Real Communication An Introduction

152

n elementary school report cards, “Listens well” and “Follows directions”

are high praise for young children (Edwards & Edwards, 2009). But

somewhere in the years that follow, we stop thinking about listening as a crucial

skill. “I listen well” probably isn’t a line on your résumé, like being able to speak

German or design an app. Yet professors, employers, and medical professionals

often define effective listening as a crucial skill. In fact, listening pioneer Ralph

Nichols claimed that listening helps us achieve our most basic human need: to

understand and be understood (Nichols, 2006).

In this chapter, we examine the nature of listening—how we hear, process,

come to understand, and then respond to others’ communication. We learn why

listening is so important and why we so often fail to listen effectively. And we

describe tools and techniques you can use every day to become a more effective

and competent listener.

How We Listen

How many times have you realized you weren’t really listening to the music on

your iPod? You know you heard the music, and you may have sung along, but

minutes later, you realize you must have been thinking about something else

because you can’t recall what you heard.

Hearing and listening are not the same thing. Hearing is the physiological

process of perceiving sound, the process through which sound waves are picked

up by the ears and transmitted to the brain. Unless there is a physical reason why

hearing does not take place, it is an involuntary process—you can’t turn it on or

off. But you can, to some degree, decide what sounds you’re going to notice. This

is where listening comes in.

Listening is a multidimensional process of recognizing, understanding,

accurately interpreting, and responding effectively to the messages you hear. It is

much more than just hearing words or being able to recall information (Bodie,

Worthing, Imhof, & Cooper, 2008; Janusik, 2005). Listening involves process-

ing what others say and do, paying attention, understanding (Thomas & Levine,

1994), and then creating messages that respond to the speaker and are directed

toward achieving goals (Bodie et al., 2012; Janusik, 2005; Wiemann, Takai, Ota,

& Wiemann, 1997). In the next section, we examine how this crucial process

works.

The Listening Process

The listening process occurs so quickly that we may think of it as automatic,

but in fact, listening involves a complex web of skills. It has three very specific

components. First, we must have the motivation to pay attention to messages—

known as the affective component of listening. The cognitive component of listen-

ing involves selecting a specific message to pay attention to, focusing on it, and

understanding it. Finally, the behavioral component involves responding verbally

and nonverbally to let others know we have remembered and understood what

they said (Bodie, 2012; Halone, Cunconan, Coakley, & Wolvin, 1998). We can

develop and improve our listening skills by focusing on these three components.

After you have finished

reading this chapter,

you will be able to

Outline the listening

process and styles of

listening

List the advantages of

listening well

Identify challenges to

good listening and their

remedies

Identify ethical factors in

the listening process

Describe how contexts

affect listening

152

O

chapter

outcomes