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Chapter 6: Effective Listening
Chapter Goals
- Understand the complexity of the listening process
- Recognize social and personal obstacles to listening
- Identify your personal style of listening
- Describe several habits of poor listening
- Explain how culture affects listening
- Utilize a variety of techniques to enhance your listening effectiveness.
Outline
I. The Importance of Listening
A. Our text focuses on those who can hear physiologically, but know that many individuals rely on the third most popular language in the US that uses a different communication system: American Sign Language (ASL).
B. There is a difference between hearing and listening.
II. Hear Today: The Hearing Process
A. Hearing occurs when a sound wave hits an eardrum.
B. Hearing is the physical process of letting in audible stimuli without focusing on the stimuli.
III. Listen Up: The Listening Process
A. Unlike hearing, listening is a learned communication skill.
B. Listening is the dynamic transactional process of receiving, recalling, rating, and responding to stimuli and/or messages from another.
C. Receiving – the verbal and nonverbal acknowledgement of communication.
D. Recalling – understanding a message, storing it for future encounters, and remembering it later.
1. repeat information
2. use mnemonic devices
3. visualize items as you listen to them
4. chunk information
E. Rating – evaluating or assessing a message.
F. Responding – provide observable feedback
IV. The Barriers: Why we don’t listen
A. Noise – physical distractions
B. Message overload – when more messages are received than can be processed.
C. Message complexity – messages that are filled with details, unfamiliar language, and challenging arguments.
D. Lack of training – both the academic and corporate environments only offer a handful of opportunities to learn about listening.
E. Preoccupation – on occasion, everyone gets caught up in thinking about his or her own life experiences and everyday troubles at the expense of the present conversation.
1. conversational narcissism – engaging in an extreme amount of self-focusing to the exclusion of another person.
F. Listening gap – the time difference between your mental ability to interpret words and the speed at which they arrive to your brain.
V. Poor Listening Habits
A. Selective listening – respond to some parts of a message and reject others.
B. Talkaholism – compulsively talking and hogging the conversational stage and monopolizing encounters.
C. Pseudolistening – faking attention (the classroom is a classic location for this!).
D. Gap filling – listeners who think they can correctly guess the rest of the story.
E. Defensive listening – when people view innocent comments as personal attacks or hostile criticisms
F. Ambushing – people who listen carefully to a message and then use the information later to attack the individual.
VI. Styles of Listening
A. People-centered listening style – being concerned with other people’s feelings or emotions.
B. Action-centered listening style – listeners who want messages to be highly organized, concise, and error-free.
C. Content-centered listening style – focusing on the facts and details of a message.
D. Time-centered listening style – want messages to be presented succinctly and discourage wordy explanations.
E. Culture and listening process – all of our interactions are culturally-based, thus cultural differences affect the listening process (Brownell, 2002)
- Choices for Effective Listening
A. Evaluate your current skills
B. Prepare to listen.
C. Provide empathic responses.
D. Use nonjudgmental feedback.
E. Practice active listening.
Terms for Review
action-centered listening style
active listening
ambushing
American Sign Language (ASL)
chunking
content-centered listening style
conversational narcissism
defensive listening
dialogue enhancers
empathy
facts
gap fillers
hearing
inferences
listening
listening gap
listening style
message overload
mindless
multitasking
nonjudgmental feedback
opinions
paraphrasing
people-centered listening style
physical distractions
pseudolisten
rating
recalling
receiving
responding
second-guess
selective listening
talkaholics
time-centered listening style
working memory theory
Student Activities
1. Directions: Read the statements that follow and decide for yourself what the answers are. Now join two or three other students and discuss each statement as a group. For each statement, arrive at a consensus. However, during the group discussion, each person should paraphrase the comments of the person who just spoke before he or she is allowed to make any new comments (this exercise borrowed from Titsworth, 2003).
A. People under nineteen should not be allowed to get married.
B. Subjective comments should be eliminated in college evaluations.
C. All students should be required to take a speech course to graduate.
After you’ve reached your decisions, discuss the listening behaviors in the group. Did anyone appear to be pseudolistening? Was anyone a gap filler? Was anyone particularly people-centered? How about content-centered or time-centered?
2. Directions: For an entire day keep a list of how many people you encounter who exhibit one or more of the poor listening habits discussed in this chapter. Did you run into all of them? Did some come up more than others?
3. Directions: Keep track of your own listening practices. For every hour in one day, record how much of each hour you spend listening versus hearing versus talking. What about the types of listening? Did you practice different styles in different encounters? Were you prone to using poor listening habits in certain situations? Did particular situations cause you to make more of an effort to practice good listening habits? Compare your results with another student.
4. Directions: Choose a class that usually includes a lot of lecturing by the professor. Observe your classmates listening habits. Does anyone appear to be pseudolistening? Does anyone answer before the professor finishes as in a gap filler? Do you have a classmate who seems to be listening only so s/he can correct or use the information against the professor later? Discuss your observations with another student. Would you have noticed any of these interactions before focusing on listening?
Interactive activities
6.1: Listening in the Workplace
Are managers more effective when they are also effective listeners? This website provides listening skill training to business managers so that they can improve their listening effectiveness and job success. Scroll about halfway down the page and click on the link “Next page” for a list of listening tips and habits.
- Of the ten bad habits listed, how many are you guilty of?
- Discuss how these habits might affect a person in the workplace. How about in an interpersonal relationship?
Summary: This site discusses the importance of listening in the workplace and offers listening skill training to business managers. The site also lists some habits of poor listening.
6.2: Emotions, Body, and the Mind
Do you ever think about the difference between a feeling and an emotion? This website describes the distinction between the two and discusses the relationship that links emotion, body, feeling and mind.
Read Damasio’s definitions of emotion and feeling.
- How are emotions and feelings different?
- Using what you learned about perception in Chapter 2 in your textbook, how does perception play a role in emotion?
- Apply the following process to an experience you have had.
- External stimulus triggers the brain.
- Emotion is created and spreads through body.
- The mind experiences a feeling based on the change in the body.
Summary: This website from the Russian Information Network discusses neurobiologist Antonio Damasio and his theories of emotion and feeling. Damasio has an interesting take on the difference between emotion and feeling, and describes the process of emotion and feeling.
6.3: Students Analyze Their Listening Skills
As a college student, an enormous amount of your time is spent listening to classroom lecture. By now you should be a pretty good listener, right? Check out this study of college students and discover some of the common barriers to effective listening at school.
- Read the six barriers identified as causing poor listening.
- Write down one solution to each barrier. What could the students described do to help avoid the listening problems posed by each barrier?
Summary: This site discusses college students at ValdostaStateUniversity and their perceptions of their listening skills. Students reported that they perceived themselves as effective listeners but could still identify some barriers to effective listening.
6.4: Identify Your Listening Problems
We all can improve our listening skills, but first we must identify some of our listening problems or habits. This website lists some of the barriers to listening effectively. See how many problems you can check off.
- How many problems did you check?
- Do you notice any similarities in the problems you checked?
- What can you do to improve your listening in some of the situations you checked?
- Set some listening goals to help you move toward becoming a more effective listener.
Summary: This site lists twenty listening problems to assist students in identifying areas in which they can improve their listening. Although most areas appear to be related to public speaking and listening, many of the areas also apply to interpersonal communication situations.
6.5: Overcome Bad Listening Habits
This site suggests that students spend 20 percent of all school-related hours just listening. Take a look at the chart that identifies poor listening habits and how both ineffective and effective listeners think about these habits.
- Compare the reactions of the ineffective and effective listeners.
- Select three of the poor listening habits you can identify with, consider the strategy of the good listener, and for one day, emulate the good listener’s approach and note the results.
Summary: The City College of San Francisco offers listening skill instruction as a part of their tutor training program. At this site, student listening skills are emphasized, and good and poor listening habits and compared.
6.6: Keys to Better Listening
Listening affects many areas of your life, especially your relationships with others. At this site, Mort Orman, M.D., stresses the importance of effective listening.
- Look at the seven keys to better listening outlined by Dr. Orman.
- What works for you? See if you can come up with two or three of your own “keys to better listening” to add to Dr. Orman’s list.
Summary: At this website, Mort Orman, M.D., presents listening as a key to success in all areas of your life and outlines seven strategies for better listening.
InfoTracCollegeEdition Activities
6.1: Listening Model
“Power-Up Your Listening Skills” by Kenneth E. Fracaro
Contract Management, September 2003
Now that you understand the difference between the hearing and listening process, take a look at a new model referred to in the article “Power-Up Your Listening Skills” as the Effective Listening Steps Model. How is the model presented in the article similar or different from the listening processes described in Chapter 5 of your textbook?
Summary: This article describes the difference between hearing and listening, discusses the benefits of effective listening, and features an Effective Listening Steps Model, comprised of the following steps: prepare, receive, process, store, respond.
6.2: Are You a Good Listener?
“Are You a Good Listener? Take the Skills Quiz” by Dorothy Leeds
National Underwriter Life & Health-Financial Services Edition, June 3, 1996
Take the quiz provided in the article “Are You a Good Listener? Take the Skills Quiz.” How did you do? Don’t worry if you need improvement. Remember that listening is a skill we all can all learn to improve.
Summary: This eighteen-question listening quiz was developed for insurance agents, but is applicable to everyone. Give it a try.
6.3: Empathy and Listening
“Leaders Know How to Listen” by Alexander Lucia
HR Focus, April 1997
Two concepts discussed in Chapter 5 of your text are empathy and active listening. This article, “Leaders Know How to Listen,” discusses how both of these skills are necessary for effective leadership. Apply the exercises described in the article to someone you know.
- Draw a caricature that illustrates the leadership characteristics of a good friend or significant other, especially as they relate to what you read in the article.
- Present your drawing to your class, identifying your friend’s listening and leadership abilities.
Summary: This article identifies good listening skills and empathy as the most significant characteristics of an effective leader.
6.4: Paraphrasing and Listening
“Practice Listening Skills as a Leader” by Joan Lloyd
CityBusiness (Minneapolis, MN), June 22, 2001
Want to give paraphrasing and empathic responses a try? The article “Practice Listening Skills as a Leader” will help you better understand these two concepts as they relate to effective listening.
- Try paraphrasing with a co-worker, friend, of family member.
- Did paraphrasing slow down your immediate response and force you to listen more closely?
- Now try implementing an empathic response by identifying with the speaker’s feelings as well as the content of his or her message.
Summary: This article encourages us to practice paraphrasing and empathy when listening, describing the benefits of each and providing examples.
6.5: Guidelines for Better Listening
“Improving Your Listening Skills” by Max Messmer
Management Accounting (USA), March 1998
We are capable of hearing 600 words per minute, yet most us speak at a rate of 100 to 150 words per minute. To find out how to fill the gap between the words a speaker says and the words we can hear, read the article “Improving Your Listening Skills” and consider its suggestions for better listening.
- Write down the four guidelines for active listening described in the article.
- As a student, try to listen actively when you are listening to a classroom lecture.
- Now identify which guidelines worked best for you.
Summary: This article provides techniques for better listening, including active listening, that can be practiced by anyone wanting to improve their listening skills.
Your Turn Journal Activity
Think about how being a good listener affects your family relationships. Write about the different situations in which listening is important or when you failed to listen to a family member. Also comment on what happens when other family members don’t listen to you. Are there any specific listening strategies you use with family members that may not necessarily work in other relationship types?
Quiz
True or False
1. Hearing and listening are different processes and mean different things. (p. 188)
True or False
2. People rarely take listening for granted. (p. 189)
True or False
3. When we are receiving a message, we are being mindful. (p. 190)
True or False
4. Recall is always considered long-term. (p. 191)
True or False
5. Rating means evaluating and agreeing with the message. (p. 192)
True or False
6. Opinions rarely change over time. (p. 193)
True or False
7. Messages we receive that are filled with details, unfamiliar language, and challenging arguments make listening complex but easier to understand. (p. 193)
True or False
8. Effective listeners do not become preoccupied. (p.199)
True or False
9. The listening gap is the time difference between your mental ability to interpret words and the speed with which they arrive to your brain. (p. 200)
True or False
10. Research shows that we speak an average rate of 150 to 200 words per minute, yet we can understand up to 800 words per minute (Wolvin & Coakley, 1996). (p. 200)
True or False
11. All Stuart could remember from his conversation with Jeremiah was that Jeremiah said he had been in juvenile detention. This type of listening habit is known as selective listening. (p. 200)
True or False
12. Charlie was a classic defensive listener: he perceived threats in messages where they didn’t exist. (p. 202)
True or False
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of the following is NOT a barrier to communication? (p. 198)
A. message overload
B. noise
C. college
D. preoccupation
2. Kevin and Mike volunteered to help a neighbor move some items out of his garage. When they arrived at the specified time, the neighbor wasn’t waiting in front of his garage. Mike asked Kevin what he thought might have happened, and Kevin said, “I don’t know, I only remember him saying he’d pay us $50 each.” What poor listening habit might have interfered with the boys getting the whole message? (p. 200)
A. defensive listening
B. selective listening
C. ambushing
D. talkaholism
3. Celia’s father had a habit of correcting her grammar and asking her to get to the point when she spoke to him. What style of listening would you say best describes Celia’s father? (p. 203)
A. people-centered listening style
B. action-centered listening style
C. content-centered listening style
D. time-centered listening style
4. Hans came to the United States from Germany to attend college. During a seminar one day there was a guest speaker that Hans found very interesting even though the speaker mentioned something in her presentation that confused Hans. During the question and answer period Hans was reluctant to ask the speaker to clarify herself. How did Hans’ native culture affect the listening process in this case? (p. 206)
A. Hans didn’t speak English very well.
B. Hans was distracted because he found the speaker attractive.
C. People from Germany often get bored and stop focusing during lectures.
D. People from Germany often do not like to ask for clarification because they see it as a sign of disrespect.
5. Which of the following is NOT suggested in your text as a suggestion for improving your listening? (p. 207)
A. evaluate your current skills
B. critique other people’s conversational skills
C. prepare to listen
D. provide empathic responses
6. Which of the following is the best example of using nonjudgmental feedback (p. 209)?
A. “When you leave your clothes on the floor, it makes me feel embarrassed when people drop by our room.”
B. “You are such a slob. You’re not the only one who lives here, you know!”
C. “Aren’t you embarrassed to have people stop by our room and see what a mess it is?”
D. “When you leave your clothes on the floor, you’re being inconsiderate of me.”