Effective Listening: The Key to Effective Communication - Essay Sample

Introduction

Listening is the process of receiving information accurately and interpreting messages correctly to facilitate a conversation between two or more people. Listening is one of the facilitating factors in interpersonal communication and helps individuals to pass information from one person to another. In an organization or community set up listening skills are required to ensure that people give and understand messages clearly. In the neighborhood where personal communication is necessary proper listening skills helps people to decode information properly and prevent potential misunderstanding. This paper will establish critical steps towards improving listening skills and vital considerations to improve individual listening skills continuously.

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Types of Listening

To be able to improve one's listening skills it is essential to understand the different contexts of listening and their unique needs to facilitate proper communication. Information listening is considered whenever a person listens with the purpose of learning; thus it requires lots of concentration and an effort from the people. Informational learning helps the person to acquire new information; therefore it requires note taking from the listeners. Therapeutic listening is one which is considered whenever a person wants to understand other people's emotions and feelings. The counselors utilize this listening so that they can assist their clients without making judgments for the clients. The counselors encourage the speaker to elaborate and explain their emotions and feelings so that they can offer appropriate advice. Critical listening is used by people when they want to evaluate what is being said by the other party (Field, 2010). This type of listening is used so that one can make confident decisions thus helping in problem-solving. Therefore, listening types play a significant role in helping an individual to understand others well and make decisions whenever there is a problem that requires a solution.

Ways of Improving the Listening Skills

People improve their listening skills through listening to audios as they avoid to read and follow the text whenever it is playing. Through this act, one determines the amount of information which they can become understood without the use of visual aids. People try to pick the phrases and keywords that were used in the text since they give the person an idea of what was being talked about (Lunenburg, 2010). If the individual does not get the text in the audio, they can replay to acquire the full information from the text.

The person is supposed to listen with the purpose of understanding through the creation of the authentic desire to listen to their conversations. The person should consider turn-taking in an interview since it helps people to complete what they were communicating thus giving the other person a chance to respond. Through understanding a person can make a well thought out response since they have digested the information acquired for the other party (McKay, Davis & Fanning, 2009). Through a clear understanding of the messages and information provided by a person, one can make appropriate decisions which assist in finding solutions to problems.

Consequently, when listening to one should maintain eye contact with the speaker so that they can grab all the information communicated either verbally or non-verbally. One can hold their gaze to the person speaking as it shows interest, focus, and understanding of the message being disseminated. Whenever one is listening to a shy person, they can cut off the direct eye contact and utilize other listening skills. Most people communicate their emotions non-verbally so whenever a person fails to maintain eye contact most of the time, they will not acquire some vital information (McKay et al., 2009). Through eye contact, one can know when a person is bored and do not need more of the information, and this makes the speakers narrow down their information.

A person can also improve their listening skills by asking open questions. For a person to acquire detailed information, they have to ask a question which requires explanations and elaborations. The closed question does not give the speaker room to explain more of the various question since it is a yes or no question which does not improve the listening skills of a person. Whenever the open questions are being answered, people pay much attention to the speaker thus improving the listening skills. During the problem-solving forums, the audience can ensure they adopt an appropriate posture which makes them comfortable to listen and ask more questions (Lunenburg, 2010). For example, tapping of the feet when one is speaking shows impatience and disinterest on what is being disseminated to the audience thus affecting their skills to listen. Therefore, asking of the open questions and adopting appropriate sitting and standing postures leads to an improvement of how a person listens to the messages and information being disseminated.

Conclusion

Listening skills tend to play a significant role in the people lives thus being essential for an individual to improve how they look to information. All the types of listening skills need to become enhanced to ensure information and messages acquired and retained in people's minds are of help to them. The use of audio, asking of the open questions, maintaining the eye contact and having a purpose of listening helps improve the persons listening skills. Therefore, listening skills are essential in the acquisition, retaining and implementation of the messages and information which were disseminated to them.

References

Field, J. (2010). Listening in the language classroom. ELT Journal, 64(3), 331-333. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275262626_Listening_in_the_Langauge_Classroom

Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Communication: The process, barriers, and improving effectiveness. Schooling, 1(1), 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C,%20Communication%20Schooling%20V1%20N1%202010.pdf

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The communication skills book. New Harbinger Publications. Retrieved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21827374