Listening

Communication is a two-way process; for every person speaking there is usu­ally someone who is listening. The receiving role in the communication pro­cess is just as important as the sending role, although it has received much less attention from communication scholars (at least until recent years). The average individual spends about half of all waking hours listening, and stu­dents spend much more than that.

Most of us are not very effective listeners, because we are passive instead of active listeners. One reason for our inattentiveness while listening is because humans typically speak at about 125 to 150 words per minute, while individuals can listen at a rate of 400 words per minute. During our spare time as a listener, we often let our mind wander to other topics. Such inat­tentive listening often occurs during lecture classes. Twenty minutes after a lecture, listeners can remember only about half of the message content. One hour after the lecture, remembering drops to 40 percent; one day later this figure is 35 percent, and after two days it is 30 percent. One week after the lecture, listeners can remember 27 percent, and after two weeks, 25 percent (Steinfatt, 1997).

These data reflect the abilities of average individuals. Certain persons have a fantastically acute ability to remember. For example, A. R. Luria (1968), a Russian psychologist, described a man he calls "S," who worked as a reporter for a Moscow newspaper. S did not take notes each morning when the editor read out a long list of story assignments. The editor thought S was being inattentive and threatened to fire him. S then rattled off not only his own story assignments, but also those of all the other reporters. The editor promptly ordered S to go to a psychologist. Luria tested S in every way that he could devise. For example, he asked S to listen to a long list of numbers, and then repeat them, forwards, backwards, crosswise, diagonally, and from a random starting point. S had a memory that was apparently unlimited.

Active listening consists of five steps: (1) hearing, or exposure to the mes­sage, (2) understanding, when we connect the message to what we already know, (3) remembering, so that we do not lose the message content, (4) eval­uating, thinking about the message and deciding whether or not it is valid, and (5) responding, when we encode a return message based on what we have heard and what we think of it.

Cultural factors affect each of these five components of active listening. In many cultures where rote learning is required, evaluating the message that was heard may be discouraged. Responding may not be valued in cultures that consider it impolite to ask a speaker (like a teacher) a question, and to disagree would be unthinkable. "How one indicates that one is paying atten­tion is different for each culture" (Hall, 1969). Many of the difficulties in com­munication between culturally unalike individuals may be due to cultural factors in listening behavior. It is often problematic as to whether one's con­versation partner is tuned in or not.