1. 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
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2. 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, .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

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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

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

9. 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 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Effective vs. Ineffective Listening15

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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

18. 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

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

20. Websites Listening process
Listener etiquette 20