Critical Listening
Critical listening is a form of listening style that involves scrutinizing or evaluating what the speaker is saying. It encompasses both critical thinking, analysis, and judgment (Brownell 17). In most cases, it occurs when an individual is willing to understand what the speaker is saying and at the same time he or she is taking the responsibility of evaluating how the message is getting delivered. This type of listening style gets commonly used each day.
Strengths of Critical Listening
There are several strengths of critical listening. Firstly, when students critically listen, they can adequately determine the authors/speakers' viewpoint on what he or she is communicating. Further, students organize ideas and identify the important or most essential concepts (German 38). Through listening critically, an individual can ask questions and clarify the points that seemingly the author did not tackle sufficiently. Also, a student can summarize the meaning of the content being delivered and thus conclusively determine how the existing evidence relates to the given message. Moreover, the listener can judge the credibility of the author/speaker and the message or content by paraphrasing the overall ideas presented (Brownell 24). Finally, the student or listener can draw conclusions from the message and thus apply it to other aspects of real-life situations.
Challenges in Critical Listening
However, there exist some challenges in critical listening. In instances where the speaker is boring or uninteresting, the listener finds it challenging to listen and evaluate the content appropriately. Further, it mainly focuses only criticizing the speakers' content, and thus if personal biases exist, the listener is likely to deem the content or message meaninglessness (Brownell 18). In some of the cases, critical listening may result in disagreeing with the message and thus lead to a stop listening.
Switching Listening Styles
There are times when an individual need to switch from critical listening to other listening styles. For instance, when you want to enjoy music or a story, it is essential that you apply the appreciative listening style. Also, when you want to assist a friend or somebody through a disturbing situation, it is advisable to apply relationship listening style (Scanlon et al. 46). Finally, discriminative listening is essential when communicating with an individual via texts or other social media platforms.
Barriers to Effective Communication
One of the barriers to effective communication that I find myself struggling with is regularly interrupting the communicator or speaker. It makes me miss some of the critical information that speakers try to pass. For instance, sometimes I interrupt the communicator even before they finish their thoughts on what they were saying. To fix this, I intend to be allowing the speaker to complete their entire idea before responding. I will follow this strategy by politely raising my hand to ensure that I interject only when the speaker finds it appropriate to respond.
The other barrier is the distraction from various factors which impacts my ability to listen. For instance, a text from my phone may make me think about other matters other than what the speaker is saying and thus result in missing important information from the communicator. To curb this, I strive to maintain eye contact with the communicator to ensure that I do not focus on other issues. This will hopefully help as I will also be switching off my phone or laptop to ensure maximum concentration.
Conclusion
The goal of critical listening is always analyzing and determining the agenda of the speaker. It is a useful listening strategy although not applicable at all times when listening. The listener must determine the appropriate listening strategy concerning the present situation. Further, every individual should ensure that they strive to overcome the barriers to effective listening.
Works Cited
Brownell, Judi. Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills. Routledge, 2015, p. 16-24.
Scanlon, Jaimie, et al. Q: skills for success: listening and speaking. Oxford University Press, 2015, p 46.
German, Kathleen, et al. Principles of public speaking. Routledge, 2017, p. 38.
