CHAPTER 2

LISTENING
LISTENING
IS SOMEONE WHO LISTENS TO THE SPEAKER TO
RECEIVE AND INTERPRET MESSAGES
ACCURATELY. LISTENING IS ONE OF THE
ESSENTIAL SOFT SKILLS. IT INDICATES A PERSON’S
ABILITY TO RECEIVE AND INTERPRET
INFORMATION IN THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS.
WITHOUT ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS, YOU WON’T BE
ABLE TO RECEIVE AND INTERPRET THE MESSAGE.
AS A RESULT, THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS
WILL BREAK DOWN, AND THE SPEAKER
CAN QUICKLY BECOME IRRITATED.
EFFECTIVE LISTENING
▸ In the classroom and in other everyday activities effective listening helps one to
get along well with others and to learn. Through effective listening you can
minimize if not totally eliminate the confusion and misunderstanding which are
common products of many speech communication experience.

▸ -Effective listening is absorbing information to the speaker. If you’re listening

and interested you can easily give the speaker feedback
TEXT

THE BEST KIND OF LISTENING

According to Wrage and Mc Buney (1992), the best kind of listening is
motivated, purposeful, voluntary, cooperative and critical. When you chose
to listen because of some good purpose, you are highly motivated. You are
certainly will make the appropriate response.
HOW TO LISTEN EFFECTIVELY
▸ Listen actively

▸ Listen for meaning, not for words

▸ Focus on the message

▸ Avoid making pre-judgements

TYPES OF LISTENING
▸ Evaluate Listening

▸ Appreciative Listening

▸ Informative Listening

▸ Discriminatory Listening
EVALUATIVE LISTENING
You listen to the campaign speeches of politicians before election day.
This communication situation calls for evaluative listening. You undergo
the process of conceptualizing and understanding a subject. You have to
make a value judgment of the ideas because you will make a decision on
the election day

We make judgements about what the other person is saying. We seek to

assess the truth of what being said.
DO YOU THINK...? WHY?

DO YOU FEEL/ BELIEVE THAT...? WHY?

DO YOU AGREE THAT...? WHY? WHY NOT?

• DO YOU LIKE/ PREFER...? WHY? WHY NOT?

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF...? WHY?

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER IS THE...?

• WHICH DO YOU PREFER...? WHY?

WHY DO YOU THINK?

• WHICH IS BEST? WHY?

APPRECIATIVE LISTENING
There are communication situations where the listeners are not
challenged to remember the contents of the message. You simply enjoy
and appreciate what is being said and view the contents to be one of
entertainment. You need this type of listening when you order lunch
from a waiter in a restaurant or you listen to a friend narrates a humorous
experience.

The goal of Appreciative Listening is to make the speaker feel valued,

and truly understood without judgment.
• Listening for pleasure and enjoyment, as
when we listen to music, to a comedy
routine, or to an entertaining speech.

• The listening is polite and communicates

to others that you consider them to be
important.
TEXT

INFORMATIVE LISTENING
In the communication situation, you listen for facts and ideas. You listen for
information. In the classroom, you listen to your professor's lectures. In talk
shows, you listen to the issues discussed. In this type of listening, it is necessary
that you can identify the major ideas of the speaker from the supportive details.

It is also the name we give to the situation where the listener’s primary concern is
to understand the message
-Much of our learning comes from
informative listening

-Lectures or instructions from teacher

DISCRIMINATORY LISTENING
In your computer lessons, your teacher tells you how to operate the
machines. You are expected to do discriminatory listening. You are
required to understand, remember and comprehend the integral parts of
the message. You ask questions, rephrase ideas to check with the source
about how well you understand the ideas.

Discriminative listening is when the listener interprets and assigns

meaning to sound rather than to words. In discriminative listening, the
listener interprets the differences and nuances of sounds and body
language.
In early childhood, for example, a distinction

is made between the sounds of the voices of

the parents – the voice of the father sounds

different to that of the mother.

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE LISTENING
1. THE RECEIVER’S HOSTILE ATTITUDE TOWARD THE
SPEAKER
2. PREJUDGING THE SPEAKER
3. PERSONALITY OF THE LISTENER
4. SPEAKER-GENERATED CAUSES
TEXT

1. THE RECEIVER’S HOSTILE ATTITUDE TOWARD THE SPEAKER

IF YOU ARE INDIFFERENT TO THE SPEAKER, YOU ARE

SUSPICIOUS OF HIS MOTIVES, YOU RESIST HIS
MESSAGE. YOU, IN EFFECT, REFUSE TO TAKE THE
ROLE OF THE LISTENER.
2. PREJUDGING THE SPEAKER
This happens when you jump to the conclusion that you under stand the
speaker's message before it is fully expressed or developed. This will result in the
wrong interpretation of the message and the false belief that you have listened
effectively.
3. PERSONALITY OF THE LISTENER
Your personality may serve as an obstruction to effective listen ing. If you hear
something that opposes your personal beliefs, mo res, prejudices or complexes,
you may stop listening to the rest of the speech and mentally plan a rebuttal to
what you hear.
4. SPEAKER-GENERATED CAUSES
If the speaker fails to make an effective delivery, he turns you off. The speaker
may stutter or stammer, fail to project his voice, exhibit distracting behavior, use
unfamiliar terms. This will force you to turn the speaker out.

If the speaker fails to develop his ideas in an organized manner, he will confuse
you and prevent you to identify the ideas and is sues in the speech.