The Difference Between Listening and Hearing

The communication process is the exchange of a common system of symbols, signs or behaviors between individuals. It involves three components: the verbal, non-verbal and symbolic. In this paper, only verbal cues are taken into consideration. The verbal communications are the primary skills taught in the formal education system. It includes reading, writing, speaking and others. Words really do not have meanings so we attach meaning to them. Listening is the process of attributing meaning to the verbal cues. It is our natural ability to hear but listening is not. Effective listening requires skills and practice to learn the skills (Stewart, 2005).

Hearing is the physiological element of listening. It occurs when sound waves stroked our ears at certain frequency and loudness. Listening is the active participation in the communication transaction. The listening process involves five stages: receiving, attending, understanding, responding, and remembering.

Receiving

This stage can be easily understood. Simply put, it only involves receiving the message. For example, in emailing with another person, the sender will send the message in the receiver's email. The email may be organized, clear and wonderfully composed. The subject of the email is of great importance to the receiver. The receiver also likes to receive message from the sender. Simply put, the receiver would like to receive the message. However, if the receiver would not turn on the computer, he/she will not receive it. The message will remain in the computer, between the sender and receiver. For the same reason, much of listening fails. The receiver is therefore not connected to the sender (Chapter 3: The Process of Listening, nd).

Hearing and listening are not the same. In this stage, hearing is the reception of sound while listening is the attachment of meaning to what has been heard.

Attending

In view of the email analogy presented above, this stage will determine what will happen to the message. If the receivers turn on his/her computer, the process will continue. The receiver then has to do more than opening the computer and he must attend to the message. Perhaps, if the receiver moved away fro the desk to the urgent things or if he accidentally trashed the message, then the receiver did not attend to the message. Human listening is therefore ineffective if receiving occurs but attending does not.

In this stage, the process may be interrupted by numerous messages that compete in the receiver's attention. The stimuli may be external or internal. External stimuli are the events happening around the receiver and internal stimuli are the events happening within the receiver. Whatever stimuli it is, the receiver should choose (consciously or unconsciously) to attend to some stimuli and reject others. The three factors that determine the choices are: selectivity of attention, strength of attention, and sustainment of attention. The first one explains why we pay attention to something while not to others. Attention may also shift from one message to another. The second one explains that selection is not only selective but also possesses strength or energy. It requires effort and desire to attend to a stimulus that is competing with other stimuli. The third one explains that attention is determined by selectivity and strength and is therefore affected by the time sustainment. Attention is important in understanding listening. These three factors determine attention. Receiving and attending are important to proceed with the process (Chapter 3: The Process of Listening, nd).

Understanding
It was once said that communication starts with understanding. As mentioned earlier, message may be sent and received but the receiver has the choice to attend to the message or not. If the message will not be attended, there will be no effective communication. Effective communication depends on the understanding of the message (Chapter 3: The Process of Listening, nd).
If we go back to the email analogy, the receiver may open the message and read it. If he did, effective communication is still not in place because the receiver may have read every word but may not have understood what the message meant. Reasons for that may be misunderstanding or the real point of the message is missed. Since email has limited words or symbols to represent words, listening is crucial to understanding. In the process, receiving, attending, and understanding are critical aspects of effective listening (Chapter 3: The Process of Listening, nd).

Responding

The listening process may already end with understanding. However, listening may not be effective without responding and remembering. There are different types of responses helpful to communication. These responses include (a) direct verbal responses which may be written or spoken like in the case of the email analogy, the receiver may respond by replying to the email or by calling the sender to continue the process; (b) responses that seek clarification may also be in writing or speaking but the receiver seeks for additional information for clarification; (c) responses that paraphrase gives the sender the chance to agree or clarify the message; and (d) nonverbal responses may indicate whether the message is understood or not. It is in this stage that feedback is needed to complete the communication transaction. The sender may know if the message sent was received, attended, and understood (Chapter 3: The Process of Listening, nd).

Remembering

In this stage, memorization is held as an integral part of good listening. Short-term memory is important in retaining information needed immediately. This type of memory has high forgetting rate and susceptible to interruption. It has limited capacity to retain information. On the other hand, the long-term memory allows the receiver to retain information for a longer time (Chapter 3: The Process of Listening, nd).

Source:

Chapter 3: The Process of Listening. Retrieved on 26 February 2008 at [www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kline-listen/b10ch3.htm]

Stewart, Gwen (2005). Listening Skills. Retrieved on 26 February 2008 at
[http://www.leehopkins.com/types-of-nonverbal-communication-listening-skills.html]