Many times the attitude of the listener acts as a barrier to effective listening. This makes it difficult to perceive what is being said and thus acts as a barrier to effective listening. Sometimes we are preoccupied with personal concerns and anxieties.
This acts as a barrier to the listening process as the listener will not listen to what the speaker has to say. He may perceive the speaker to not be well informed, or to be lacking in depth and ability. These include the following:īased on past experience or inputs from sources, the listener may have a preconceived notion of the speaker’s ability. Psychological barriers relate to attitudinal and behavioral aspects.
Spending the time concentrating on the message and analyzing it would improve listening. The listener has to be careful of this rather than let his mind wander. This leaves the listener with sufficient time to let his mind wander. The difference between the two is quite large-350 words per minute. Research shows that the human mind can process words at the rate of about 500 per minute, whereas a speaker speaks at the rate of about 150 words per minute. Similarly, when a speaker speaks very rapidly, it may also result in an unclear message reaching the listener. At times the speaker’s accent, though not a disability, may make it difficult for the listener to comprehend. Similarly, speech disorders of the speaker may make speech incoherent to the listener. Hearing is the first step of the listening process and, therefore, hearing deficiencies may lead to poor listening. Similarly poor health conditions of a speaker reduce his ability to speak well and this in turn reduces the listening efficiency of the listener. Fever, pain or any other form of bodily discomfort makes it difficult for an individual to listen attentively. The physical condition of the individual affects the listening ability. People-related barriers can be both physiological and psychological. Uncomfortable seating arrangements and environmentīoth the speaker and the listener influence the communication process.Thus, we can summarize the physical barriers to include: Message overload, which involves listening to a lot of information one after another, also makes it impossible to listen attentively after a certain point. Lnterruption by other people or by the telephone while someone is speaking disturb the concentration of the listener, frustrate the speaker and make the listening process less effective. Poor acoustics of the room or uncomfortable seating arrangements may make it difficult for the listener to concentrate on the speaker. In case a device like a microphone or telephone is being used, then the malfunctioning of the device will act as a hurdle or it may also result in the failure of transmission of the message from the speaker to the listener.
The first step of the listening process is hearing, and extraneous noise disturbs the hearing process.Įxtraneous noise disturbs both the listener and the speaker. Noise, poor acoustics, malfunctioning of the mechanical devices being used, frequent interruptions and uncomfortable seating arrangements are physical barriers that hamper effective listening.
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