Some pictures…

UNIT 4: LISTENING MATTERS

• Why is listening important?

• What is the difference between 'hearing' and 'listening'? Is one a part of the other; or, how are these processes related?

• Are men better at ‘listening’ than women?

• What are effective listening strategies?

• average student spends 53% of his/her waking hours listening (Barker et al., 1981)

Unit Objectives

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:• 1. explain the difference between 'hearing'

and 'listening';• 2. define the five stages in the listening

process;• 3. distinguish between the various types

of listening within the context of effective listening practice; and

• 4. apply appropriate strategies for listening for a variety of purposes.

'Hearing' versus 'listening'

• Hearing is the first step in the listening process.

• It is a physiological process of receiving sound signals via vibrations on the eardrum.

• Interference is caused by distracting noise, speaker’s voice, listener’s illness, etc. often affect it

Listening is…

• the psycholinguistic process of attaching meaning to incoming aural signals

• composed of the act of hearing and the interpretation of sound signals by the brain

• involves speech comprehension

• involves receiving the sound signals and purposefully attending to them to make sense of them

A Task…

1. In marital communication, wives generally choose one of the two following patterns as the preferred set of communication skills:

A Being self-confident, articulate, logical, persuasive, and accurate.

B Being attentive, empathic, and caring

A Task (cont’d…)

2.In supervisory communication, workers value:

• A Being goal oriented.

• B Being supportive.

A Task (cont’d…)

3.In the field of sales, customers prefer:

• A Learning what the customers needs are.

• B Knowing a lot about the product or service.

A Task (cont’d…)

4.In the context of negotiation to solve common problems, the communication behaviour more likely to be successful is:

• A Talking.

• B Listening.

A Task (cont’d…)

5. In the field of counselling, the pattern of behaviour more likely to be effective is:

• A Offering the person good, logical alternatives to think about.

• B Allowing the person to come to his/her own conclusions.

Listening: The Process

1. Receiving-basically hearing and receiving verbal and non-verbal stimuli

2. Understanding-listener learns what the speaker means (thoughts which have been expressed and their emotional tone)

3. Remembering-retaining messages for certain period of time; not really what was actually said but what you think was said

Listening: The Process (cont’d…)

4. Evaluating-judging the message in some way i.e. attaching some value to it in terms of how the message relates to you

5. Responding-occurs in two phases, namely, responses made by the listener while the speaker is talking, and responses made after the speaker has stopped talking (two types of feedback)

Listening: Cultural Differences

• Language: different speech codes• Non-verbal behavioural differences: e.g.

gestures and body language• Direct and indirect styles: some cultures are

more direct• Balance of story versus the evidence: value of

the story vs. evidence or facts• Credibility• Feedback: variable ways of responding and/or

giving feedback

Types of Listening

Listening for different reasons and for different purposes

• Participatory vs. passive listening- participatory listening: act physically and mentally like one who is participating in the act of communicating- passive listening: listening without talking and without directing the speaker in any non-verbal way to indicate total acceptance of ideas and to provide a supportive atmosphere

Types of Listening

• Empathic and objective listening- empathic listening: listening to feel what the speaker is feeling- objective listening: listening to understand what the speaker means both literally and non-literally

Types of Listening

• Non-judgemental and critical listening- non-judgemental listening: listening with an open mind and a view towards understanding - critical listening: listening with an aim to make some kind of evaluation or judgement i.e. listen and then evaluate

Types of Listening

• Surface and depth listening- surface listening: looking for obvious and literal meanings of words- depth listening: appreciation of other words meanings and distinguishing between different levels of meaning and/or nuances

Problems in Listening

• Passive listening

• Drifting thoughts

• Non-attention

• Intrusion of the past

• Self-fulfilling prophecy

Problems in listening

• Passive listening – also known as ‘lazy’ listening because it involves very little message retention

• Drifting thoughts – efficient listening can occur at about 400 words per minute but most speakers speak at a rate of about 125 to 175 wpm. - time lag caused by the difference in rate can lead to listeners entering their internal perceptual field i.e. ‘their own world’.

• Non-attention can also occur as a result of listeners withdrawing into their external perceptual field (interference from the physical environment – noise, smell, visual distractions etc.)

Listening problems…

• Intrusion of the past – past memories triggered by the words or the actions of the speaker. The listener debates mentally with the speaker about points made earlier by the latter or about previous encounters with the speaker

• Self-fulfilling prophecy – interference caused by preconceived ideas about the speaker and/or the topic of conversation E.g. preset ideas about the speaker being a dull person may lead to boredom even if the topic itself is an interesting/sensational one.

Critical Listening Techniques

• Appreciative listening

• Discriminative listening

• Therapeutic listening

• Listening for comprehension

• Critical listening

Critical Listening Techniques

• Appreciative listening – focus on aspects other than the message e.g. personality of speaker, speech style

• Discriminative listening – drawing inferences and conclusions based on the way the message is presented rather than what the conversation was about e.g. emotional overtones of the transaction, intellectual appeal

• Therapeutic listening – lending a sympathetic ear to the speaker by way of providing emotional support e.g. listening to personal problems and confessions

Critical listening…

• Listening for comprehension – to gain information and insights from the speaker e.g. talks, academic lectures, television news broadcasts, briefings, etc.

• Critical listening – interpretation and evaluation of the message, i.e. assessing its strengths and/or weaknesses, and assigning a value (“interesting”, “useful”, “insightful” etc) e.g. classroom listening, sales pitch, political speech. Decisions are made whether to accept or reject ideas, and whether to act on the advice given

Critical Listening: Process

• Do I understand the ideas?• What is the main thrust of what was said?• Does the speaker’s message relate to other

things I know about the topic?• Does the speaker provide supporting material

and acceptable explanations?• Are the speaker’s conclusions defensible?

Critical Message Comprehension

In formal contexts:

• ideas;

• structure of message; and

• support materials.

Self-check Questions

• What are the main ideas? i.e. the central idea(s) of the transaction and the statements supporting it/them

• How are the ideas arranged? Identify the structure i.e. problem-solution, cause-effect, general-specific, spatial, temporal, or chronological order?

• What kind of materials support does the speaker provide for the main idea(s)?

• Quality of the content (facts or mere opinions used to support speaker’s stand; how recent?);

• Use of statistics and generalisation acceptable?

Assessing the speech transaction

• The speech situation: How is the physical situation affecting the transaction and my understanding of it?

• The speaker: What do I know about the speaker? How believable is he or she? Is the speaker adequately prepared? What is his/her attitude towards the listener/audience?

• The message: How solid are the ideas presented? Are the ideas well structured? Is there sufficient evidence to support the ideas?

Note-taking…

• Notes complement good listening techniques.

• Develop an efficient note-taking system (files, books, cards etc.)

• Content of notes must include central claim/thesis, main ideas, supporting ideas, issues and comment, listeners’ questions etc.

For Self-reflection…

“There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for.”

(James Nathan Miller