LANGUAGE AND MEANING

LISTENING

LESSON 7
 LANGUAGE

 A code consisting of symbols, letters or words with

arbitrary meanings that are arranged according to
the rules of syntax.
 Characteristics of language

1. Language has rules

2. Language is arbitrary
3. Language is representational and presentational
4. Language is abstract
5. Language organizes and classifies reality
6. Language shapes perceptions
 Language and meaning

 Human language exists to allow us exchange

meaning.

 Communication is said to be a process of exchanging

mutually understood symbols to stimulate meaning
in one another.
 Contd.

 Symbols in themselves do not contain meaning. The

meaning of symbols is a human creation.
 The meanings attributed to symbols are influenced
by people, their culture, neighbourhood, job,
personality, family, education etc.
 A symbol may mean one thing to one person and
something different to someone else.
 No two people have the exact same meaning for one
symbol.
 Two types of meaning

 Denotative meaning: this refers to the agreed

upon meaning of a word. It is also called literal or
dictionary meaning of a word.
 Connotative meaning: this refers to subjective
associations i.e. the personal and emotional
attachments that people associate with a word or
symbol. It contains all of the judgements and
evaluations that individuals have for a word or
symbol.
 Meaning emerges from context which may include
the histories of the communicators, relationships,
thoughts and feelings.
LISTENING
 Listening and Hearing
 Listening is very important in communication. It is
one of the ways through which we acquire
information. For effective communication , there is
the need for effective listening.
 Hearing

Hearing : The physiological act of receiving sound. It

is a passive physical activity by which a sound enters
the ear and sends waves into the inner ear where it is
recognized as sound by the brain. Hearing depends
on :
a) The availability of enough sound
b) The functioning of the auditory organ
 Listening

 Listening: It is the process of receiving and

interpreting aural stimuli. It is an active process of
hearing which involves paying attention to sound
and making meaning out of the way it has been
composed.
 Restrictions in listening

 Time
 Speed
 Volume
 Interferences in listening

 Noise is also another factor that interferes with

listening. The noise could be environmental,
psychological, mechanical or semantic.
 Kinds of listening

1. Active listening
2. Empathic listening
3. Critical listening
 Active listening

This involves listening with a purpose, for example

listening to the radio.

 Active listening is valued in conversation, small-

group discussion and question-and-answer session.
 Active listening is characterized by verbal and
nonverbal feedback.
 Empathic listening

This is listening with a purpose and attempting to

understand the other person.

 The goal of empathic listening is to gain total

understanding of the other person.

 Empathic listening is considered as being central to

competence in human interaction.
 Critical listening

 This is a kind of active listening that challenges the

speaker’s message by evaluating its accuracy,
meaningfulness and utility.

 The basic principle in critical listening is learning

how to be sceptical, which requires questioning
and analyzing what you are told.
 Critical Thinking and Listening

Critical thinking is analyzing and judging the

accuracy of messages.

 Critical listening and critical thinking go hand in

hand. This is because you cannot listen critically if
you do not think critically.
 Critical thinking is important to ones ability to be a
skilled critical listener and an effective
communicator. Critical analysis is important to a
person’s development as a whole.
 Effective Listening

 We say that listening has been effective when the

full or necessary meaning of a speech has been
received.

 It also means that the receiver can use the

information received or react to it as expected.
 Stages of Effective Listening

1. Pre-Understanding
2. Understanding
3. Post Understanding
 1. Pre Understanding

This stage involves the following activities:

1. Hearing – this is simply the entry of sound
waves into the ear. Hearing depends on the
following:
 The healthiness of the auditory organs
 The volume of information.
 Contd.

2. Choosing what to hear- Most of the time we are

surrounded by different kinds of sounds in our
environments.
At this stage of the listening process, we decide
according to our needs, which of the sounds we
actually want.
This selection also means ignoring sounds that are
not important to the receiver of the sound stimuli
 Contd.

3. Concentration- in order for the listening to be

effective, the receiver of the sound needs to
concentrate on the sound he/she has chosen to hear.
This means making a mental effort of focussing on
one sound and discarding the others.
 2. Understanding

This means making coherent meaning out of the

sound, signs, facial expression and gestures.

It also involves using past knowledge of sound,

language and knowledge of the topic, subject or
related subjects which enable one to interpret what
he listens.
 3. Post Understanding

Activities carried out at this stage are done in

response to the information received and
understood.
The activities are:
1. Recall
2. Evaluation
3. feedback
 Contd.

1. Recall- this involves calling back to memory the

information one has received. This could be in the
form of trying to hear the speaker again, imagining
the information received in practical terms, taking
notes or telling information to oneself or to others.
Recall to ensures that one has not forgotten the
information.
2. Evaluation- this is an assessment of the
information received. In listening, evaluation means
drawing one’s own conclusions on a subject.
It involves assessing:
 The accuracy of the information and the manner of
delivery
 What the information and the delivery tells about the
speaker and his attitudes
 The implications of the information.
3. Feedback- this is a set of verbal or nonverbal
reaction to speech stimuli. This takes place after
recall and evaluation have taken place. The feedback
is the physical or mental outcome of evaluation. For
instance, if after evaluation the receiver finds that
the information is not accurate, he may choose to
ignore the speaker or ask questions.
 Contd.

 Feedback helps the speaker to assess the effect of his

speech.
 Feedback helps the receiver to do a more active
listening
 Planning to give feedback helps one to deepen his
understanding.