Stages of Listening used in education.pptx

Used in education

1. Stages of Listening

2. Stage 1. Receiving The first stage of the listening process is receiving which involves two other activities like hearing and attending . As the listener hears the message, he/she tries to isolate it from all the rest of the physical noise heard. The next important activity in this stage is for the listener to attend to the message by identifying and interpreting the sounds heard as words. The sounds heard are merely sounds unless put in context.

3. In this stage, you must pay attention to the speaker and avoid accommodating other thoughts to ensure that you have not missed any information, or messages both verbal and non-verbal.

4. Stage 2. Understanding In understanding or comprehending the messages that you have accommodated in the first stage, the listener in this stage will have to determine the context and assign meaning to the words and utterances heard. "Determining the context and meaning of individual words, as well as assigning meaning in language, is essential to understanding sentences. This, in turn, is essential to understanding a speaker's message" (Lumen Boundless Communications, n.d.).

5. In this stage, you should also be aware of some factors that may affect your understanding like the choice of words, accent, language fluency, physical noise, perceptions, experiences, and the like. You may want to use the 'clarify' strategy you've learned in active listening to help you with your mental reconstruction of the speaker's message.

6. Stage 3. Remembering According to Harvard Business Review, people usually forget up to half of what they've heard within the first eight hours of listening to it. Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience says the same thing - students only retain at least 20% of what they hear. In this stage, remembering all details is vital to be able to move forward in the conversation. Sometimes listening attentively is not enough since there might be a message that is too complex and thus needs highly developed listening skills.

7. You also have to consider that "you can improve your memory of a message by processing it meaningfully-that is, by applying it in ways that are meaningful to you" (Gluck, et al., 2008). One way to do this is to "make associations to past remembered information. This can help a listener understand what she is currently hearing in a wider context" (Lumen Boundless Communication, n.d.).

8. Stage 4. Evaluating In this stage, the listener assesses the information after making a reasonable objective interpretation of the message. One strategy for active listening that you've learned in the previous section is to "withhold judgment" while the speaker is still talking. However, this stage sometimes often starts too early in the listening process especially when topics are sensitive, emotional, debatable, and conflicting. If this happens, the listener will just basically listen only to what he/she wants to hear.

9. It is also in this stage wherein the listener tries to review mentally and determine the veracity of the information (with considerations of the speaker's context) against his/her knowledge and experiences. Moreover, since each one has his/her perspectives, experiences, and even biases, evaluation of the same message may vary depending on the listener. To expect a positive acceptance of the message and to ensure that both speaker and listener disagree agreeably, the speaker has to speak clearly, present ideas logically, and provide evidence to his/her claims.

10. Stage 5. Responding The last stage which is giving feedback is an important aspect of the communication process. It is at this stage where you will signify your participation. Feedback can either be verbal and non-verbal reactions. For example, during virtual classes students give their feedback through the emoticon buttons or the chat box. For verbal feedback, this may be in the form of questions, clarifying, requesting additional information, repeating, or summarizing what the speaker has said.

11. Take note as well that not all feedback occurs at the end. The listener may offer non-verbal signals like nodding while the speaker is talking to show involvement. This is referred to as formative feedback: Summative feedback on the other hand is given at the end of the communication.

12. Activity for the Day!!! Since your classmates are a phone away, call a partner (classmate or friend) and share your experiences on the following: What usually are your problems when attending lecture classes? Were there instances that you just missed out on important information from your teachers’ lecture? Why do you think this happened? Is it easy for you to recall important points from a class lecture? Why or why not? As a future teacher, in what way can you help your students remember your lecture?