What Is Listening?

For our purposes, we can define listening as the process whereby orally com­municated messages are attended to, recognized, and interpreted in light of needs and experiences, and stored for future use. This definition emphasizes that when we listen we assign meaning to stimuli and that in assigning meaning we are influenced by prior habits, expectations, and desires. Listening, then, is an active, creative process governed by the listener’s inner state.

Listening and Hearing

Although hearing is a necessary part of listening, it is only one part of this com­plex process. Hearing is a physiological process that occurs when sound waves are translated into electrical impulses that are then processed by the central ner­vous system. Hearing is the sensing of external aural data. Listening, on the other hand, goes much further. First, it involves selecting those sensations that are sent on for further processing and filtering out those that are extraneous. Second, it involves labeling, organizing, and assigning meaning to stimuli that have cap­tured our attention. Finally, listening involves storing these created meanings in retrievable form. If any of these processes is short-circuited, listening fails.