Speech Fundamentals

Chapter 4: Listening

Barriers to Effective Listening

• Select: To single out a message from several competing messages.

• Attend: To focus on incoming information for further processing.

• Understand: To assign meaning to the information to which you attend.

• Remember: To recall ideas and information.

Barriers to Effective Listening

• It is easiest to listen effectively to a message when there is an appropriate balance between new information and supporting examples. Too much new information will overwhelm the listener and too many examples will confuse or bore him/her.

Barriers to Effective Listening

• Some barriers to effective listening come from within, such as intrusive thoughts or prejudices.

• Other barriers are external, such as outside distractions.

• Prejudice: Preconceived opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about a person, place, thing, or message.

Barriers to Effective Listening

• Receiver Apprehension: The fear of misunderstanding or misinterpreting the spoken messages of others.

• One very effective technique for overcoming barriers to effective listening is to mentally summarize what the speaker is saying.

How to Become a Better Listener

• Pay attention to the nonverbal cues of the speaker.

• Minimize distractions resulting from poor delivery.

• Monitor your emotional state and do not let your emotions interfere with you comprehension of the message.

• Do not jump to conclusions.

How to Become a Better Listener

• Listen with an agenda: Consider ways in which you can use the information presented in your own speaking and writing. Focus on main ideas, principles, and arguments rather than memorizing isolated facts.

How to Become a Better Listener

• What is your listening style?– People-oriented– Action-oriented– Content-oriented– Time-oriented

How to Become a Better Listener

• Active listening means re-sorting and re-phrasing what a speaker says.– Re-sort: Rearranging the speakers words into

patterns that make sense to you.– Re-phrasing: Putting the speaker’s ideas into

your own words.

Improving your Note-Taking Skills

• Divide your notes into two columns.– Use the column on the right to record the

contents of the speech.– Use the column on the left to reinterpret the

speech after it is over.

How to Become a Better Listener

• Critical Listening: Evaluating the quality of information, ideas, and arguments presented by a speaker.

• Critical Thinking: Making judgments about the conclusions presented in what you see, hear, and read.

How to Become a Better Listener

• Fact: Something that has been proven to be true by direct observation.

• Inference: A conclusion based on partial information, or an evaluation that has not been directly observed.

• Evidence: The facts that a speaker uses to support a conclusion.

Analyzing and Evaluating

• Logic: A formal system of rules used to reach a conclusion.

• Reasoning: The process of drawing a conclusion from evidence.

• Rhetoric: The use of symbols to create meaning to achieve a goal.

Analyzing and Evaluating

• Rhetorical Strategies: Methods that speakers use to achieve their speaking goals.

• Rhetorical Criticism: The process of using a method or standards to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of messages.

Analyzing and Evaluating

• Can you name some rhetorical strategies?