Listening

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7 Inter-Act, 13th Edition

Listening
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We have two ears and one mouth so that we can
listen twice as much as we speak. Epictetus
(55 AD 135 AD)
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Listening makes up 42-60 of our communication.
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Listening
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Listening Styles

• Content-oriented prefer to focus on facts and
  evidence
• People-oriented prefer to focus on
  conversational partners and their feelings
• Action-oriented prefer to focus on point speaker
  is trying to make
• Time-oriented prefer brief and swift
  conversations

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Listening Apprehension

• Fear of misinterpretation
• Fear of the psychological affect of the message

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Dual Processes in Listening

• Listening vs. Hearing
• Passive listening effortless, thoughtless, and
  habitual process
• Active listening skillful, intentional,
  deliberate, and conscious process

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Listening
The process of receiving, constructing meaning
from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal
messages

• Attending
• Understanding
• Remembering
• Critically Evaluating
• Responding

Slides with definitions to follow.
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Attending

• The process of willfully striving to perceive
  selected sounds 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.

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Acknowledging the Speaker
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Understanding

• Process of accurately decoding a message so that
  you share its meaning with the speaker
• Identify the speakers purpose and key points.
• Observe nonverbal cues.
• Ask clarifying questions.
• Paraphrase what you heard.

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Reflecting Back and Paraphrasing
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Paraphrase the following statements to reflect
both the thoughts and feelings of the person
speaking

1. I really like communication, but what could I do
   with a major in this field?
2. I dont know if Pat and I are getting too
   serious too fast.
3. You can borrow my car, if you really need to,
   but please be careful with it. I cant afford any
   repairs and if you have an accident, I wont be
   able to drive to D.C. this weekend.

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

• Reasons we fail to remember

• Using repetition to remember

• We filter out messages
• We listen anxiously or passively
• We remember easy or desirable messages
• We forget the middle
• Primacy effect
• Recency effect

• Repeat two, three, four times
• Create mnemonics
• Take notes

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Mnemonics
n?-mänik

• Any artificial technique used as a memory aid
• For example take the first letter of a list you
  are trying to remember and create a word

HOMES (the five Great Lakes) Huron, Ontario,
Michigan, Erie, Superior
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Some Types of Mnemonics

• Create a word/acronym HOMES, AWOL, RSVP
• Create a memorable sentence with the first
  letter of each word Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips
  Move
• Create a rhyme I before E except after C
• Create a song/poem 30 Days Hath September,
  April June and November...
• Create a visual representation (next slide)

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Create a Visual Representation
George Vales
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Create a Visual Representation
George Vales
Vales Whales
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A Bad Mnemonic Device
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Note Taking

• Take notes when you
• are listening to
• complex
• information.
• Brief outline
• Overall idea
• Main points
• Key developmental material

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Critically Evaluating Information

• Separate facts from inferences
• Fact a verifiable statement
• Inference a conclusion drawn from facts
• Probe for information

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Responding

• Process of providing feedback to your partners
  message
• Back-channel cues verbal and nonverbal signals
  demonstrating listener response to the speaker
• Reply when message is complete
• Respond to the previous message before changing
  the subject

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Digital Communication Literacy
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Digital Communication Literacy

• Extra effort is required to understand digital
  messages.
• Critically evaluate social media messages to
  separate facts from inferences.
• Recognize underlying motives, values, ideologies.
• Digital messages should not completely replace
  face-to-face communication.