Define Listening. How listening is different from hearing?

Hearing is just receiving of sounds which takes place without any effort. Listening is an intelligent hearing of a speech or voice. It is with effort that we attend to a thing. This conscious effort of receiving a sound is called listening.

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Define Listening:

A complex and selective process of receiving, focusing, interpreting (explaining), accepting and storing of what one hears.

Hearing:

It means receiving of sounds.

Focusing:

It means to pay attention to the sounds which are of interest and importance to the listener.

Interpreting or deciphering:

After paying attention to a sound, we assign meanings to it and decode the words received.

Accepting:

It means understanding a message according to one’s abilities.

Storing:

To keep the accepted message in mind for future thinking.