Human Communication: Week 2 - 10 Sept 2014 (Wed)

We talked about perception yesterday. As a human being, we tend to percepts, but our perceptions are not always the correct or it doesn't always conform to the real situation: It could be a wrong information. So how we are going to ensure that we could receive the correct information? That's the topic we had learnt in our lecture today-- listening!!

Listening is the process that allows you to receive messages from others including both verbal message and non-verbal message. Constructing the meaning of the message received and giving response to the speaker are also parts of Listening.

Listening is divided into 5 stages

1. Receiving: You hear something from the speaker, the message conveyed could be verbal or non-verbal.
2. Understanding: The process of decoding the speaker message.
3. Remembering: After you understand the message conveyed by the speaker, you have to remember what did he tell you in order to get to the next stage.
4. Evaluating: You will judge the message given by evaluating it before you give response.
5. Responding: After evaluating the message, you respond to the speaker. It could be happened during the speaker speech or after his speech.

There is, of course, some ways to increase the effectiveness of all these 5 stages.

To RECEIVE message clearly, we should

1. be focus
2. avoid distractive environment
3. not interrupt the speaker
4. refrain from thinking about how do we respond to the speaker

To UNDERSTAND the message, we should

1. relate the information to your knowledge
2. ask question to clarify something that you don't understand
3. rephrase the idea

To REMEMBER the message, we should

1. Identify the main idea and also supportive evidence during his speech
2. Summarize the main idea of his speech
3. Repeat the main concepts to yourself in your mind

To EVALUATE the message, we should

1. evaluate only after the end of the speech
2. assume the speaker is a good-willed person
3. avoid prejudices in the speaker's speech

To RESPOND the message, we should

1. express your support to the speech given using backchanneling cues(yup, i see, uh-huh,ya , true etc.)
2. express your support of the speech in your final response

However, we will face some difficult situation in listening when we are communicating with different culture. Therefore, we should study the following topic because of the diversity of culture.

LISTENING and CULTURE

1. Language and speech: Difference between culture may result in different language as as well. So, we have to be aware of it because there will be some different definition for certain words.
2. Non-verbal behavioral differences: It is about the body language. Sometimes, the meanings of some certain gestures vary by different culture, so avoid using certain gestures may reduce the misunderstanding.
3. Direct and indirect style: Sometimes, we could not express some messages in a too direct way but in an indirect manners so that our speech doesn't hurt a person. For an example, from 2 of the speech below, which sounds better? (In a direct manner)"Aiyo, why you wear so short? This is so informal and unrespectful to others, go and change another set of clothes" or (In an indirect manner)"Hmm, perhaps you should wear something with sleeves and collars so that it seems to be more formal."
4. Balance of story versus evidence: In some culture, people prefer listening to the evidence than the story(could be the theory or the idea too) and vice versa. Therefore, our speech would be varied by the listeners
5. Credibility: The reliability of the message is also varied by different cultures. Some cultures take morality as their main concern while others would take knowledge as their main concern.
6. Feedback: Feedback from the listeners with different cultures may be given in various ways. Some cultures tend to give feedback in a very direct way but some may not. 

We had known the difficulties faced during listening, so now we are going to learn some ways to overcome these difficulties. How do we listen effectively? There are some suggestion below:

1. Participatory and passive listening: We may participate the listening to enhance the listening experience. While passive listening represents the acceptance of the speakers' idea.
2. Emphatic and objective listening: We should avoid listen some general opinion very subjectively. However, we might need to consider the feeling or meaning against the objective opinion sometimes, and that's what we called emphatic listening.
3. Non-judgmental and critical listening: We should be open-minded when we listens and think critically about the idea conveyed whether it is true. Sometimes, we might have to listen without considering or judging the value itself is good or bad. 
4. Surface and depth listening: We have to identify the literal meaning and the depth meaning of one's speech. For an example, "You look beautiful today." seems to be praising in literal meaning, but it hints to the listener that the speaker wished to have a dance with her.

Conclusion, listening skill plays an important role in human communication. It helps you to receive one's messages clearly in our daily life and act as an preparative duration for us to decide what we should respond  to the speaker.