Listening skills

1. LISTENING SKILLS

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. Types of Listening
 Informative Listening
 Vocabulary
 Concentration
 Memory
 Relationship Listening
 Attending
 Supporting
 Empathizing
 Appreciative Listening
 Presentation
 Perception
 Previous experience

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

8. Barriers to Active Listening
 Environmental barriers
 Physiological barriers
 Psychological barriers
 Selective Listening
 Negative Listening Attitudes
 Personal Reactions
 Poor Motivation

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

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

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

14. 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)

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

16. 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

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

18. 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

19. Intensive Listening
1. 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?

20. 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

21. 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

22. Signal Phrases
Purpose of the speaker Signal phrases
* Introduces a topic Today, I`d like to talk about…,
What I am going to discuss is…
* Develops an idea If we critically examine the
situation.., The most significant
point is…
* Emphasises a point I am sure you will agree with
me.., I`d like to emphasise..
* Contrasts several ideas On the other hand., In contrast,
…
* Shows transition of ideas My next point is…
* Concludes Finally.., I`d like to sum up

23. Logical Connectors and Transitional
Signals
Purpose of the
speaker
Logical connectors
Adds a point Moreover, in addition
compares Similarly, likewise
contrasts In contrast, However,
Shows segmentation Right, OK, And, Now, That`s all
Exemplifies In other words, For instance
Temporal Eventually, For the time being, Before
Explains Therefore, Thus

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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.

36. 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!

37.  Thank You