CC BY
9
Davlatova Sh.E. teacher
Teaching English Methodology department Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Saidov R.T. senior teacher head of department Applied Aspects of English language department Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Uzbekistan, Tashkent
UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE LISTENING IS, IT'S IMPORTANCE AND WAYS LEADING TO EFFECTIVE LISTENING
Annotation. The article is about listening itself. Here is shown the significance of listening skill and it aims to give some tips of becoming an active listener.
Key words: hearing, listening, internal conditions, external conditions, listening filters, interpersonal interactions, public speaking.
"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is
our attention".
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen
Abstract
Effective listening is crucial in both personal and professional communication. This article explores the definition of effective listening, its importance, and various strategies to improve listening skills. Active listening involves being present, attentive, and empathetic towards the speaker. It is a learned skill that can be improved through practices such as avoiding distractions, asking clarifying questions, and repeating key points. The benefits of active listening include building trust, fostering collaborative relationships, and minimizing misunderstandings. By continuously striving to improve our listening skills, we can enhance our personal and professional relationships, leading to greater success in all aspects of our lives.
I have briefly described the importance of listening through research from a variety of sources, its differences from hearing, and finally how to become an active listener.
Introduction
Listening refers to the ability to accurately receive and analyse communications in the communication process. Effective communication necessitates the ability to listen. If you don't know how to listen well, messages are easily misread. As a result, communication breaks down, and the message sender may become
disappointed or irritated as a result. The one communication skill you should aspire to master is listening. Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs attribute their success to their ability to listen effectively. One of the key reasons for Virgin's success, according to Richard Branson, is listening.
Hearing and listening are not synonymous:
• Hearing is a sense that comes naturally to everyone. Listening, on the other hand, is a skill that must be cultivated and mastered over time.
• Hearing loss might be unintentional. It's possible that one hears something he wasn't supposed to hear. Listening, on the other hand, is always concentrated and requires the listener's whole attention.
• Hearing is an involuntary process. Anything that happens inside our hearing range is audible. Listening, on the other hand, is a choice.
• Hearing does not necessitate any effort on the part of the listener, but listening does.
The noises that enter your ears are referred to as hearing. If you don't have any hearing problems, it's a physical process that happens on its own. Listening, on the other hand, necessitates more than that: it necessitates focus and concerted effort, both mental and physical. Listening means paying attention not only to the story itself, but also to how it is told, including the use of language and voice, as well as the other person's body language. To put it another way, it involves being attentive of both verbal and nonverbal cues. The degree to which you perceive and understand this information determines your capacity to listen properly. Listening is a process that requires active participation. In reality, the listener can and should be just as involved as the speaker in the process. 'Active listening' is the term for being completely absorbed in a situation.
Main body.
The importance of listening
For a variety of reasons, people fail to see the importance of listening. It involves a combination of internal and environmental influences that cause the individual to become distracted from listening. The following are some of the reasons why people do not listen to others:
• Something else comes to mind.
• Focusing on something more fascinating to you
• I have the impression that we are already aware of the situation and have prepared a reaction.
• We couldn't locate anything that matched our ideals and beliefs.
Effective communication is essential to the establishment and growth of
relationships in everyday life, whether personal or professional. The significance of listening cannot be overstated because it is critical to good communication. After guaranteeing that one listens rather than hears, one can see a visible good shift in one's life. Active listening benefits a person in a variety of ways. The following are a few of them:
• It helps with the development of a deeper awareness of one's social and professional surroundings.
• It enables a person to have better social interactions with family, friends, and colleagues.
• It helps in the formation of stronger affections among family and friends.
• It contributes in persuading others that an individual values them, resulting in better relationships than previously.
• It helps in the mature resolution of difficulties.
• It assists a person in better comprehending a piece of information.
As previously stated, developing listening skills can be tough, but it is not impossible. A person can achieve this goal by adopting a few habits. Some of these beneficial behaviors are outlined below, and they can assist an individual in appreciating the value of listening:
• Make sure you're paying attention: When you're listening to someone, you should make sure you're paying attention. Listening should take precedence over planning a response.
• Showing engagement: A good listener should nod sometimes to let the speaker know that he is being actively listened to.
• Allow the speaker to finish: A skilled listener will avoid interrupting the speaker while he is speaking. Even if the listener has a question, he or she should wait for the speaker to complete before asking it.
• Ability to summarize: The listener should be able to sum up what the speaker has said. It will assist him in better comprehending the speaker's point of view.
Process of listening in details
Several studies have been conducted, and more are being conducted, to better understand the listening process. Countless studies on the issue are sufficient to demonstrate the value of listening in our daily lives. The phenomenon of 'hearing' may appear simple, but it is one of the most crucial tasks one can engage in. There are five essential steps to the fascinating listening process.
The five stages of hearing are as follows:
• Receiving
• Understanding
• Remembering
• Evaluating
• Responding
Receiving: The most basic step in the listening process is receiving. It requires the listener's comprehension of the information offered by the speaker. Any misunderstanding or fault at this stage will have an impact on the listening process till the very end. It entails both verbal and nonverbal communication, as well as the distribution of information. This phase entails paying attention to the
speakers and avoiding distractions, as well as ensuring that the speaker is not interrupted.
Understanding. The second stage of the listening process is comprehension. It accounts for the speaker's information being understood in the previous stage. The listener is supposed to prepare a response at this point in order to make the discussion more participatory. However, before answering, the listener must ensure that he has fully heard and comprehended the information.
Evaluating: At this point, the listener can begin thinking about how to respond to the speaker. He must remember, though, that he is still the listener. The listener can break down the delivered spoken content into small pieces of information at this point in the listening process. He should ask himself questions from his recent recollection, such as:
• What was the consensus in the discussion?
• Was the speaker tilted in one direction or the other?
• Was there anything in the speaker's speech that he tried to exaggerate?
• What point was the speaker attempting to make?
Responding: Assuming that the listener has carefully addressed the previous four steps of the listening process, responding becomes a breeze. However, in the response, the listener should avoid completing sentences for the speaker and should endeavor to address the major issues raised by the speaker during his speech.
Is listening difficult?
During a long presentation, everyone struggles to stay entirely engaged. Even short communications can be difficult for us to listen to at times. Some of the obstacles that obstruct excellent hearing are out of our control, but others may be managed. It's beneficial to be aware of some aspects so that they don't obstruct your comprehension of the message. One of the most prominent factors that obstructs listening is noise, which is defined as anything that interferes with your capacity to pay attention to and interpret a message. There are many types of noise, but the four that are most likely to be faced in public speaking situations: physical noise, psychological noise, physiological noise, and semantic noise are the primary ones.
The physical world in which a listener is located causes physical noise. Psychological noise exists in a listener's head and distracts him or her from paying attention to what the speaker is saying. Physiological noise occurs when a listener's body experiences a sensation that hinders him or her from paying attention to the speaker's message. The perplexity of a listener regarding the meanings of words used by a speaker causes semantic noise.
All audiences have a limited amount of time to pay attention to you. As a speaker, you must be aware of how long an audience can expect to listen to your message.
Listeners must be conscious of their biases toward speakers and the topics they choose. Biases can make it difficult for a listener to accurately and effectively hear a speaker's message.
The anxiety that a listener may be unable to understand the message, digest the information appropriately, or modify thinking to include new knowledge coherently is known as receiver apprehension. Speakers must ensure that their communications are appropriate for the audience's knowledge level and that all concepts that may cause anxiety are defined and explained clearly.
Findings (Poll)
Number of students who participated on this poll: 15 Group: 1901_
Questions Yes No Not sure
Listening is difficult for me 0 (0%) 13 (87%) 2 (13%)
I can focus easily when I listen something 11 (74%) 2 (13%) 2(13%)
I think that listening tasks should be more interesting in order to be effective 12 (80%) 2 (13%) 1 (7%)
I practice a lot at home to develop my listening skills 10 (67%) 3 (20%) 2 (13%)
I go to courses in order to develop this skill 6 (40%) 9 (60%) (0%)
I am satisfied with listening activities which are given in the lessons 6 (40%) 7 (47%) 3 (13%)
Discussion of findings:
There are given several questions with three options for students. From the first question it is evident that for almost all members of the group listening does not cause problem. Somehow few of them cannot concentrate while they are listening something important. Listening skills can be developed not only doing tasks on the classroom but also it should be practiced a lot individually, when question was asked accordingly 67 % of the students answered that they practice at home on this skill and it effects their results in the classroom and in the exams.
If it is possible it can be chosen to go to the courses mainly for IELTS preparations. The methods by skillful teachers can be useful for students to enhance knowledge, and more than half of the group goes to that kind of courses.
Student satisfaction from the listening tasks shows difference in percentage. They consider that effectiveness of listening tasks depends on how interesting and useful the task itself.
Overall, this poll shows that for most of the students listening skill is a crucial one and they want to develop it. They need more interesting methods to achieve effective results.
How to make listening more effective?
Due to a variety of obstacles, the effective process of hearing may be disrupted, reducing the value of listening. The following are a few of them:
• A listener's knowledge that he already knows the answer.
• The speaker is attempting to impress the listening.
• The listener is unable to become engaged in the dialogue.
• The listener's inability to comprehend the language.
• A listener who views an ordinary conversation as a competition
Pearce, Johnson and Barker (1995)19 suggested that effective listening is
influenced by internal and external conditions. Thompson et al (2004, p 22)20 referred to these as listening filters, which they describe as internal and external factors that affect the listening process and that the listener can address. Examples of internal factors include personal attributes (Pearce et al, 1995) 21such as gender, attitudes and assumptions, and prior knowledge (Thompson et al, 2004)22, while external factors refer to atmosphere (Thompson et al, 2004)23, time of activity and external distractions such as an open class door, or the room seating (Pearce et al, 1995)24.
There are various benefits to learning how to listen well. Effective listening, for starters, can assist you in becoming a better student. Second, practicing effective listening can help you improve your interpersonal interactions. Finally, good listening skills can make others think you're smarter. Finally, excellent listening can help you improve your public speaking skills.
Techniques for Effective Listening:
1. Decide to pay attention.
It is a decision to listen. As a result, making the decision to stop talking and start listening is a crucial first step.
2. Let go of your personal goals and objectives.
You must let go of your own agenda and prejudices in order to properly hear someone. Clear your mind of any distractions and previous conceptions so
19 Pearce, C G, Johnson, I W & Barker, R T 1995. Enhancing the student listening skills and environment. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 28-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/108056999505800406
20 Thompson, K, Leintz, P, Nevers, B & Witkowski, S 2004. The integrative listening model: An approach to teaching and learning listening. Journal of General Education, vol. 53, no. 3-4, pp. 225-247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27797993
21 Pearce, C G, Johnson, I W & Barker, R T 1995. Enhancing the student listening skills and environment. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 28-33.
22 Thompson, K, Leintz, P, Nevers, B & Witkowski, S 2004. The integrative listening model: An approach to teaching and learning listening. Journal of General Education, vol. 53, no. 3-4, pp. 225-247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27797993
23 Thompson, K, Leintz, P, Nevers, B & Witkowski, S 2004. The integrative listening model: An approach to teaching and learning listening. Journal of General Education, vol. 53, no. 3-4, pp. 225-247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27797993
24 Pearce, C G, Johnson, I W & Barker, R T 1995. Enhancing the student listening skills and environment. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 28-33.
that you can be totally present and make room in your mind for diverse perspectives.
3. Be attentive.
Effective listening necessitates an interest in other people's perspectives. Try to understand everything you can, ask open questions, and try to see the world through the eyes of the other person.
4. Use your eyes to listen.
Keep your eyes fixed on the speaker and pay attention to all visual cues. People will respect your focus and will be able to communicate with you more effectively. With practice, you will improve your ability to read signs and comprehend what is being stated.
5. Pay attention to the entire message.
Before you answer, make sure you've heard and comprehended the entire message. Only hearing what you expect to hear and then preparing your response, ready to jump in as soon as the dialog ends, is a common bad habit. (Or, even worse, interrupting with a response to what you believe you will hear.
Conclusion
Listening is not just a simple thing, it is important skill that we need our whole life. When you quietly and attentively listen to others, they feel important and immediately reciprocate when you begin speaking, putting you at an advantage.
In conclusion, effective listening is an essential skill to develop both in our personal and professional lives. Through a better understanding of what listening entails, its importance and the various ways to improve our listening skills, we can become better communicators and build stronger relationships with those around us. Active listening requires a conscious effort on our part, including staying attentive, being present, and showing empathy towards the speaker. By listening actively, we can gain a deeper understanding of the message being conveyed, build trust with others and foster collaborative relationships. There are various techniques to improve our listening skills, such as avoiding distractions, asking clarifying questions, and repeating key points. A willingness to learn, practice, and continuously improve is essential to become a proficient listener. Ultimately, by striving to become better listeners, we can build stronger personal and professional relationships, minimize misunderstandings, and achieve greater success in all aspects of our lives.
On the one hand, you benefit from the ideas and experiences of others, while on the other side, you develop your own audience! If we learn how to listen we can achieve better results. Focusing on listening is the best way for the development of self-confidence. Because listening properly is also a type of art.
References:
1. https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1574&context=jutlp
2.https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/s07-03-why-listening-is-difficult.html
3. https://impoff.com/importance-of-listening/
4. https://buscouncil.ca/busgurus/media/pdf/Effective-Listening-en.pdf
5.https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_stand-up-speak-out-the-practice-and-ethics-of-public-speaking/s07-01-listening-vs-hearing.html
6. https://www.wisdomtimes.com/blog/effective-listening-skills/
1. Can we teach effective listening? An exploratory study Donella Caspersz The University of Western Australia
Ania Stasinska The University of Western Australia (Volume 12, Issue 4 (2015) TL Forum 2015: Teaching and learning uncapped)
2. Pearce, C G, Johnson, I W & Barker, R T 1995. Enhancing the student listening skills and environment.
3. Thompson, K, Leintz, P, Nevers, B & Witkowski, S 2004. The integrative listening model: An approach to teaching and learning listening.
