What do you think is more important in today’s high-tech and the high-stress world? Well, you are right if you have thought about listening skills. Good listening has become more essential than ever. Still, we spend less time in listening to each other. Genuine listening helps build relationships and resolve conflicts. It is what good listening provides us. But the question is, how does one become a good listener? What are the essential listening skills are required? These questions will be the epicentre of our today’s discussion. Along with certain skills, this article by researchers of an affordable essay helper will also describe the traits of a good listener.
Top Listening Skills
Effective listening has become a significant part of communication. Listening is not only considered as paying attention to someone’s words. Rather, an active listener must also pay attention to symbols and decode the nodes. In simple words, listening skills help a listener interpret a message correctly. Therefore, we have compiled a list of top listening skills that can help you become a good listener. Some of those skills are as follows;
- Listen to your interest
- Understand the content and context
- Be calm and pay attention
- Open to new ideas
- Writing while listening
- Decoding the ideas
- Analysing the conversation
Listen to your interest
Interest is the first and foremost that you must listen to. Do not listen to a thing you are not interested in and that does not attract you. It will be just a waste of time. Listening is more like a personal trait. Things inspire people, and people only listen to those things that inspire them. However, interests can also be built. Continuously listening to something can really build your interest in that particular topic. Thus, among listening skills, interest is the most important one.
Interest is also a measure of dedication towards the topic. Many people like to listen to the music as well as religious rhetoric. thus, it is all about interest and dedication towards the subject. As a student, you must be interested in scientific documentaries and discoveries. Overall, the development of interest is critical to being a good listener.
Understand the content and context
Having an interest in a subject or subfield like academic articles is not the only thing that matters. Along with interest, understanding the subject is also essential. Have you ever heard of a kindergarten kid listening to a university professor? Therefore, having a prior understanding of the content and context of the subject plays an important role in effective listening.
For example, an engineering student develops his interest in psychology. He goes to psychology seminars where scholars of the field participate and deliver lectures. There are high chances that everything will go above their heads. It happens because they might have no idea of the content of the seminars. Thus, being interested and understanding the content are totally two different things. To become a good listener, you must develop an interest in the field that you can understand.
Be calm and pay attention
Calmness is a great listening skill. Not everyone can master this skill. While listening to a lecture or seminar, many people cannot get rid of background thoughts. Remember, background thoughts and noise hinder effective listening. To become a good listener, you must train yourself as a yoga trainer. You should be able to forget any other thing except the topic of the lecture or seminar. Therefore, paying attention while being relaxed can significantly enhance listening abilities.
Open to new ideas
Being open to new ideas and information is one of the superior listening skills of good listeners. They just do not ignore the incoming information but take it with them. A mind open to new ideas can listen effectively. If you are a person of conservative thinking, you cannot be a good listener. It happens most of the time. If you are not open to acquiring new ideas, you will lose attention, and the background thoughts will interrupt you.
For example, the presenter is talking about the issue of women rights in society. Suppose you are a man of conservative nature and not open to giving rights to women. There is no point in you staying and listening to that seminar. The negative thoughts and counter-arguments will prevail at the back end of your mind. Those negative thoughts will not let you be a good listener. Thus, you must listen to new ideas and information attentively.
Writing while listening
Writing while listening is a great technique to become a good listener. It is also a skill that many students lack. In the modern world, the concept of notebooks has diminished. Students come to the class with their laptops and start taking notes on what they listen to in the class. Writing while listening enhances listening skills. As a student, you have to write as swiftly as possible due to the speed of lecture delivery. Many professors speak in a fast manner while delivering a lecture. This swiftness enhances the listening abilities of students significantly.
Decoding the ideas
Decoding the ideas means that sometimes the professor doesn’t explain a topic’s inner meanings. He does this deliberately to check the listening skills of his students. Students must be able to decode all the ideas and the simple movements of the head of the teacher. Sometimes, teachers only nod in the class in response to a question. As a student, you must be able to interpret those head movements. They help decode the ideas effectively. You can use different interview types for your teacher to decode their ideas.
Analysing the conversation
Thought analysis is performed after listening any conversation thoroughly, and is one of the critical listening skills. Analyses and evaluations of the conversation after it has happened can help you decode critical information. It is not possible for a human being to understand a thing in one go. Therefore, evaluation can also help you grab the overall idea.
Conclusion
Every individual requires a complete set of listening skills in order to perform better in or outside the class. The skills mentioned above can help you dramatically to become an active listener. There are also many other skills on the internet. You can look for those too.
