Listening

Chapter 7Chapter 7

ListeningListening

Chapter 7Chapter 7

ListeningListening

Inter-Act, 13th Edition Inter-Act, 13th Edition

Chapter Objectives

Discuss the three challenges that make it difficult forus to effectively listen

List and describe the five steps in the active listeningprocess

Discuss the guidelines and skills that can help youimprove your ability to listen

Discussion Question:

Based on your work and life experience, what are someof the reasons why you and others have listenedpoorly?

Listening

Listening makes up 42-60% ofour communication.

Writing

Speaking

Reading

Class Activity

A common complaint from women is that men don’tlisten well…

Challenges to effective listening

Personal and cultural styles of listening

Listening Apprehension

Dual processes in listening

Personal & Cultural Styles ofListening

Content-oriented: prefer to focus on facts and evidence

People-oriented: prefer to focus on conversational partners and theirfeelings

Action-oriented: prefer to focus on point speaker istrying to make

Time-oriented: prefer brief and swift conversations

Listening Apprehension

Fear of misinterpretation

Fear of the psychologicalaffect of the message

Dual Processes in Listening

Passive listening: effortless, thoughtless, and habitual process

Active listening: skillful, intentional, deliberate, and consciousprocess

The Active Listening Process

Attending

Understanding

Remembering

Critically Evaluating

Responding

The process of receiving, constructingmeaning from, and responding tospoken and/or nonverbal messages

Attending

The process of willfully striving to perceive selectedsounds that are being heard

Get physically and mentally ready to listen.

Make the shift from speaker to listener a complete one.

Resist tuning out.

Avoid interrupting.

Understanding

Process of accurately decoding a message so that youshare its meaning with the speaker

Identify the speaker’s purpose and key points.

Observe nonverbal cues.

Ask clarifying questions.

Paraphrase what you heard.

Paraphrase the following statements to reflectboth the thoughts and feelings of the personspeaking:

1.“I really like communication, but what could I dowith a major in this field?”

2.“I don’t know if Pat and I are getting too serioustoo fast.”

3.“You can borrow my car, if you really need to, butplease be careful with it. I can’t afford any repairsand if you have an accident, I won’t be able todrive to D.C. this weekend.”

Remembering

Reasons we fail to remember

Using repetition to remember

We filter out messages

We listen anxiously orpassively

We remember “easy” or“desirable” messages

We forget the middle

Primacy effect

Recency effect

Repeat two, three, four times

Create mnemonics

Take notes

Process of moving information from short-termmemory to long-term memory

Mnemonics

Any artificial technique used as amemory aid

For example: take the first letter of alist you are trying to remember andcreate a word

HOMES (the five Great Lakes)

Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Note Taking

Take notes when you

are listening to

complex

information.

Brief outline:

Overall idea

Main points

Key developmental material

Critically EvaluatingInformation

Separate facts from inferences

Fact – a verifiable statement

Inference – a conclusion drawn fromfacts

Probe for information

Responding

Process of providing feedback to your partner’s message

Back-channel cues: verbal and nonverbal signalsdemonstrating listener response to the speaker

Reply when message is complete

Respond to the previous message before changing thesubject

Class Activity

Scenarios?

Form groups of 3

Listener

Story Teller

Observer

Takes notes on verbal/nonverbal messages, examplesof paraphrasing/questioning

What factors led to listening difficulties? Whatbehaviors demonstrated effective listening?

Digital Communication Literacy

Extra effort is required to understand digital messages.

Critically evaluate social media messages to separatefacts from inferences.

Recognize underlying motives, values, ideologies.

Digital messages should not completely replace face-to-face communication.

Homework

Create a communication improvement plan fordeveloping/improving on a particular listening skill(questioning or paraphrasing) or an aspect of thelistening process (attending, understanding,remembering, critically evaluating, and responding).

Be sure to also incorporate your class activity toillustrate your current assessment of your listeningskills.

Check your assignment rubric and past assignmentevaluations for additional support.