidelines needs to be kept in mind with regards to his listeners.

Listeners frame of reference: A speaker needs to be aware of listeners frame of references which entails the perceptions of his listeners. People of different communities, societies, different age groups have a different frame of looking at things. A speaker should be well aware of the listeners perceptions so that he can deliver the message in the best way possible, and leaves least chances of his message being decoded in wrong interpretations such that it defeats the purpose of his message. For example, if someone is giving a speech to youths persuading them to be serious towards their studies, where he wants to convey the message of implementing their education in real life so that it changes their behavioral pattern, may be interpreted wrongly in the society like Kashmir, where being serious towards studies is understood only to score good marks in exams. So in society like this, he needs to give clear insights about what he is intending to convey leaving no room for wrong decoding of his message.

Eliminating the barriers to listening: A speech or group discussions should be done at proper places where there are no physical noises, presentation problems, message problems etc so that the message is conveyed effectively without any barriers.

Now flipping to the side of being a listener we should know that being a good listener is a more auspicious job for a good listener is a good learner, and has a good grip in discussions as well. To learn from our listening some components are important and vital for the effect. Firstly, we should have an undivided attention while listening and focus our mind and attention sharply to the speaker. Our ears and eyes should both be in conformity focused towards the speaker and lastly and importantly our heart should also be well set. By that I mean, before listening to a speaker we should keep our biases and preconceptions aside, and free our heart and mind from that. For that if not kept aside will prove to be a barrier towards our learning process. Critical listening is one of the most important forms of listening to be effective especially in group discussions and evaluating the speech of some speaker.

Critical Listening: While listening we should well analyze/evaluate content, inspect reasoning and weigh evidence. A critical analysis can be made in mainly following forms: a) Relevant: You judge the content of the speaker on how relevant is he speaking sticking to the topic or is in fact beating around the bush. How much relevancy and deviancy was shown can help you analyze/evaluate the content and the judgment of the content of the speech being worthwhile or else can be made. b) Recent: The data used must contain recent facts and figures as well, although data of past may also be helpful but without any touch or grounding the fact in present realities is not a good approach. So a critical analysis can also be made on this fact weather something of present realities are bought in picture or not. c) Reliable: The facts and figures used must be reliable and authentic. We should distinguish between whether the facts used are verifiable or not. And also it usually happens that in a speech or discussions someone puts forth some facts and figures, and then adds personal judgments and opinions to that. We need to be critical at this point at distinguishing between facts and derived personal judgments which are based on assumptions and thus not reliable. Proper knowledge of the desired action is essential and sticking only to knowledge without action is a dilution. So we also after having this knowledge need a good practice towards this skill, and all of it cannot be achieved in an individual in a single go, it will slowly be grounded into you after some amount of practice. You can start by listening to any lectures on youtube and applying this knowledge on them.

Zubair Arif Shah