Public Speaking Chapter Four Listening to Speeches

Listening to select a sound is to single out a message from several competing messages a listener has many competing messages to sort through, including personal thoughts your job as a public speaker is to motivate your listeners to focus on your message to attend to a sound is to focus on it most people’s average attention span while listening to someone speak is 8 seconds your choice of supporting material is often the key to gaining and maintaining attention

Listening to understand something, people assign meaning to the information that comes their way it is known that people understand what they hear by relating it to something that they have already seen or heard as a speaker, you should clearly explain your ideas in terms and images that your listeners understand

Listening to remember is to recall ideas and information typically, the best way to determine if an audience has been listening it to determine what they can remember Your goal as a public speaker is to develop and deliver a speech that audience members will listen and respond to.

Barriers to Effective Listening Information Overload Everyone has the potential to become an effective listener. The problem is that we listen so much that instead of getting better at it, we are getting better at “tuning things out” because we are tired of listening to so many things.

Barriers to Effective Listening What you can do as a speaker: make sure your speech has a good balance between new information and supporting material a speech that has too many facts, definitions, or ideas makes listening difficult pace the flow of new ideas and information 30% of your speaking time should be presenting new ideas 70% of your speaking time should be spend supporting these ideas with examples and stories (interesting ones!)

Barriers to Effective Listening what you can do as a listener: the key to being a good listener is to recognize when you are NOT being a good listener and adjust make a special effort to concentrate on the information that you are hearing look at the speaker sit up straight remain focused on the message

Personal Concerns Your own thoughts are the biggest competitors for your attention when you are a member of an audience what you can do as a speaker: use “wake up” messages (such as “Now listen…”) use good eye contact use appropriate volume and vocal variation speak with appropriate gestures for emphasis

Personal Concerns What you can do as a listener: stop the mental conversation that you are having with yourself about ideas that are not related to the speaker’s message be aware of thoughts, worries, and daydreams that are competing for your attention once you are aware that you are off task, return your attention to what the speaker is saying

Outside Distractions What you can do as a speaker: be aware of anything that might distract your listeners’ attention how are the chairs arranged? (does the arrangement allow for a clear view of you and your materials?) is there distracting or irrelevant information on the whiteboard? check out the room ahead of time (if possible) look where your audience will be seated and look for possible distractions then, reduce or eliminate them while speaking, politely discourage whispering or talking

Outside Distractions What you can do as a listener: be on the lookout for potential distractions move your seat, if necessary if you need to, close the blinds, turn off the lights, etc. (anything that might help the speaker and prevent distractions)

Prejudice Prejudice is preconceived opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about a person, place, thing, or message When you prejudge a message, your ability to understand it decreases Ways to prejudge a message: a Democrat, while listening to a Republican speaker, may listen differently to the message because of political differences making snap judgments based on a speaker’s appearance too readily accepting what a speaker says because of the way he or she looks, sounds, or dresses

Prejudge What you can do as a speaker: do your best to get your audience’s attention at the beginning of your message make sure you are not using examples, words, or phrases that could be misinterpreted when you are speaking to a group that might be critical or hostile of your message, be sure to use careful language, sound reasoning, detailed arguments, detailed and convincing evidence strong emotional appeals will not work in these types of situations

Prejudice What you can do as a listener: be aware of your preconceived notions try to avoid becoming so critical of a message that you don’t listen to it or are so impressed that you decide too quickly that the speaker is trustworthy without examining the evidence

Differences Between Speech Rate and Thought Rate Most people talk at a rate of 125 words a minute, but have the ability to listen to up to 700 words a minute some studies claim people can listen to up to 1,200 words a minute the problem that this presents is that this gives audience members time to ignore a speaker periodically – and eventually stop listening

Differences Between Speech Rate and Thought Rate What you can do as a speaker: build in message redundancy / have appropriate internal summaries in speech use clear transitions be well organized make your major ideas clear

Differences Between Speech Rate and Thought Rate What you can do as a listener: use your mental power to stay focused on the message periodically make a mental summary of what a speaker is saying to increase your ability to remember the information

Receiver Apprehension Receiver apprehension is the fear of misunderstanding or misinterpreting the spoken messages of others. If you experience receiver /listener apprehension, you may have difficulty understanding all that you hear because your fear creates “noise” that may interfere how much information you comprehend

Receiver Apprehension What you can do as a speaker: be more redundant offer clear preview statements include appropriate summaries when making transitions summarize key points at the end of your speech use visual presentation aids

Receiver Apprehension What you can do as a listener: work harder to try to comprehend a message use a tape recorder to record a lecture (BUT ASK PERMISSION FIRST) summarize mentally what you hear take accurate notes

How to Become a Better Listener Listen with your eyes as well as your ears nonverbal cues play a major role in communicating a message – some have even estimated that 93% of the emotional context of a speech is conveyed through nonverbal cues Accurately interpret nonverbal messages a speaker’s facial expressions will help you identify the emotions being communicated posture and gestures reinforce the intensity of an emotion get a good view to increase nonverbal cue understanding

How to Become a Better Listener consider nonverbal cues in context look for clusters of cues look for cues that communicate liking, power, and responsiveness Adapt to the speaker’s delivery to be a good listener, you must adapt to a speaker’s idiosyncrasies do not mentally criticize a speaker, focus on the message

How to Become a Better Listener at the same time, just because a speaker is polished and sounds good, does not mean that his or her message is credible Listen mindfully be conscious of whether or not you are actually paying attention to a speaker Monitor your emotional reaction to a message if you become angry at a word or phrase that s speaker uses, your listening comprehension decreases don’t let a speaker’s message close down your mind

How to Become a Better Listener Avoid jumping to conclusions give a speaker time to develop and support his or her main point before you decide whether or not the message has any value Be a selfish listener find a way to benefit from the information that you are listening to ask yourself “What’s in it for me?” and “How can I use this information?”

How to Become a Better Listener Listen skillfully identify your listening goal listen for major ideas practice good listening methods adapt to listening styles as necessary be an active listener

How to Become a Better Listener Identify your listening goal there are at least four major listening goals: listening for pleasure you listen to something just for the fun of it to empathize make an attempt to feel what the speaker is feeling (stop, look, listen, imagine, check for understanding) to evaluate making a judgment about the content to gain information to learn something

How to Become a Better Listener Listen for major ideas facts are useful only when you can connect them to a principle or concept in speeches, facts and examples are used to support major ideas try to summarize the major ideas that the specific facts support Practice Listening listening skills do not develop automatically – you need to practice

How to Become a Better Listener Understanding your listening style listening styles are preferred ways of making sense out of spoken messages people-oriented listeners are comfortable listening to others express feelings and emotions action-oriented listeners prefer information that is well organized, brief, and accurate content-oriented listeners prefer messages that are supported with facts and details time-oriented listeners like short and succinct messages

How to Become a Better Listener Become and active listener an active listener is one who remains alert and mentally re-sorts, rephrases, and repeats key information when listening to a speech. re-sort – seek ways to rearrange the speaker’s information into a new, more logical pattern rephrase – summarize key points or information that you want to remember into your own words – you will remember the information better repeat – repeat key points that you want to remember go back to essential ideas and restate them to yourself

Improving Your Note-taking Skills It is difficult to remember the details of a long speech unless you have taken notes. When you couple note taking with good listening skills, your ability to remember information is greatly increased. To improve your note-takings skills: prepare – come prepared to take notes, even if you aren’t sure that you will need to determine whether you need to take notes

Improving Your Note-taking Skills decide on the type of notes you need to take – this will depend on what you will need to do with the information after the speech make your notes meaningful – beware of taking too many notes leave a blank area in your margin to use while reviewing your notes – this can help to sort through / retain pertinent information

Listening and Critical Thinking Critical listening is the process of listening to evaluate the quality, appropriateness, value, or importance of the information you hear. Critical listening is a mental process of making judgments about the conclusions presented in what you see, hear, and read. the goal of being a critical listener or a critical thinker is to evaluate information and to make a choice – to assess the quality of information and the validity of the conclusions presented

Listening and Critical Thinking Separate facts from inferences Facts are based on something that has been proven by direct observation. An inference is a conclusion based on partial information or an evaluation that has not been directly observed. Facts are in the realm of certainty, whereas inferences are in the realm of probability and opinion This is where most arguments in public speaking are!

Listening and Critical Thinking Evaluate the Quality of Evidence Evidence consists of the facts, examples, opinions, and statistics that a speaker uses to support a conclusion. without credible supporting evidence, you should not agree with a speaker’s conclusions some speakers use examples if the examples are not typical or if only one examples out of many is offered, you should question the conclusion

Listening and Critical Thinking speakers might also use opinions the best opinions come from reliable, credible sources (people who have experience, credentials to make a statement about the topic) a statistic is a number that summarizes a collection of examples think about if the statistics are reliable, unbiased, recent, representative, and valid before believing the speaker’s conclusion

Listening and Critical Thinking Evaluate the underlying logic and reasoning an effective critical thinker listens not only for evidence, but also for the overall structure of the logic that the speaker uses to reach a conclusion. Logic is a formal system of rules applied to reach a conclusion. reasoning is the process of drawing conclusion from evidence within the logical framework of arguments when a speaker is trying to change your behavior, listen carefully to the logical or structure of the argument

Listening and Critical Thinking a study of communication principles and skills not only helps you to become a better public speaker, but also a better consumer of messages this is a benefit that you will use for the rest of your life – in various situations

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches Your critical thinking and listening skills will help you evaluate not only the speeches of others, but also your own speeches. To make a judgment about the value of something, it is important to use criteria for what is and what is not effective or appropriate. Rhetorical criticism is the process of using a method or standards to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of messages.

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches Rhetoric is the process of using symbols to create meaning to achieve a goal. as a public speaker, you use symbols to create meaning in the minds of your listeners and to achieve a goal (to inform, to entertain, to persuade)

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches Understanding Criteria for Evaluating Speeches Your public speaking teacher will undoubtedly have a rubric or evaluation form for speeches, but there are two fundamental goals for what constitutes a “good” speech: it is effective it is ethical

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches The message should be effective: to be effective, the message of a speech should be understandable to listeners and should achieve its purpose if listeners fail to comprehend the speaker’s ideas, the speech fails as you listen to speeches, a fundamental piece to look at in determining the success of a speech is whether or not you understood the message another way to evaluate the effectiveness of a message is to assess whether it achieved its intended goal this an only truly happen if the goal of the speech is clear (which, unfortunately, is not always the case)

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches The message should be ethical if a speaker’s message is clearly understood by the audience and also gets the reaction the speaker desired, but the speaker has used unethical means to achieve the goal, the message might be effective, but it was not appropriate an ethical public speaker focuses not only on achieving the goal of the message, but also doing so in an ethical way (while being sensitive and responsive to listeners)

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches Identifying and analyzing rhetorical strategies: symbols are words, images, and behaviors that create meaning for others public speakers use symbols to achieve their goals rhetorical strategies are methods and techniques that speaker use to achieve their speaking goals in order to enhance your listening skills, you should be more aware of how message influence your behavior (i.e. – rhetorical strategies)

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches some speakers use unethical strategies to achieve their goals, such as misusing evidence, relying too heavily on emotion to persuade, or fabricating information the more clearly you can identify and analyze the speaker’s methods, the more effectively you can assess whether the message and the messenger are worthy of your support

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches Giving Feedback to Others to criticize a speech is to discuss the speech – identifying both strengths and aspects that could be improved. to give effective feedback: be descriptive – in a neutral way, describe what you saw be specific – make sure your descriptions are precise enough to give the speaker a clear iamge

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches be positive – begin and end your feedback with positive comments be constructive – give the speaker suggestions or alternatives for improvements be sensitive – use “I” statements rather than “you” statements be realistic – provide usable information

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches Giving feedback to yourself: you are the most important critic of your speeches look for and reinforce your skills and speaking abilities – try to recognize your strengths and skills as a public speaker evaluate your effectiveness based on your specific speaking situation – be flexible and adapt principles and practices to specific speech situations

Analyzing and Evaluating Speeches identify one or two areas for improvement – after each speaking opportunity, identify what you did right and then a suggestion or two about ways to improve