The statement ‘Expressing our wants, feelings, thoughts and opinions clearly and effectively is only half of the communication process needed for interpersonal effectiveness. The other half is listening and understanding what others communicate to us.’ (Nadig, L.A. (n.d.) Brief Theory of Communication. Effective Listening. Retrieved December 19, 2007, from http://www.drnadig.com/listening.htm) strongly implicates the importance of listening within the delivery and reception of messages in human communication. It is true that we have the ability to gain access to another person’s feelings, thoughts, ideas and emotions through listening, yet it is widely believed that by hearing someone’s message one would have listened to that that person. However, listening is far a more complex activity than hearing. (Adler, Rosenfeld, Towne, & Proctor II, 1998, pp. 211-212) Hence, within this assignment we will encounter obstacles of learning as well as discuss different levels of listening to understand how the combination of verbal, visual and aural cues gives the ability of perceiving another person’s world view through listening.
There is More to Listening than Hearing
Whilst having a large percentage of one’s waking time consumed by listening activities, ineffective listening deficiencies occur frequently – be it in our family, group of friends, the lecture hall, the workplace, world business or global politics. (Listening Skills in Business. (n.d.). The Gale Encyclopedia of Busine$$ and Finance. Retrieved December 19, 2007, from http://www.reference.com/browse/tgebf/3402700286).
Studies conducted by Ralph Nichols, together with his associates, reveal that exactly after having listened to someone talk we tend to remember only around half of what we have received (Myers & Myers, 1992, pp.137-138). Therefore it is important to analyse the challenges of listening within the verbal, visual and aural cues:
The listener may think or appear to be listening when he...