Lecture The Study of Intercultural Communication Key Terms

3.5 Listening
Communication is a two-way process, for every person speaking there is usually someone who is listening. The receiving role in the communication process is just as important as the sending role, although it has received much less attention from communication scholars.
Most of us are not very effective listeners, because we are passive instead of active listeners. One reason for our inattentiveness while listening is because humans typically speak at about 125 to 150 words per minute, while individuals can listen at a rate of 400 words per minute. During our spare time as a listener, we often let our mind wander to other topics. Such inattentive listening often occurs during lecture classes. Twenty minutes after a lecture, listeners can remember only about half of the message content. One hour after the lecture, remembering drops to 40 percent; one day later this figure is 35 percent, and after two days it is 30 percent. One week after the lecture, listeners can remember 27 percent, and after two weeks, 25 percent. These data reflect the abilities of average individuals.
One principle of listening is to listen through the words in order to detect central themes. A good listener demonstrates attentiveness, does not interrupt, and is cautious in asking questions of the speaker. A listener should control his/her emotions and avoid being distracted. Listening demonstrates caring for the speaker and the topic.
Active listening consists of two steps:

1. 
   hearing, or exposure to the message;
   
2. 
   understanding, when we connect the message to what we already know;
   
3. 
   remembering, so that we do not lose the message content;
   
4. 
   evaluating, thinking about the message and deciding whether or not it is valid;
   
5. 
   responding, when we encode a return message based on what we have heard and what we think of it.
   

Cultural factors affect each of these five components of active listening. In many cultures that consider it impolite to ask a speaker a question responding may not be valued, and to disagree would be unthinkable. Many of the difficulties in communication between culturally unalike individuals may be due to cultural factors in listening behavior. It is often problematic as to whether one’s conversation partner is tuned in or not.