Decoding And Conducive To The Communication Process And The Listening Process

Listening Process

Listening is a difficult process. It does not take much effort to lose track of what the sender is trying to communicate. Good listening is required to properly complete the listening process, if poor listening takes place it reduces the retention capacity and sender do not receive proper response.

The body language at the time of listening should also be conducive to the communication process. It is important for the listener to listen accurately and respond, as listening is often a dialogue rather than a monologue.

“Listening is a process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/ or non-verbal messages”

- International Listening Association

As soon as the message is received by the listener it goes to our ‘sensory world’ i.e. to our senses. Through sound waves it enters our ears and then to the brain. However, it depends on our mind whether to grasp sound or not. If there are various sounds in the environment at the same time, our brain chooses to respond only to few sounds.

7.2 Decoding:

The process of decoding begins as soon as our mind captures the message. Decoding takes place as a conscious exercise. If the sender has been careful, decoding will be an easy task for the receiver. The message received is considered useful or useless. Filtering begins here; receiver retains to that part of message which makes sense to him and discard the rest.

7.3 Interpreting/ Comprehending:

At this stage filtered message is assigned a meaning. Unless the person is very specific while coding the message the meaning will differ, it will not be similar from person to person. According to one’s own perceptions people comprehend or understand the message. This activity may also be described as absorbing or interpreting, as the listener has not only used body, but also intellect in grasping the meaning of the

At this stage many questions comes in the mind of the listener, and he decides to critically analyze the message sent by the speaker.

7.6 Responding:

Response of the listener may take place at the end or even in the mid of communication. Response occur earlier if the listener ask questions to clarify the doubts and to empathize with the speaker or if it is intended to just provide feedback to the sender, response occur towards the end.

This is the stage where receivers will probably try to consider the statement with their own expectations. If there is harmony between the two, the response will be well prepared and helpful for everyone’s growth.

It is necessary that the process of listening does not break down, because if this happens it will not be effective. The speakers need not to ignore the listening process, as the effective delivery of the speaker affects the receivers listening capabilities. In this process there is the constant interaction between listener and speaker through the feedback provided in verbal and non verbal way.

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