LISTENING Skills

Group D
• Andile Madeya W230519 Faith Nderemba W230515
• Tashinga N.K Mutizira W230699 Linnet T Kufumira W230207
• Edith Shumba W230350 Thabani Ngalane W230555
• Tinotenda Chimbonga W230249
• Tadiwa Mhike W230001
• Memory Murombedzi W230224
• Courtney Chiraudhi W230536
 Definition of listening.

1. According to Bueno, Madrid and McLaren (2006) listening is a

psychological phenomenon, which takes place on a cognitive level
inside people’s heads, and a social phenomenon which develops
interactively between people and the environment surrounding them. It
considers listening as a complex process, which needs to be understood
in order to teach it and subsequently evaluate it before integrating it with
phonological aspects and the skill of speaking.
2. to listen is to give attention to sound or action (Fan and Posner, 2004).
 Distinction between
listening and hearing HEARING LISTENING
Listening is a voluntary and intentional passive active
• Listening is one’s ability to correctly involuntary voluntary
interpret the message being transferred by
the other person during communication, Requires no effort Requires effort
however, hearing is just perceiving
sounds.
Physiological perception of Intentional interpretation of
sound sound
• Hearing is primary and continuous in
nature but listening is temporary as we Not linked to memory Linked to memory
cannot continuously pay attention for a
very long time
• Hearing is a passive bodily process that
doesn’t involve the use of the brain, on
the other hand, listening is an active
mental process that involves the brain to
draw meaning from words and sentences.
• Hearing is nothing but a sense that helps
you receive sound waves and noise by
ears whilst listening is when you
understand the sound waves you’ve
received by paying full attention to the
words that are coming from the speaker.
 Factors that can hinder effective listening

• Pre-judgement. This is a belief or impression created before having an actual experience and this hinders
listening in the sense that your opinion is already biased and that affects the decisions or judgements you
make.
• Outside distractions. This usually draws your attention away from what the speaker is saying therefore
you can miss important facts in their speech and ultimately give an inappropriate response.
• Personal concerns/perspective. Much like pre-judgement, this also makes the listener draw a premature
conclusion before understanding the speaker.
• Information overload. Sometimes when the speaker says too much all at once, we can struggle to make
sense of and understand what they’ve said, thus hindering our listening skills.
• Rate of speech. In general, when a person speaks slower its easier to understand what they’ve said,
especially if you include pauses to allow the listener to absorb what you’ve said. On the other hand,
speaking faster could negatively affect someone’s listening skills.
• Rate of thought. How fast you think affects the way you listen, you could be stuck on one idea that the
speaker has said because you’re overthinking it so you miss whatever else they mention afterwards .
 Basic guidelines for improving listening skills

• Maintain eye contact. It helps the listener focus on the conversation, what the speaker is saying and to read facial
expressions. This altogether improves your understanding.
• Visualise what the speaker is saying. Sometimes imagining what the speaker is saying contributes understanding better.
• Limit any prejudgement. This allows you to make a better judgement and having an unbiased opinion because you’ve
listened without any previous conclusions.
• Ask engaging and open-ended questions. This helps the listener understand better because they’re encouraging the
speaker to explain what they’re saying further through questions. Also, this shows general interest in whatever is being
said and this usually encourages the speaker to keep talking and give an in-depth explanation of what they’ve said.
• Empathise with the speaker. Being empathetic helps you understand what the speaker is feeling and why what they
have said makes sense to them. Usually when you’re empathetic, there is little to no pre-judgment when you’re listening
because you want to understand their point of view before giving your opinion.
• Don’t interrupt them. This allows the speaker to fully express their thoughts and that helps you understand what
they’ve said and it’s easier to absorb the information when it comes at once without disturbances .
• Pay attention to Non-verbal cues. This can help you further understand what the speaker is say because these could
accentuate or compliment what’s being said thus making you a better listener (Meskill 1996).
Effective listening in academic and Listening and taking notes during an
professional settings interview

• Take notes. This helps you to • Taking notes creates instant, readily
available access to the information you have
effectively recall and understand
what was said especially because • It helps increase attentiveness
when making notes you summarise • Helps retain information and reflect on
and use your own words. questions
• Notes can easily be conveyed to another
• Pay undivided attention. You’ll person
avoid any distractions and be fully • Be thorough and take down key points
engaged in the conversation.
• Highlight important parts
 Types of Listening
• Discriminative Listening
• Pretense Listening
• Selective Listening
• Attentive/Active Listening
 Discriminative listening
• It involves identifying the difference between various sounds.
• It also enables one to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar
language.
 Active Listening
• Active listening is a communication technique used in counseling,
training, and conflict resolution.
• It requires that the listener fully concentrate, understand, respond and then
remember what is being said.
 ACTIVE LISTENING
• Show interest through body language,
• tone,
• eye contact
• Paraphrase
• Reflect understanding by restating
• Being receptive
• Clarify by asking questions
• Empathize: Listening for ‘feelings’ and reflecting understanding others talk more than you
 Pretense Listening
• It involves more hearing than listening.
• It means pretending through facial expressions that one is listening when
actually one is not.
 Selective Listening
• It involves selecting the desired part of the message and ignoring the
undesired part of the message.
 PASSIVE LISTENING

• ignoring,
• pretending,
• selective –
• Very little motivation to listen carefully –
• Distractions
• We can listening to music which watching TV
 Benefits of Effective Listening
• Enhances Productivity
• Improves Relations
• Avoids Conflict
• Improves Understanding
• Improves Negation Skills
• Helps You Stand Out
• People Will Appreciate It
 REFERENCES
Bueno, Madrid and McLaren (2006)
Fan J, Posner M. Human attentional networks Psychatr Pranx,
2004, 3.
Funk, HD. And Funk, GD., 1989, Guidelines for developing
listening skills. The Reading Teacher, 42(9).