Correct Answer - Option 3 : Complex process that involves steps
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is a complex process.
The listening process:
- The listening process involves four stages: receiving, understanding, evaluating, and responding.
- Basically, an effective listener must hear and identify the speech sounds directed toward them, understand the message of those sounds, critically evaluate or assess that message, remember what’s been said, and respond (either verbally or nonverbally) to information they’ve received.
1. Receiving
- Paired with hearing, attending is the other half of the receiving stage in the listening process.
- Attending is the process of accurately identifying and interpreting particular sounds we hear as words.
- The sounds we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in context.
- Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages.
2. Understanding
- The second stage in the listening process is the understanding stage.
- Understanding or comprehension is “shared meaning between parties in a communication transaction” and constitutes the first step in the listening process.
- This is the stage during which the listener determines the context and meanings of the words he or she hears.
3. Evaluating
- During the evaluating stage, the listener determines whether or not the information they heard and understood from the speaker is well constructed or disorganized, biased or unbiased, true or false, significant or insignificant.
- They also ascertain how and why the speaker has come up with and conveyed the message that they delivered.
- This may involve considerations of a speaker’s personal or professional motivations and goals.
4. Responding
- The responding stage is the stage of the listening process in which the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions.
- A listener can respond to what they hear either verbally or non-verbally. Nonverbal signals can include gestures such as nodding, making eye contact, tapping a pen, fidgeting, scratching or cocking their head, smiling, rolling their eyes, grimacing, or any other body language.
- These kinds of responses can be displayed purposefully or involuntarily.
NOTE:
There is a thin line between listening and hearing. Listening is a voluntary action. It involves deliberate steps to interpret the message. It is not a physiological process that occurs without effort. However, hearing is a natural habit and is reflex in nature.
Therefore, Listening is a complex process that involves steps.
