This article is submitted by Dr. Sunita Agarwal, Assistant Professor, , University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.

People often focus on their speaking ability believing that good speaking equals good communication. The ability to speak well is a necessary component to successful communication but the ability to listen is equally important. Most of us do not realize the importance of listening as a communicative tool. Peter Drucker, a great linguist says

“It is the recipient who communicates. The so called communicator, the person who emits the communication, does not communicate. He utters. Unless there is someone who hears, there is no communication. There is only noise.”  Communication, as we all know is a two way process. It involves at least two parties – the communicator and receiver, or sender or receiver. The purpose of any communication is not achieved till the receiver receives the message which a communicator/sender wants to put across. Unless the receiver gives his/her response, the process of thought remains incomplete. We often take listening for granted, never realizing that it is a skill that can be learned. Most of us do not realize the importance of listening as a communicative tool. Adair, a language teacher says, ‘Listening has been variously called the neglected art or forgotten skill in Communication.’ (81) Yet studies have shown that we actually spend 50% more time listening than we do talking. In this paper, an effort will be made to look into some of the important questions to underline the importance of listening within human communication (1) is listening to someone the same as hearing? (2)  Do we all listen differently? (3) What makes a good listener? (4) How to acquire active, productive listening skills and put them to work— professionally, socially, and personally. The paper will also have a positive bias: listeners are active. It will contend that all listening is and should be an engaged activity for effective communication. With practice listeners can become active and aware rather than passive and unconscious.

Watch someone who listens attentively. He/she makes eye contact and focuses on the other person while he/she listens. He/she listens with his eyes as well as his ears. While listening, he nods or makes attentive noises from time-to-time. This is both a skilled listener and an attentive listener. The person he/she is listening to feels a sense of communication. The first communication skill we engage in the moment we are born is listening. It is how we learn and acquire language. Speaking and listening, then, are always interrelated. However, although it is our first communicative behavior, listening is usually our most underdeveloped communication skill. The International Listening Association (www.listen.org) defines listening as the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages (1996). (more…)