Listening is an indispensable portion of communicating and is different from hearing. Listening agencies paying changeless attending and doing sense of what is being said. Hearing on the other manus, is simply admiting that person is talking. Hearing is inactive while listening is active. Listening is a non verbal accomplishment, It is the act of interpretation, retrieving and understanding what has been said. A hearer is of two types ; a good hearer and a bad hearer.
A good hearer is one who is patient and unagitated. He is a critical mind who listens to each word said carefully and without judgement or break. He is active, relentless and shows carefull consideration when listening to what is being said. A good hearer can put himself in the places of others, see how what is being said impacts him and see their point of position. He can tune out distractions and concentrate on what the talker is stating. He besides makes notes and jots down the of import points. He is attentive, does non disrupt and picks out verbal and non verbal cues from the talker. He knows that listening is the primary beginning of cognition.
On the other manus a bad hearer is the exact antonym of a good hearer. He pretends to be listening to what is being said while he lets his head wander to irrelevant issues. He does non pick out the chief thought of what is being said and frequently finds what the talker says to be deadening. He listens to sounds instead than the words of what is being said. He gives in freely to distractions and is frequently a noisemaker who distracts the attending of others in the procedure. He is the individual who is largely to loosen up in category and sits in informal places.
Listening is besides of two types ; active hearing and inactive hearing.
Active hearing is the act of hearing the words and placing the feelings associated with the words. An active hearer dressed ores on what is being said and is able to tune out unneeded distractions. To be an active hearer one must demo empathy, credence and willingness to take duty for completeness. An active hearer shows reactions to turn out that he is listening and has understood what has been said, this could be ; nodding, doing oculus contact, facial looks, inquiring inquiries, rephrasing, non speaking excessively much and so forth. Furthermore he reflects on the chief point and summarizes what has been said. He is besides able to pick out the verbal and non verbal cues from the talker.
Passive listening harmonizing to Baker ( 1971 ) is the listening done whereby there is small self perceptual experience or personal engagement on the portion of the hearer. A inactive hearer is one who is inattentive and uninvolved. he does non place the meaningful signals and can non construe what is being said. He listens without reaction and does non demo marks that he understands what is being said.. He is the type who interrupts the talker before he or she finishes talking. This is non the best hearing wont. A inactive hearer can be illustrated as a stone, he can be seen but he does non absorb any information. It goes in through one ear and comes out the other. He is the type that easy forgets and shops irrelevant information in his memory. He frequently misses out on the verbal and non verbal cues given by the talker during a conversation. He lets his head wander far and near during a conversation and appears to be listening but is truly somewhere else. He does non lend to the topic and doesn & A ; acirc ; ˆ™t give back feedbacks. A inactive reader has a short concentration span.
Attention is a demand of larning. We can non understand, larn or retrieve something unless we pay attending. Passive attending is uncontrolled and dependent on external factors.
There are assorted effects of being a inactive hearer. Some of which are discussed below ;
Passive hearers pattern hearing i.e. they hear merely the sounds coming out of the talkers mouth and non the existent words. They do non cultivate good hearing accomplishments i.e. they are non effectual hearers. They do non do a wont out of listening attentively and understanding what is being said. They pretend to listen while allowing their heads wander supreme, giving in to distractions and so on.
Passive hearers have a short concentration span ; this means that they merely concentrate for short periods of clip. Due to distractions which they may give out or have, they allow their head to roll to irrelevant issues which do non concern what they are listening to. When they find a subject drilling or hard their province of head alterations towards that subject.i.e. they are immediately put off by it and are non encouraged to larn more, they pretend to listen and understand and make non concentrate on what is being said.
Besides, inactive hearers miss out the cardinal points and the chief thought of what is being said. They merely surface listen ; which is feigning to listen but non. Even though they are physically present their head is non. They do non watch out for the importance of the lesson. Again due to distractions or voluminous jottings they miss out the verbal and non verbal cues the talker gives out.
In add-on, inactive hearers do non concentrate wholly on what the talker is stating. They frequently misinterpret his points which could take to dissensions, speaking out of bend and arguments between the inactive hearer and the talker.
Furthermore, inactive hearers usually possess bad sitting positions. One should be comfy while listening but non excessively relaxed. They are frequently to loosen up while listening which may give rise to kip and losing the purpose of the lesson.
Besides, inactive hearers do non give out positive gestures to demo that they are listening and groking what is being said. Like nodding of the caput in understanding, rephrasing what is being said, positive or negative facial looks, inquiring relevant inquiries within and outside the subject, clapping, agitating of the caput in dissension and so on.
In add-on, inactive hearers are the type that makes irrelevant voluminous notes which distracts them from the importance of the lesson while feigning to be listening. They write down about everything the talker says believing that that is what is of import. They do non jot down and sum up the cardinal points of the subject.
They do non give their undivided attending thereby giving in to distractions which are ; noise devising, utilizing of phones or other appliances at the incorrect clip, invariably looking at 1s ticker, listening to music, etc.
Passive hearers do non reflect and set into usage what is being said. They bring up nonmeaningful points and are largely the people who come in late and leave early, sit at the dorsum and ne’er in the forepart rows unless they are told to make so. They are non critical minds and they do non believe profoundly about what they are listening to.
Passive hearers do non maintain an unfastened head when they are listening ; they are non matured hearers and are the type that are easy put off by irrelevant things. They look for the mistakes in the talker or in what he is stating instead than hold oning the importance of his subject.
There are assorted guidelines or regulations one must follow to be a good hearer. These include ; halting anything one is making when a treatment is traveling on, guaranting that there are no barriers or distractions around, doing observations non voluminous notes one will non understand in the hereafter but sum uping the cardinal points i.e. twelvemonth in which events occurred, people & A ; acirc ; ˆ™s names, names of metropoliss or states, business of people etc. Siting at easiness but non being excessively relaxed which may give manner to kip, non leting one & A ; acirc ; ˆ™s mind wander off, seting into pattern the wont of paying attending to person and non being discouraged by earlier failures, maintaining an oculus out for the chief points of the talk, non sitting with people who could be a distraction and non being a distraction our ego, acquiring the information foremost and non looking out for irrelevant defects with the talker.
In decision, we have learnt what hearing is, the difference between listening and hearing, the differences between a good and bad hearer, types of hearing, guidelines to being a good hearer, what one should make when 1 is talking, what distractions are, the differences between an active and a inactive hearer and the effects of being a inactive hearer. Therefore one must endeavor to be an effectual and active hearer so as to be a better scholar.
Hanson, Elle, eHow, [ online ] ( Hamilton College, New York, 2000 ) . Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.eHow.com [ accessed November 2012 ]
