Listening

1. Listening (It’s just as important as speaking!)

2. Listening v. Hearing • Estimation Activity – how much do we listen? • What is hearing? • The act of receiving sound • What is listening? • The 4-step process of receiving, interpreting, evaluating, and responding to messages. • We listen an average of 55% of the time we are communicating • Why is it that we only retain 50% of what we hear? • List on board good/bad listening skills (write examples in notes)

3. Receiving • What does this involve? • Hearing AND seeing • What does this mean? How can we “see” a message? • Main idea of receiving: • Both eyes and ears play very important roles in the process • Eyes read the nonverbal signals • Ears hear the verbal message

4. Interpreting • After an effective listener receives a message, they try to interpret the message to fully understand what the speaker is saying. • Listen for vocal inflections, tone, pitch, volume, and rate of speaking • Look for nonverbal cues – like what?

5. Evaluating • Connect your ideas and feelings about the subject of the message • Identify and understand the subject in a message – do you agree, disagree, or need more information?

6. Responding • Speakers get frustrated if they feel like the person they are speaking to isn’t listening • A response shows the speaker that they got their message across effectively – or not! • Thought speed – listeners process words faster than the speaker can say them – this works to our advantage! How? • We can hear up to 500-600 words per minute, but we can only speak an average of 100-150 words per minute

7. 4 Types of Listening • Appreciative – for enjoyment or pleasure; using your active imagination to interpret a message • Ex: • Informational – to gain information and to understand the message • Ex: • Empathetic – to provide emotional support • Ex: • Critical – to evaluate a message to accept or reject it (making a decision or forming an opinion about the message) • Ex.:

8. Barriers to Listening • External – noises and distractions (anything annoying) • Common classroom external barriers? • How can you deal with external barriers as a speaker? As a listener? • Speaker – characteristics of the speaker that interfere with listening • Appearance & manner • Prejudice (you don’t like that person) • Lack of believability (Credibility)

9. Barriers to Listening (cont.) • Listener –personal attitudes or behaviors of the listener that interfere with listening • Internal distractions – thoughts, feelings, or even physical distress • Lack of knowledge – simply don’t understand what the speaker is talking about • Personal prejudices – personal beliefs about a certain topic; close-minded; sensitive topics cause barriers • Desire to talk - many people would rather talk than listen

10. Ways to effectively listen • Prepare yourself to listen • Physically and mentally • Take notes • Resist distractions • Anticipate what the speaker is going to say (following format?) • Make sure you understand the message • Don’t be distracted by the speaker’s appearance or delivery • Don’t jump to conclusions • Give everyone a fair chance, even if you don’t like them • Best to let the speaker finish before judging. Why? • Take it seriously – benefits your grades, relationships, future

11. Listener’s Responsibilities • Avoid rudeness – we are not always aware of how obvious our behaviors are to a speaker • Avoid electronic rudeness – no phones out!!! • Avoid working on other work • No sleeping!! • Provide encouragement – how? • Find the value in every speech • Can you learn anything new? • What good delivery techniques is the speaker using? • How can I learn from the speaker’s mistakes?