IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS

IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS

Human ears are, in the modern world, continually bombarded with sounds. People hear these sounds but do not listen to all of them. They should be thankful to God that they cannot because if they do, they shall go mad! As a self-defense mechanism, listeners block off many sounds from their consciousness by tuning them out.

Blocking off sounds is a good device as it helps in concentrating on what people want to hear. Unfortunately, they also run the risk of blocking off what they should be listening. They develop such habits so that many a times, they block off even when they are in the company of their best friends.
Fortunately such habits can be un learnt and replaced with good listening habits. Being aware of this deficiency is giving the process of unlearning a good start! Following steps are suggested:

 Preparing for listening
This involves the followings:

(i) Determining your purpose

Listening is three types – content listening, critical listening and active / empathetic listening. Listening to a lecture in a classroom is content listening; listening to a political debate on TV is critical listening and listening to a speaker in office or small groups, is active / empathetic listening.
Each one of these requires different skills and degree of attentiveness as good listeners. At any rate, in order to become good listeners, individuals must understand why they are listening!

(ii) Getting ready to listen

Good listening implies a readiness to listen. Individuals have to prepare themselves for listening physically, mentally and emotionally. It means shutting out all distracting sounds and signals, trying to sit nearest to the speaker so that speaker can be seen and heard clearly. Mental preparations give a purpose to listening, leading to emotional involvement in listening.

(iii) Accepting your share of responsibility

Listeners should share with the speaker the responsibility of communicating rather than behave as if they are daring him to make audience take interest in the subject. In fact, quality of listening improves the quality of speakers‟ delivery! Everyone has an innate desire to be listened to. Quality of listening by the audience influences not only the quality of delivery but also the length of speech.