Listening Effectively Listening is an essential skill for effective communication – the point of which is to share meaning with one another Often we listen, but misunderstand, don’t remember, miss what was said or just plain don’t listen because we’re thinking of something else chapter focuses on improving your listening ability so you can better understand and retain speech material Comstock/Jupiter Images

Hearing vs. Listening Hearing – the biological process that occurs when the brain detects sound waves. Listening – the process of receiving, attending to, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken or nonverbal messages.* *International Listening Association, 1996, @http://www .listen.org/ (accessed March 2, 2007). These are not the same – you must hear before you can listen When communicating 50% or more of time is spent listening Even when listening well – most remember only 50% of what they hear shortly after and 25% two days later Becoming a more effective listener requires understanding and practicing effective listening skills Why would you want to do this? Besides for this class… 80% of top-level North American executives believe listening is one of the most important skills needed in the corporate environment mistakes happen and can cost companies money when employees and leaders/managers aren’t listening effectively both sides of the spectrum – employees not listening and manager/leaders not listening to employees 2

Chapter Sections Five different types of listening Improving your listening skills Guidelines for providing a constructive and ethical speech critique 3

Five Different Types of Listening Chapter Section 1 Five Different Types of Listening 4

Types of Listening Empathic – to be a sounding board to help a friend sort through feelings. Comprehensive – to understand, remember, and recall what has been said. Critical – to evaluate the worth of a message. Comprehensive example – professor, training seminars, weatherman Critical example – when listening to a salesman 5

Types of Listening (cont.) Appreciative – to enjoy the thoughts and experiences of others. Discriminative – to understand the speaker’s meaning conveyed beyond the words themselves. Appreciative – listening to music or those we enjoy listening to Discriminative – non-verbal cues (rate pitch, inflection, gestures) example – doctor revealing test results 6

Improving Your Listening Skills Chapter Section 2 Improving Your Listening Skills Complex psychological process made up of 5 steps. We’ll cover ways to improve your listening in each step. 7

The Five Steps of Effective Listening Attending, Understanding, Remembering, Evaluating, and Responding to the message. Discovery Channel / Everett Collection 8

Attending to the Speech Attending - paying attention to what the speaker is saying regardless of extraneous interferences. Get physically ready to listen, Resist mental distractions while you listen, Suspend judgment while you hear the speaker out, and Identify the benefits of attending to the speaker’s words. people speak at a rate of 120 to 150wpm, but brain understands 400-800 wpm attention span for most is only 20 minutes 4 techniques to improve attending: get physically ready – sit up, lean forward, make eye contact and stop any random movements resist mental distraction while you listen don’t judge while speaker is speaking – work hard to listen and understand speaker’s position identify the benefits of listening to the speaker’s words how will the information be useful to you? 9

Understanding and Remembering Understanding – the ability to assign accurate meaning to what was said. Remembering – to be able to retain and recall information we have heard. To facilitate understanding and remembering - good listening techniques should be employed. 10

Five Listening Techniques Determine the speaker’s organization, Ask questions, Silently paraphrase key information, Observe nonverbal cues, and Take good notes. Determine the speaker’s organization – to establish a framework for understanding and remembering information speech goal, main points and key details Ask questions – to help identify key aspects of the speech and to determine whether enough information was presented make notes during the speech and ask those that weren’t answered at the end Silently paraphrase key information not repeating what was said, but putting it into your own words (paraphrase) Observe nonverbal cues – notice where and how the speaker is attempting to use tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures to emphasize important points Take good notes – makes you a more active listener and you can go back to them if needed 11

Evaluating and Responding Evaluating - to critically analyze what is said to determine its truthfulness, utility, and trustworthiness. Responding - to provide feedback to the speaker about what is being said. Evaluate to make sure you don’t just go along with what’s being said. It needs to make sense to you and your beliefs. Responding usually happens non-verbally through behaviors (smiling, nodding and applauding) 12

Effective vs. Ineffective Listening 15

Guidelines for Constructive Critiques Chapter Section Three Guidelines for Constructive Critiques An analysis of a presentation that evaluates how well a speaker meets a specific speaking goal and offers recommendations for how it could be improved There are 4 elements You will be required to do this as one of your writing assignments 13

Four Guidelines for Constructive Critique Communicate specific observations, Begin with positive observations before stating constructive criticisms, Explain how and why the observed behavior affected the speech, and Using “I” rather than “you” language, so you make it clear you are expressing your perception and not some absolute “Truth.” Be specific not general – that doesn’t provide meaningful feedback 14

Content of Speech Constructive critiques offer observations about a speech’s content, structure and delivery Comments on content focus on what the speaker said and an analysis of the topic and supporting material 16

Structure of Speech Comments on structure focus on both the overall structure (macrostructure) and wording (microstructure) of the speech 17

Delivery of Speech Comments on delivery focus on how the speaker used his or her voice and body As a public speaker, you can also complete a self-critique after each speech to help reduce anxiety through cognitive restructuring note one or two specific things done well in terms of content, structure and delivery consider one thing that you will improve for your next speech 18

Do a Constructive Critique In Slide Show Mode, click on the box to view the video. 19

Websites Listening process http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kline-listen/b10ch3.htm Listener etiquette http://www.nvcc.edu/home/npeck/spd100/etiquette.htm 20