Listening Skills-Key Terms

1. Hearing: Is the process in which sound waves strike the eardrum and cause vibrations that are transmitted to the brain.
2. Listening: Occurs when the brain reconstructs these electrochemical impulses into a representation of the original sound and then gives them meaning.
3. Attending: The act of paying attention to a signal.
4. Understanding: The process of making sense of a message.
5. Responding: Consists of giving observable feedback to the speaker.
6. Remembering: The act of recalling previously introduced information.
7. Residual message: (what we remember) is a small function of what we hear.
8. Pseudolistening: Is an imitation of the real thing.
9. Selective listeners: Respond only to the parts of a speaker’s remarks that interest them, rejecting everything else.
10. Defensive listeners: Take innocent comments as personal attacks.
11. Ambushers: Listen carefully and collect information to attack what you have to say.
12. Insulated listeners: are almost the opposite of their selective listening cousins.
13. Insensitive listeners: Are the final example of people who don’t receive another person’s messages clearly.
14. Stage hogs: Try to turn the topic of conversations to themselves instead of showing interest in the speaker.
15. Content-oriented listeners: are most interested in the quality of messages they hear.
16. People-oriented listeners: Are especially concerned with creating and maintaining positive relationships.
17. Action-oriented readers: Are most concerned with the task at hand.
18. Time-oriented readers: Are most concerned with efficiency.
19. Informational listening: Is the approach to take when you want to understand another person.
20. Sincere questions: Are aimed at understanding others.
21. Counterfeit questions: Are really disguised attempts to send a message, not a receive one.
22. Paraphrasing: Involves restating in your own words the message you thought the speaker had just sent, without adding anything new.
23. Critical listening: Is to judge the quality of a message in order to decide whether to accept or reject it.
24. Empathic listening: The goal is to build a relationship or help the speaker solve a problem.
25. Advising: To help by offering a solution.
26. Judging response: Evaluates the sender’s thoughts or behaviors in some way.
27. Questioning: Help others think about their problems and understanding them more clearly.
28. Prompting: Involves using silences and brief statements of encouragement to draw others out.