An Introduction to

Listening
Presented by:
Melvin D. Laud
 Definition of Listening from
Scholars
• “An analysis of the impressions resulting from
concentration where an effort ofwill is required.” –
Tucker,1925

• “The comprehension of expository materials presented

orally in a classroom situation.” – Nichols, 1948

• “The selective process of attending to, hearing,

understanding, and remembering aural symbols.” –
Barker, 1971

• “The acquisition, process, and retention of information in

the interpersonal context.” – Bostrom, 2011
 Brief Definition of
Listening
• LISTENING is the active
process of receiving and
responding to spoken, and
sometimes unspoken,
messages.
No words from the speaker go into the mind
of the listener. The words of the speaker
doesn’t active activate the listener’s thinking
process but the listener is physically present
though mentally absent. The speaker may or
may not decide to ignore the speaker.
Marginal Listening, also known as “Selective
Listening”, is a enhanced version of the
passive listening because the info from the
speaker is listened bits by bits rather than
listened as a whole. The listener listens only
to keywords and key sentences spoken by the
speaker.
The listener receives and absorbs the
information in accordance with the listener’s
perspective which dominates the speaker’s
perspective, even if the speaker’s view is
blended into listener’s own perspective. In
other words, broader view of the speaker is
either ignored or given less attention by the
listener.
Emphatic listening, also known as “Sensitive
Listening”, is the opposite of the projective
listening. The speaker’s view receives greater
importance and attention than the listener’s
view. If both sides has an equal perspective,
then it is“positive”. If the speaker’s view
dominates the listener’s view, then it is
“negative” in which the speaker needs to
improve his emphatic listening skill.
Active listening, also known as “attentive
listening” or “deliberate listening”, takes
place when the listener is active, which
results from the active participation of the
listener. The listener displays interaction
towards the speaker by asking questions or
give feedbacks. This type of listening is a
highly involve listening
Active listening achieves a positive effect
when combined with emphatic listening
wherein the views of both are merged with
due balance. Active listening requires
attention skills like posture, gesture, eye
contact and harmonious environment,
following skills like display of interest and
encouraging nods, and reflecting skills like
paraphrasing and restating the emotions of
the speaker.
The listener either assesses the value of the
message or compares it with what is usually
considered best. He may do this
simultaneously while listening or by stopping
for a while. Since evaluation takes place, the
listener may decide to continue listening or
stop.
The listener pretends to be listening though
not listening actually. It is also referred as
“Pseudo listening.” His posture and eye
contact deceives the speaker as if he was
listening to what the speaker is saying. This
aims to please either the speaker of the
other observers. This is similar to passive
listening EXCEPT the fake listener is born
from dishonesty.
Informative listening takes a lot of info by
full concentration and thus help one
understand the message being given. Because
of the intensity of effort in taking most of
the information, the message is understood
almost close to what is intended. This is the
best way to learn. This listening type
requires a lot of attention.
The primary purpose is to appreciate and
thus enjoy the way the message is being
given, but not to take the benefit of the
content of the message. It usually takes
place while listening to music or when one
enjoys the speaker’s speaking style or other
features not related to the content.
The factors for best benefit of appreciative
listening:
1. Presentation – style, medium, setting and
speaker’s personality
2. Perception of the Listener– depends on
the listener’s attitude and expectations
3. Past Experiences of the Listener –
existing positive opinion or familiarity
Informative + Evaluative = Critical Listening

In this listening, you criticize what you see

commonly in the world. Examples are we
engage in critical listening when listening to
political debates and some revolutionary idea.
One who practices critical thinking can be
called a highly logical person.
Aristotle’s Precaution to Effective Criticism
• Ethos or speaker’s credibility
• Logos or logical arguments
• Pathos or emotional appeals
Discriminative listener is one who is sensitive to
the changes in the speaker’s rate, volume, force,
pitch and stress on different words or ideas.
One who listens attentively or critically or with
the intention of evaluation or to appreciate the
speaker has to listen discriminatingly. It
requires finest hearing ability away from any
hearing defects, awareness of nuances of words,
sounds and pronunciations, and ability to sense
non-verbal signals from the speaker.
The content is the one given importance and
is taken while ignoring the relationship
betweens fact in the content. Because of
this, the meaning of the message is lost.