Q.1 What is the role of listening?
Related Questions -
Q. What is the role of good listening for good speaking. Explain by citing example. (2011 - 12)
Ans. Listening is one essential tool among many tools. Internal critic, good sense and professional knowledge and experience are all good tools of an individual. Appreciative listening compliments these other tools. It works as a balancing force.
Listen to deeply understand what someone is saying. Listen to empower the speaker. When one listens, the speaker tends to think deeper about what they are saying. The speaker is free to listen to themself instead of worrying about when will they be interrupted.
One should listen to deeper the relationship between the listener and the speaker. For example, in many corporations there are HR managed mechanisms for employee review, designed to be generally effective whether there is a good relationship between the manager and employee or not. How much better the review process be if the relationship were built on a mutual understanding supported by an appreciative listening practice.
Q.2 What is ear training?
Ans. Ear training or aural skills is a process by which musicians near to identify intervals, chords, rhythms, and other basic element of music. Singing plays an important part in ear training, since one must be able to hear music in one’s head and match pitch before it is possible to sing it reliably. Moreover reproducing sounds by singing then is a reliable way to verify that they are heard correctly. One does not need absolute pitch to succeed at ear training; one goal of ear training is the development of relative pitch.
Q.3 What is listening Comprehension ?
Ans. Language learning requires to master four basic skills, namely : listening comprehension (understanding through listening), speaking, reading comprehension (understanding through reading) and writing.
All communication is a two way traffic which requires at least two parties-the speaker and the listener or the speaker or the sender of the message. By and large it depends upon the listener’s ability how he comprehends the oral message through listening. But if the listener is not actively involved in oral communication then he fails to comprehend the oral message. This entire process can be represented graphically in the following manner :
Sender of the message ® message ® receiver of the message
Thus, listening comprehension may be defined as an ability to understand the messages, communicated orally.
Q.4 What are the two types of listening ?
Ans. An individual can respond to oral communication in either of the two ways :
(i) Passive listening and (ii) Active listening
(i) Passive Listening : Sometimes we hear somebody’s speech without comprehending it. In such cases the mind perceives no message and thus no communication takes place. Most of the times such a situation arises due to the inattentiveness of the listener. This type of listening is often known as Passive listening. But such type of listening is not desirable in the business communications.
(ii) Active Listening : When the listener listens to one’s speech attentively and comprehends its meaning, it is known as active listening. In such sort of listening, the listener is actively involved in the process of communication. Listener’s attentiveness provides an impetus to the speaker to present his message more enthusiastically and more sincerely. This sort of listening where the listener at once grasps the message, communicated to him, is known as active listening.
Q.5 What are the barriers to good listening skills? Illustrate. (2009 - 10)
Ans. Effective listening is every bit as important as effective speaking, and generally much more difficult. Although numerous barriers to effective listening can make the practice difficult, there are several habits one can adopt that will lead to a higher level of listening proficiency.
Listening is the most important part of the communication process. However, listening skills do not come naturally to most people; they require willingness, practice, and patience to develop.
There are many reasons individuals fail to listen successfully. These include:
1. Interrupting 2. Judging
3. Faking Attention 4. Becoming Emotional
5. Tuning Out 6. Jumping to Conclusions
7. Becoming distracted.
Interrupting is a problem for many reasons. First, it is aggressive behavior and will most likely bring a negative response from the speaker being interrupted. Second, it is difficult to listen and speak at the same time. When the listener is interrupting, he or she is certainly not listening fully.
Faking attention (often associated with tuning out) can be offensive and is usually hard to hide. This is hurtful and sends the message to the speaker that the listener doesn’t really care about what the speaker is saying. If an individual cannot listen actively in the present moment, it is best to let that be known and suggest that the communication process be put off until a point when there are no distractions.
Becoming emotional can hinder one’s ability to listen. It is important that the receiver be aware of his or her emotions. If the sender is sending a message that is offensive, it is important to acknowledge that fact and be aware of the fact that something is threatening a breakdown in the process. When a receiver is angered, it is easy for him or her to miss the most important part of the sender’s message.
To avoid jumping to conclusions, it may be helpful for the listener to wait until the speaker is finished before responding. It can also be helpful to ask questions throughout the conversation to clarify issues, or to let the speaker know that he or she is communicating in a way that suggests a certain thing, which may not be what they are intending to say.
It is easy to become distracted while trying to communicate. Often one has many tasks to do or there is a lot of other activity taking place while someone is trying to communicate. This can be a problem because it leads to miscommunication, faking attention, and tuning out all together—all of which threaten future communication.
Although the reasons for listening breakdowns are numerous, there are many ways to improve listening skills. These are:
1. Provide clues that you are actively involved
2. Concentrate
3. Refrain from formulating an immediate response
4. Try to prepare beforehand
5. Be prepared to accept revisions
6. Be sure the environment is conducive to listening.