Page 143 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

110 Part 2 Between Audience and Speaker

The Process of Listening

The International Listening Association defi nes listening as “the process of re-
Listening
ceiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal
The process of receiving,
messages.” 4
constructing meaning
Listening is a complex process, part mental and part behavioral. The Interna-
from, and responding to
spoken and/or nonverbal tional Listening Association suggests listening involves: (1) hearing, (2) under-
messages. standing, (3) remembering, (4) interpreting, (5) evaluating, and (6) responding.
These steps are interdependent, meaning that a breakdown in one will lead to
problems with the others.

Hearing

Hearing is but a single component of listening. Hearing is all about sound. Hear-
ing requires that we discriminate among the sound waves that enter the inner
ear and register with the brain.

Understanding

Comprehending what we hear is more complicated. It depends on the sum
total of our experience, including our command of language and knowledge
about the context in which we fi nd ourselves. We can hear what we recognize as
a word but not necessarily understand it. That requires fi rst the ability to defi ne
and apply the word. But even some familiarity with the word we hear doesn’t
guarantee understanding. We also need to know something about the context
in which we hear the word. Prior to Man O’ War, a famous racehorse be-
ing beaten for the fi rst time, people understood the word “upset” to mean
physical and mental stress exclusively. Now, of course, upset may be more
frequently used to describe an underdog defeating the odds-on-favorite in a
contest.

Remembering

Needless to say, the retention of information we’ve heard and understood de-
pends on many factors. In situations where we are anxious, it’s not uncommon
to forget the name of a person we just met. Patients, who are anxious about their
health, often remember only half of what their doctors tell them. Remembering,
in either the short or long run, what we hear and think we understand requires
mastery of techniques we’ll introduce later in the chapter.

Interpretation

The accuracy of listening depends greatly on the interpretation of the sounds
we hear and think we comprehend. We color what we hear as a result of our at-
titudes, beliefs, and values. As we suggested in our opening example, it’s nearly
impossible to listen without fi ltering what we hear and think we comprehend
through the fi ne mesh of our previous experience.