listening is deliberate and voluntary action we must consciously chooses
to do. Active listening is hard work as it requires concentration on what the speaker is saying and It calls for discipline and practice.To be able to listen effectively, you must consciously deal with anything that might interfere with your listening understanding of what is being said. Interferences with spoken message could be external or internal.
Levels of Listening
You will find that you listen with varying levels of concentration depending on:
- the purpose of listening
- your physical and psychological state
- your background knowledge on what is spoken
- and the content of the speech.
Listening is therefore, said to be more than just a single simple hearing.
Listening occurs in various levels that includes:
Reception
This involves hearing without attending to sounds or noises around you. An example when this happens is when you are busy doing other things in your room but you have a loud music playing. A student could be in classroom and sitted when teacher is talking but his/her mind is far away from the class.
Attention
Attention means focusing briefly on something and then tuning out.
This is the lowest level of active listening, where isolated facts and details are attended to without any apparent organisational plan. This happens when certain words or concepts capture your attention.
For example, you could be near two people talking near you while you are concentrating on something else when they mention something you have interest in causing you to want to join the conversation and participate in it actively .
Attention could also be described as listening passively with no effort to relate what you hear with what you already know or without striving to understand what is being said. A person could be enjoying music because of the tunes and lyrics without giving much attentions to the message artist is trying to communicate.
Integration
Relating new information to old learning. E.g. Learning a new
method of solving a mathematical problem when you have a method you have been using already.
Interpretation
It involves synthesizing information or bringing it together and putting it
into your own words. It also involves figuring out how the information affects what you do as an employee, student, individual, etc. (e.g. information about the reorganisation of your department).
Implication
It involves making your own conclusions from the information received.
Application
Applying information to personal experiences. For example preparing a public speech after attending a lecture on public speaking. Application is when the new information heard changes your behavior in response to what is heard.
Evaluation
It involves judging information in terms of accuracy and relevance to your
circumstances.