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THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOWING LISTENING PROCESS IN A LECTURE SESSION
Listening is the process through which we receive, attend to, understand, return, evaluate
and respond to all stimuli as explained by (DaVito J. A., 2016) . This stimuli can be either
verbal or nonverbal messages. In order for people to have good communication or
conversation with each other there is a need for one to listen attentively while the other one
is speaking .Listening is very important in academic life for students because there is a need
for them to get what the lecturer is presenting during the lecture sessions. This article is
going to explain more on the steps of listening and how it is important for students to follow
them during the lecture session. There are five steps in listening namely receiving,
understanding, remembering, evaluating and responding.
To begin with receiving, this step involves receiving messages from the speaker. According to
(Davito J. , 2000),the message received by the students from their lecturer can be either
verbal or nonverbal that consist of words as gestures ,facial expressions, variations in volume
and rate .Receiving message is a selective process as students are not supposed to take all
what is said by the lecturer .For example, students listen more carefully when the lecturer
starts telling them what will appear on the examination and students may listen with little
attention to extended stories and routine announcements being presented by the lecturer.
When students follow this step during the lecturer session it helps them to acquire more
knowledge or information from the lecturer .This is because students focus much of their
attention to what the lecturer is saying or doing for them to receive more information.
Students look for feedback and feed forward messages to know how the lecturer wants his
message to be viewed. In every listener’s environment there exist some disturbances which
disturbs listeners from receiving full information as explained by (Schemid, John 2007). When
Students follow the listening process can be able to ignore destructions that are in their
environment by focusing on what is being presented by the lecturer which help them to
avoid missing out some points presented during the lecturer’s session. During the same step
students must try to maintain their role as listeners when the lecturer is still presenting to
avoid interrupting the lecturer until he or she finishes the presentation. Disturbing the
lecturer can make him or her angry which can make him fail to give out the whole
information he prepared to give the students.
The second step of listening is understanding that involves assessing the meaning of the
words in the message you have received from the lecturer as explained by (Brownell, 2010).
According to (Joseph A., DeVito, 2016), listeners grasp the thoughts that are expressed and
also the emotional tone like joy and sorrow expressed in the message. Students need to
make sense out of what the lecturer is presenting for them to come up with meanings on the
message being presented. This step of listening help students to understand the lecturer’s
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message more deeply. This is because students are able to relate new message to what they
already know which help them to understand the lecturer’s presentation well. It also helps
students to avoid judging the lecturers message until they understand what the lecturer is
trying to say that also help the students to avoid misunderstanding the lecturers message.
This step help students to view the message from the lecturer’s point of view which helps
them to understand the same way the lecturer wants as explained by (Joseph A, DeVito
2016).
Apart from understanding, there is remembering that involves in returning and recalling
information that you have received from the speaker as explained by (Steven A. Beebe,
2017). In the lecture session situations, students need to enhance their remembering skill by
taking down notes or recording the lecturer’s message if the lecturer allows them to do so.
What a person remembers is not always exactly as what was said by the lecturer because
memory is reconstructive so students need to reconstruct the message they hear in their
own way that makes sense as explained by DeVito (2016). Students can research where ever
they feel like they did not understand what the lecturer was saying. This step helps students
to easily remember the lecturer’s message presented during the session .This is because
students identify central ideas and main supporting points that help them to easily
reconstruct the whole message that was presented. The notes that student take during the
lecturers presentation also help students to easily recall the message that the lecturer was
presenting.
Also evaluation is another step in listening that involves in judging the message and the
speaker’s credibility, truthfulness and usefulness in some ways as explained by DeVito,
Joseph .A(2016). At this stage listener’s biases and prejudices became a special influential
that affects what listeners single out for evaluation and what they just let pass .Students at
this step also weigh the lecturer’s evidence reasoning while they are conscious of potential
emotional appeals being employed. This listening step help students to make good decisions
out of what the lecturer has presented. This is because students judge the lecturer’s message
after they have fully understood the presentation .They also judge the message according to
how it has been presented and not based on the students biased and prejudices against the
lecturer.
The final step in listening is response. This step involves giving feedback on how the listener
feels and think about speaker’s message as explained by DeVito (2016). Listening is a
continuous process that is why sometimes responses are sent while the speaker is still
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presenting his or her message. This step helps students to make good relationship with the
lecturers because lecturers judge their students according to how they react during the time
of their presentations. Students who follow the listening processes are able to show support
in the lecturer presentation either by using varying back channeling cues that makes the
lecturers know that you’re listening as explained by (Burgoon, Guerrero, & Floyd, 2010).
Sometimes students can also express support to the presentation at the end of the
presentation by asking for clarification, expressing agreement or disagreement that help in
building their relationship with lecturers. When listener follow listening process they are able
to give honest responses and express their thoughts and feelings on the speaker’s speech
because the speaker has the right to receive honest responses though at sometimes it can
express anger or disagreement.
It is very important for students to follow all the listening processes during the lecture
session because it is very helpful in their academic life .This article was explaining some of the
importance of following the listening processes to the students in their academic life. The
importance explained in this article are: it help students to acquire more information, it helps
students in understanding the lecturer message more deeply, it help them to easily
remember the lecturer`s message, it help them in making good decisions and also it helps
them making good relationship with their lecturers.
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References
(Burgoon, J., Guerrero, L., & Floyd, K. (2010)). Nonverbal communication.Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Davito, j. A. , essential elements of public speaking, pearson higher education,2016.
Davito,Joseph .A , element of public speaking,(2000)
Human Communication(Stewart Tubbs):Principles and Contexts, thirteenth edition(2013)McGraw-Hill.
Schemid,John."Driven to Distraction,"Milwaukee journal sential (January 8 ,2007 )
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