7: Inter-Act,
th
13
Edition
Listening
1
Listening makes up 42-60%
of our communication.
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Listening
2
Listening Styles
• Content-oriented: prefer to focus on facts
and evidence
• People-oriented: prefer to focus on
conversational partners and their feelings
• Action-oriented: prefer to focus on point
speaker is trying to make
• Time-oriented: prefer brief and swift
conversations
3
Listening Apprehension
• Fear of
misinterpretation
• Fear of the
psychological
affect of the
message
4
Dual Processes in
Listening
• Passive listening: effortless, thoughtless,
and habitual process
• Active listening: skillful, intentional,
deliberate, and conscious process
5
Listening
The process of receiving, constructing
meaning from, and responding to
spoken and/or nonverbal messages
• Attending
• Understanding
• Remembering
• Critically Evaluating
• Responding
6
Attending
The process of willfully striving to perceive
selected sounds that are being heard
Get physically and mentally ready to
listen.
Make the shift from speaker to listener a
complete one.
Resist tuning out.
Avoid interrupting.
7
Understanding
Process of accurately decoding a
message so that you share its meaning
with the speaker
Identify the speaker’s purpose and
key points.
Observe nonverbal cues.
Ask clarifying questions.
Paraphrase what you heard.
8
Paraphrase the following statements to
reflect both the thoughts and feelings of
the person speaking:
1. “I really like communication, but what could
I do with a major in this field?”
2. “I don’t know if Pat and I are getting too
serious too fast.”
3. “You can borrow my car, if you really need
to, but please be careful with it. I can’t
afford any repairs and if you have an
accident, I won’t be able to drive to D.C.
this weekend.”
9
Remembering
Process of moving information from short-term
memory to long-term memory
Reasons we fail to
remember
• We filter out messages
• We listen anxiously or
passively
• We remember “easy” or
“desirable” messages
• We forget the middle
 Primacy effect
 Recency effect
Using repetition to
remember
• Repeat two, three, four
times
• Create mnemonics
• Take notes
10
Mnemonics
Any artificial technique used as a
memory aid
For example: take the first letter of a
list you are trying to remember and
create a word
HOMES (the five Great Lakes)
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
11
Note Taking
Take notes when you
are listening to
complex
information.
Brief outline:
Overall idea
Main points
Key developmental
material
12
Critically Evaluating
Information
• Separate facts from inferences
Fact – a verifiable statement
Inference – a conclusion drawn
from facts
• Probe for information
13
Responding
Process of providing feedback to your partner’s
message
Back-channel cues: verbal and nonverbal
signals demonstrating listener response to the
speaker
Reply when message is complete
Respond to the previous message
before changing the subject
14
Digital Communication Literacy
• Extra effort is required to understand digital
messages.
• Critically evaluate social media messages
to separate facts from inferences.
• Recognize underlying motives, values,
ideologies.
• Digital messages should not completely
replace face-to-face communication.
15