Listening Skills Essay

As human beings, we use our senses to learn what is going on in the world around us. In ancient times, a person’s survival depended upon being able to hear and see many dangers in the environment. Our other senses of taste, touch, and smell also helped people survive. Many people think that sight is the most important sense. Early humans would have run into terrible danger without their sense of sight. Even today, it is hard for anyone to imagine how they could survive without their sense of sight. However, with the days of hunting and gathering a time of the past, today’s survival skills are very different. Today, communication is one of man’s most important skills, and communication depends on the sense of hearing. Even when we are communicating by visual means, such as writing or typing, we are still using the language that most of us first learned by hearing before we were even out of the womb.

Hearing can be defined as the ability which helps in the perception of sound through vibrations that are being detected by the ear. This is a biological or physical process. Listening, though it may seem similar to hearing, is however, different in that it entails perceiving and understanding the message that was heard. Listening involves the use of a person’s sense of sight and hearing. Effective listening, therefore, involves the process by which a person understands, interprets, and analyzes the information received through hearing. It is an active process that is learned through time. Active listening skills are not only useful in understanding verbal speech, but also enable a person to derive a conclusion from the speaker’s body language. The ability to listen is essential for success in all relationships. Effective listening skills involve a person paying full attention to the speaker, and having the ability to ignore all eternal distractions.

The inability to give your full, undivided attention to the speaker can be disrespectful and may send the