Listening And Its Importance In Shaping Up The Analytical Skills

Question: Discuss about the Listening And Its Importance In Shaping Up The Analytical Skills. Answer: The art of listening is different from the art of hearing (Goodman, 2017). The following essay aims is based on the video of Julian Treasure who has provided his opinion on listening and its importance in shaping up the analytical skills. The essay begins with highlighting the reason behind the selection of video followed by important points highlighted in the video, personal realization and contradiction with personal philosophies of beliefs. Finally the essay sums up with the important message shared in the video. Video Taken: https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better#t-445882 Reason for selection of this video Listening is defined as a mental process or a process of extraction of information via auditory impulses (Bond, 2012). However, according to Turner (2013), people are gradually losing their ability to listen. Julian Treasure in the video has opined that people spent roughly 60% of the communication time in listening. However, even in this 60%, people are not listening attentively, they are only hearing. As a result, they can retain only 25% of what they have listened during the conversation. Moreover, decay in the art of listening is making it difficult for people to pay attention to something subtle, quiet and something which is understated. According to the recent reports published in The Hindu (2015), human have two ears and one mouth and here comes the importance of listening over speaking. Bond (2012) is of the opinion that when one is hearing and not listening, the words fall on the deaf ears and fails to reach the brain. Thus in the juxtaposition of listening and hearing, the live flow of information between the people is getting stagnant and thus there is decreasing the quality of effective communication. This different between listening and hearing along with the importance of listening has been highlighted in the video of Julian Treasure, making it a topic of interest. Moreover, the video also discussed the different strategies employed for listening along the practises that must be undertaken in order to increase the power of listening and thus further making it a topic of interest. Important points emphasized The points highlighted in the video of Julian Treasure is the importance of listening, its difference between the hearing and different examples of listening. According to Julian Treasure, one of the important examples of listening is pattern recognition. The concept proposed by Julian Treasure goes in sync with the findings of Turner (2013). According to Turner (2013) pattern recognition is an important aspect of listening as it helps in the definition of relation of speech perception towards the perception of the non-verbal auditory patterns. Julian Treasure further stated that there is a whole range of filters like culture, language, values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations and it is these filters we pay attention to and thus listen to the conversation that encompass these filters. Julian Treasure further opined the listening means understanding and it helps in refining the analytical skills of the person. According to Yang (2013), listening is a thinking function and demands anal ytical skills. Under the listeners hear the speaker carefully; they will not be able to make accurate analysis. Hearing on the other hand is prerequisite of active listening. However, the majority of people fail here, as the data that are being delivered by other person fail to reach a meaningful conclusion until they focus on the words pronounced by other persons. In the video, Julian highlighted that listening promotes understanding. According to Noddings (2012), the sense of understanding comes from reading or listening, when one listens carefully, he or she feeds the data inside the brain through the input devices (ear). The focus on the words refines the art of listening and thereby increasing the skill of understanding and analysis. Personal level realization I completely agree with the message shared in the video. At present people is more important in personal broadcasting and this is hampering the listening capability. When they are not engrossed in personal broadcasting, they are immersed inside their smart phones and listening to music or surfing social media sites. While taking part in a scientific seminar I have visualised that people are pretending that they listening but are not mentally present within the conversation. Perhaps, he or she is only hearing and not listening to the sentences. As per my understanding, the people are so mugged up with their own thoughts or ideas that fail to pay attention to the words of the speaker. I think they all cared about remembering their own speech and thus are not bothered enough to listen to the speech of the co-speakers. Moreover, Julian Treasure have highlighted that the advent of the concept of recording has disrupted the art of listening. I completely agree with this statement. This is because, with the advent of the facility of recording, people have developed a tendency that they will listen to it afterwards as per their convenience. However, there is sharp difference between the live listening and listening to any recorded audio files in a fast forwarded or rewind manner. So as a whole I truly agree with the reasons highlighted as the importance of listening by Julian Treasure and this proposed approaches to practise the art of listening. Philosophies of believes Viewing this topic has challenged my own philosophy related to listening. As per my understanding, listening creates fatigue and this goes against the concept proposed by Julian Treasure that listening is increases the analytical skills. My mode of understanding is derived from the findings of the McGarrigle et al. (2014). According to McGarrigle et al. (2014), for normal hearing population, everyday listening is effortless job but listening in the midst of the noisy environments creates a stress over the brain. This is because, brain is required to carry out all the necessary backstage operations that enables selective processing of definite sound and simultaneous filtering out of irrelevant sound. However, the concept proposed by Julian Treasure says that listening is a feel of joy under every condition for example in an environment filled with cacophony. Julian Treasure further opined that understanding the difference in tempo of two sounds under a crowed environment like in a mus ic bar helps to increase the listening skills of a person. Thus my mode of understanding of listening and brain stress is contradicted with importance of exercise of listening. The message The main message provided in the video is the practising the art of listening. This is because according to Julian Treasure, active listening creates understanding. Julian Treasure proposed three approach to practise the art of listening and these includes Silence of at least 3 minutes of per day, listening to the mixer in order to detect how many sounds one can hear, enjoyment of the mundane sounds which Julian has described as hidden choir or savouring and different listening positions. Here the importance of silence per day, is symbolised as the importance of practising medication which helps to increase the concentration skills. Julian also proposed an acronym that can be helpful for practising listening and this is RASA. RASA is a Sanskrit term meaning juice or extract and Julian abbreviated as R: receive A: appreciate S: summarise A: ask Via indicating RASA, Julian meant that the best approach to listening is carefully conceptualise the speech of the other person (receive) and then via analysing the same either contradict or agree with the speaker (appreciate) and they try to cast you own approach based on the listening (summarise) and at the question the speaker if you encounter any query (ask). Another important message that is given in this video is importance of practising listening among the school children. This message opined by Julian scores immense importance in the domain of skills of primary school children. According to Davies (2017), practice of listening helps to increase the analytical skills of the children. The message is indeed powerful and will help to increase the awareness in the domain of active listening. Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that art of listening is gradually dying among the present day population. They are getting more engrossed in their self-thoughts or their mind is getting so much pre-occupied with other activities or information that they are failing to cast attention to others words. Decline in the art of listening in turn is hampering the analytical skills of a person thereby causing a drop in intellect. Therefore, proper practise of art of listening is crucial in order to sustain the concept of attentive hearing or listening. References Bhardwaj. S., Listening as a dying Art. (2015). The Hindu. Accessed on: 3rd April. Retrieved from: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/listening-as-a-dying-art/article7600559.ece Bond, C. D. (2012). An overview of best practices to teach listening skills.International Journal of Listening,26(2), 61-63. Davies, B. (2017).Life in the classroom and playground: The accounts of primary school children(Vol. 17). Routledge. Goodman, L. E. (2017). Listening and Hearing.Society,54(2), 163-170. McGarrigle, R., Munro, K. J., Dawes, P., Stewart, A. J., Moore, D. R., Barry, J. G., Amitay, S. (2014). Listening effort and fatigue: What exactly are we measuring? A British Society of Audiology Cognition in Hearing Special Interest Group white paper.International journal of audiology. Noddings, N. (2012). The caring relation in teaching.Oxford Review of Education,38(6), 771-781. Turner, K. (2013). Developing listening skills.Aspects of Teaching Secondary Modern Foreign Languages: Perspectives on Practice, 61-81. Yang, Y. T. C., Chuang, Y. C., Li, L. Y., Tseng, S. S. (2013). A blended learning environment for individualized English listening and speaking integrating critical thinking.Computers Education,63, 285-305.