Essay on analyzing active listening skills Introduction Active listening is listening with a purpose. It is more than just hearing which the act of perceiving sound is. When you hear a sound or noise, you are receiving aural stimuli. Listening goes beyond just registering that there is a sound in the environment. It involves receiving and interpreting the aural stimuli, and creating meaning from the sound. According to (Mind tools, 2017)Using active listening skills can help to minimize or avoid unnecessary conflict. It can bring clarity and understanding to conversations and interactions with other people. To work, the listener focuses on the words and the feelings of the speaker for understanding. Active listening happens when the listener …show more content…
Besides providing more information than any other activity, listening builds deep, positive relationships and tends to alter constructively the attitudes of the listener. Listening is a growth experience. These, then, are some of the worthwhile results we can expect from active listening. But how do we go about this kind of listening? How do we become active 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. According to (Robertson, 2005) by consistently listening to a speaker, you are conveying the idea that: “I’m interested in you as a person, and I think that what you feel is important. I respect your thoughts, and even if I don’t agree with them, I know that they are valid for you. I feel sure that you have a contribution to make. I’m not trying to change you or evaluate you. I just want to understand you. I think you’re worth listening to, and I want you to know that I’m the kind of a person you can talk …show more content…
A broader awareness of the importance of effective listening is another weapon in your arsenal as a public speaker. At the same time, building up your own effective listening skills can enhance your academic, professional, and personal success. Being heard is one thing, but speakers need listeners to complete the communication loop. Reap the rewards: Instead of saying “I hear you,” try out “I’m listening.” References Doyle, A. (2017, March 10). The Balance. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/active-listening-skills-with-examples-2059684 Free Management . (2017). Retrieved from http://www.free-management-ebooks.com/faqcm/active-06.htm G. W Noesner & M Webster. (1997). Crisis intervention: Using active listening skills in negotiations. FBI L. Enforcement Bull. Hutchby, I. (2005). "" Active listening": Formulations and the elicitation of feelings-talk in child counselling." Research on Language and Social Interaction . Mind tools. (2017, July 12). Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm Robertson, K. (2005). Active listening: more than just paying attention. Australian family
Active listening is the main key for understanding any kind of communication. Active listening means more than just hearing words. It means understanding what someone else is saying by making eye contact, body language and verbal responses.
* active listening helps improve mutual understanding and sorting out problems – open up and say what they really mean
Talking and listening are essential life skills. The ability to talk in order to communicate and exchange ideas and information, to negotiate with others, to express feelings and emotions, allows human beings to function well in the world and to be full and active members of society. Communication, to be effective, requires the ability to listen, to understand and to make sense of what is heard. On the personal level, when we listen, we give attention to the other person in such a way as to allow them to feel heard, understood and therefore respected. In that way, listening is more than
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 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.
Listening requires silence. Neutrally speaking, the silent and listening individual is passively learner and an active thinker. Listening comprehension establishes a systematic viewpoint in human mind making it to learn the rhythm of the words, statements, sentences, phrases, thoughts and ideas. It is a requisite to learn about the classification of Stressed and unstressed words.
The ability to listen well is an important tool for understanding others. Sadly, very few people know how to listen well. In fact, most people can think of only one or two good listeners in their lives. Listening is not simply agreeing - it is much more. Good listeners are able to better understand and respond to others, complete assignments accurately, settle disagreements before they escalate, and establish rapport with difficult people.
Communication isn’t just about talking. There are so many different elements to communicating in society. How a person gestures, the tone in an individual’s voice, an expression on a person’s face, how a person listens is all a part of communicating. As we all know, in order to communicate with one another we must be able to listen. I think in society people think that communication is all about speaking but in reality it is just a little piece to a bigger picture. In today’s society, listening seems to be a skill that is being neglected. Even though it is basically the first communication skill that we are exposed to, we have pushed it aside and chose speaking to dominate our lives. Researchers have discovered that fetuses can process incoming sounds during the last trimester of pregnancy, and that by 12 months children have learned sounds of and rules of their native language(Worthington, 3). This shows that children’s abilities to speak, read, write and reason are influenced highly by how well they are taught to listen. As parents we can all be teachers to our children so that they can grow up to be well-rounded communicators.
Active Listening It is most important to learn how to pay full attention to others as they communicate, and this process involves more than merely listening to the words. It involves absorbing the content, noting gestures and subtle changes in voice or expression, and
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.
In one stage of communication, the quality of conversation can be improved when the workers are engaged in active listening. For instance, note taking during meetings which challenge both individual listening and writing skills, encourages co-workers to improve their sort-term memory to be more active later that day (Hybels & Weaver 2008,). It helps listeners to verify their understanding, and it gives the other person an opportunity to elaborate on main point of the information. Active and effective listening behaviours have a huge impact on the growth of business in the work place, because it shows the interaction between co-workers and how they deal with problems in their environment (Eunson 2012). Active and effective listening demonstrates the ability of workers to hear and feel what the other people want so say without judgment. Thus, active and effective listening skills have positively impact on the workplace.
Listening is a vital element of communication and it is very much different from hearing sense of human. A meaningful communication requires both a good listener and a speaker. However, the effect of a listening style may vary depending on the occasions and situations a listener is in. Sometimes, speaker exhibit ineffective style such as defensiveness, ambushing, pseudo-listening, stage hogging and selective listening in their communication tracks.
Listening is an important form of communication. Unfortunately, many people who do not know how to listen believe they can listen well. They often say "I have been doing this all of my life of course I can listen". Listening is not inherited, or a personality trait, it is a skill that must be worked on and practiced.
Active listening includes a variety of behaviors which communicate to the other that they are heard and understood, that the feelings which underlie the words are appreciated and accepted, and that regardless of what the individual says, thinks or feels, they are accepted as a person by the listener. Active listening demands that the receiver of the message put aside the belief that listening is easy and that it happens naturally and realize that effective listening is hard work. Good listening encourages the speaker, promotes trust and respect, improves relationships, and makes resolution of problems more likely. Good listeners are prepared to listen, show interest, keep an open mind, listen critically, resist distractions,
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.