LISTENING SKILLS

LISTENING SKILLS Prof.Meenakshi Gupta Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology, PowaiMumbai

Basic Communication Skills Profile ________________________________________________ Communication Order Learned Extent Used Extent Taught ____________________________________________ Listening First First Fourth Speaking Second Second Third Reading Third Third Second Writing Fourth Fourth First

Meaning • Listening Is With The Mind • Hearing With The Senses • Listening Is Conscious. • An Active Process Of Eliciting Information • Ideas, Attitudes And Emotions • Interpersonal, Oral Exchange

Fallacies about Listening • Listening is not my problem! • Listening and hearing are the same • Good readers are good listeners • Smarter people are better listeners • Listening improves with age • Learning not to listen • Thinking about what we are going to say rather than listening to a speaker • Talking when we should be listening • Hearing what we expect to hear rather than what is actually said • Not paying attention ( preoccupation, prejudice, self-centeredness, stero-type) • Listening skills are difficult to learn

Stages of the Listening Process • Hearing • Focusing on the message • Comprehending and interpreting • Analyzing and Evaluating • Responding • Remembering

Types of Listening • Informative Listening • Vocabulary • Concentration • Memory • Relationship Listening • Attending • Supporting • Empathizing • Appreciative Listening • Presentation • Perception • Previous experience

Types of Listening (Cont.) • Critical Listening • Ethos • Logos • Pathos • Discriminative Listening • Hearing Ability • Awareness of Sound Structure • Integration of non-verbal cues

Barriers to Active Listening • Environmental barriers • Physiological barriers • Psychological barriers • Selective Listening • Negative Listening Attitudes • Personal Reactions • Poor Motivation

How to Be an Effective Listener • What You Think about Listening ? • Understand the complexities of listening • Prepare to listen • Adjust to the situation • Focus on ideas or key points • Capitalize on the speed differential • Organize material for learning

How to Be an Effective Listener (cont.) • What You Feel about Listening ? • Want to listen • Delay judgment • Admit your biases • Don’t tune out “dry” subjects • Accept responsibility for understanding • Encourage others to talk

How to Be an Effective Listener (cont.) • What You Do about Listening ? • Establish eye contact with the speaker • Take notes effectively • Be a physically involved listener • Avoid negative mannerisms • Exercise your listening muscles • Follow the Golden Rule

Improving Listening Comprehension • Listening comprehension is the act of understanding an oral message • It involves speech decoding, comprehending, and oral discourse analysis

Speech Decoding • Sound Perception and Recognition (Recognising sounds and sound patterns accurately, recognising the way sounds combine to form syllables and utterances)

Speech Decoding (Cont..) • Word recognition ( Recognising words accurately, understanding the definitions of the words being use, recognising the way words are used un context, identifying attention signals)

Speech Decoding (Cont..) • Accent recognition ( recognise stress, identify pauses, hesitations )

Comprehending Comprehending a verbal message involves the ability to: • Identify the central theme, main ideas and supporting details; • Concentrate and understand long speeches • Identify the level of formality • Deduce incomplete information • Deduce unfamiliar vocabulary

Oral Discourse Analysis • Is the process of identifying relationships among different units within the speech or oral message: • Critical skills • Attitude analysis • Inferential skills

Listening to structured talks • Pre-listening analysis-determining the purpose, knowing your speaker • Predicting about the content of a verbal message • Using background knowledge • Intensive listening

Intensive Listening • Listening to the introduction? • What is the position, knowledge, background, experience of the speaker? • What is his credibility? • What is the overall purpose of the talk? • What is the central idea or theme? • What is the overall structure? • What does the speaker intend to do? • What are the main points of the talk?

Intensive listening (Cont…) 2. Listening to the Body • Contains the main message-pay attention • Concentrate on verbal signposts • Recognise main supporting details of the oral message • Concentrate on visual aids

Intensive Listening ( Cont..) 3. Listening to the conclusion • Understand the main themes of the verbal message • Recognise the speaker`s focus of the talk • Concentrate on what the speaker wants the listener`s to do, or remember

Signal Phrases

Logical Connectors and Transitional Signals

Effective Note Making • Note making is essential in college: • For lectures, which are a highly condensed methods of passing on information • For reading, because what you don't write down, you don't remember

Effective Note Making (Cont.) • Note making is a skill: • Most people feel deficient • It can be learned • This takes understanding of what you're doing • It takes practice, which involves effort

Effective Note Making (Cont.) • Note making is difficult because: • Spoken language is more diffuse than written • Speaker's organization is not immediately apparent • Immediate feedback seldom occurs • Spoken language is quickly gone • This makes analysis difficult

Five purposes for note making: • Provides a written record for review • Provides a definite, limited learning task • Forces you to pay attention • Requires organization, and active effort on the part of the listener • Listener must condense and rephrase, which aids understanding

Sequence • Listen and focus on meaning • Evaluate what is being said • Is it relevant to your purpose? What are the high points? • Record the information • Make use of it

Physical factors • Seating • Near the front and center - easier to see and hear • Avoid distractions - doorways, windows, glare; friends, foes • Materials • Loose leaf notebook: lies flat - organization and additions are easier • Two pens, wide-lined, easy-eye paper; use dividers • Course, date, and topic clearly labeled

Before taking notes - PREVIEW • Prepare yourself mentally - What do you need to get out of this? • Review notes from last time and homework. Nail your attention down tight. • Review the outline from your reading assignment • Think through what has happened in the class to date • Generate enthusiasm and interest • Increased knowledge results in increased interest • A clear sense of purpose on your part will make the course content more relevant • Acting as if you are interested can help • Don't let the personality or mannerisms of a speaker put you off • Be ready to understand and remember • Anticipate the next step and compare what you've guessed with what happens

Get Involved! • Tune-in, look, listen for clues: • Tone or gesture of Professor • Repetition; cue words: "remember!" • Notice what conflicts with your current opinions • They are harder to understand and remember • Keep thinking... • Look for emerging patterns • Write questions in margins to be answered later

While taking notes • Don't try for a verbatim transcript • Get all of the main ideas • Record some details. illustrations, implications, etc. • Leave plenty of wide space for later additions - underscore or star major points • Note speaker's organization of material • Organization aids memory • Organization indicates gaps when they occur - you fill in later • Be accurate • Listen carefully to what is being said • Pay attention to qualifying words like: sometimes, usually, rarely, etc. • Notice signals that a change of direction is coming: but, however, on the other hand

While taking notes (Cont.) • Be an aggressive, not a passive, listener • Jot questions in your notes • Do you believe what you're hearing? What do you believe? • Seek out meanings. Look for implications beyond what is being said. • Relate the material to your other classes and your life outside of school. • Develop a shorthand of your own • Jot down words or phrases; use contractions and abbreviations • Leave out small service words, use symbols: +, =,&, ~) • Try to get the hang of listening and writing at the same time. It can be done • You may practice listening to the news on TV and taking notes

POST VIEW: Don't move - go over notes at once! • Review and reword them as soon after class as possible • Build review time into your schedule • Don't just recopy or type without thought • "Reminiscing" may provide forgotten material later • Rewrite incomplete or skimpy parts in greater detail • Fill in gaps as you remember points heard but not recorded • Arrange with another student to compare notes • Find answers to any questions remaining unanswered • Write a brief summary of the class session • Formulate several generalized test questions based on the material

POST VIEW: Don't move - go over notes at once! (Cont.) • Use your notes as a learning tool • Review at spaced intervals it is more effective than the same effort spent cramming • We forget 50% of what we hear immediately, two days later, another 25% is gone. • But relearning is rapid if regular review is used. • Compare the information in your notes with your own experience - don't swallow everything uncritically • Don't reject what seems strange or incorrect. Check it out. Be willing to hold some seeming inconsistencies in your mind over a period of time. • Build a good "thought map" of the ideas. Explain it to anyone who'll listen. • Memorize that which must be memorized.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – KEITH DAVIS • Stop Talking. • Put The Talker At Ease. • Show Him That You Want To Listen. • Remove Distractions. • Empathize With Him. • Be Patient. • Hold Your Temper. • Go Easy On Arguments And Criticism. • Ask Questions. • Stop Talking!

Thank You

LISTENING SKILLS