question_answer

Discuss listening as an effective component of communication.                                                  (CBSE 2011, 2014)

Answer:

Ans.

Listening may appear as a passive behaviour, as it involves silence. But this is far from true.

Listening requires a person to be attentive, patient, non-judgmental and have the capacity to analyze and respond.

It is an active process.

Hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is biological mechanism. It involves reception of a message through sensory channels.

Listening involves following components:

1.         Reception:

(i) Reception is initial step in the listening process.

(ii) A message could be auditory or/and visual.

(iii) Reception refers to an overall effect of various sense organs. People also listen through their visual system. They observe person’s facial expressions, posture and appearance which provide important cues that may not be obvious merely by listening to the verbal part of the message.

2.         Attention:

(i) Once the stimulus/message is received, it reaches the attention stage.

(ii) In this stage, the other stimuli recede so that we can concentrate on specific words or visual symbols.

(iii) Normally attention is divided between what you are attempting to listen to, and what is happening around you, and what is going on in your mind. For example, you are watching a movie. The person in front of you is constantly whispering to his/her friend. There is a buzz in the sound system. So your attention is being pulled in different directions. This makes it difficult for you to receive signals/messages.

3.         Paraphrasing:

(i) Paraphrasing is summarizing the content in ones own words.

(ii) It allows you to understand how much he/she understood of what was communicated.

(iii) If someone cannot write or repeat a summary of what was communicated, he/she probably didn’t get the whole message.

4.         Assignment of Meaning: The process of putting the stimulus we have received into some predetermined category develops as we acquire language, e.g., categorizing the word ‘cheese’ may include factors as the taste, dairy product, colour, etc.

5.         Role of Culture in Listening: Culture influences our listening and learning abilities. For example, Asian culture like Indians are silent communicators when receiving messages from seniors.

Some cultures focus on controlling attention. For example, Buddhism have a notion called ‘Mindfulness’. It means devoting your complete attention to what you are doing.