Listening is a skill that allows individuals to pay attention to sounds or actions. When listening, one gives attention to what other individuals are talking about and their body expressions to understand what they are saying. The decree of listening involves detailed behavioral operations and mental processes. However, there are different listening types, including full listening, therapeutic listening, critical listening, and deep listening. Therefore, this essay argues that listening is essential to healthy communication because, without effective listening, messages are misunderstood.
Various behaviors interfere with effective listening. One of the main detrimental behaviors is when individuals do not show interest in what other parties are saying. People often find themselves in conversations they are not interested in, thus reducing their interest in listening (Gu et al. 22). Another barrier to effective listening is distractions such as noise, uncomfortable sitting positions, poor lighting, and uncomfortable temperatures. These distractions disrupt our listening ability, leading to misunderstanding information. One-sided communication is also another barrier to interactive listening because an audience can easily get bored and lose interest in the speaker. One-sided communication entails speaking at length and not allowing others to contribute (Gu et al. 28). Consequently, it limits people from sharing ideas and evaluating a speaker’s words to note their meaning. Therefore, active listeners find solutions to inhibit these barriers for better outcomes.
Active listening involves encouraging others to stay focused; this can only happen when an individual maintains eye contact and follows through with everything the speaker says. Similarly, good listeners observe nonverbal cues and try to understand them (Gu et al. 34). Moreover, active listeners ask questions frequently because they keep the conversation flowing. Listening is important for everyone because receiving first-hand information is beneficial for our understanding of activities and sounds.
Work Cited
Gu, Yongqi. “Types of listening.” TESOL Encyclopedia of English language teaching.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Electronic publication ahead of the print version. Published online 18 (2018).