15.8: Conclusion and Chapter Exercises

Conclusion

This chapter explored enhancing listening skills, distinctions between listening and hearing, benefits and challenges of listening, the influence of noise and biases, and stages of listening (receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, responding).We discussed the importance of critical listening, types of feedback, ways to improve listening abilities, ethical listening, and various listening styles (people, action, content, time).

Learning how to be an effective listener has numerous advantages. First, effective listening can help us become better students. Second, effective listening can help us become more effective in our interpersonal relationships. Third, effective listening can lead others to perceive us as more intelligent. Lastly, effective listening can help us become a stronger public speaker. Being an ethical listener means giving respectful attention to the ideas of a speaker, even though you may not agree with or accept those ideas.

Listeners are often unable to accurately attend to messages because of four types of noise. Physical noise is caused by the physical setting a listener is in. Psychological noise exists within a listener’s own mind and prevents him or her from attending to a speaker’s message. Physiological noise exists because a listener’s body is feeling some sensation that prevents him or her from attending to a speaker’s message. Semantic noise is caused by a listener’s confusion over the meanings of words used by a speaker. All audiences have a limited attention span. As a speaker, we must realize how long we can reasonably expect an audience to listen to our messages.

Exercises

1. Make a list of some of the abstract words you have misunderstood. What were the consequences of the misunderstanding?
2. Reflect on your listening in class or in other settings where remembering information is important. What keeps you from remembering important information accurately?
3. Give an example of a time when you felt that your message was misunderstood or treated with shallow attention. How did you know your message had been misunderstood or rejected? What does this mean you must do as a student of public speaking?
4. In a group, discuss what distracts you most from listening attentively to a speaker. Have you found ways to filter out or manage the distraction?
5. This chapter refers to psychological noise as one of the distractions you might experience. Identify strategies you have successfully used to minimize the impact of the specific psychological noises you have experienced.
6. Make a list of biases you might have as a listener. You can think about how you’d answer such questions as, With whom would I refuse to be seen socially or in public? Who would I reject as a trustworthy person to help if I were in danger? What topics do I refuse to discuss? The answers to these questions might provide useful insights into your biases as a listener.
7. With a partner, discuss how you find out when you haven’t been listening carefully. What are some of the consequences of poor listening?
8. Think of a time when you were too tired or distracted to give your full attention to the ideas in a speech. What did you do? What should you have done?
9. Give an example of a mistake in reasoning that involved the speaker mistaking an assumption for fact.
10. In a small group, discuss what each person’s usual listening style is. Under what circumstances might you practice a different listening style?
11. Make a list of benefits and drawbacks to each of the listening styles discussed in this section.
12. As you prepare for your next speech, identify ways that you can adapt your message to each of the listening styles noted in this section.