Communications Applications
LISTENING NOTES
I. Listening is the receiving part of
Communication. It requires conscious
hearing. We DON’T do it well as we remember
only 25% of what we hear. Need for
repetition.
*The cost of poor listening could be $$$. If
each American prevented just one $10 mistake
it would save Billions.
*There is a gap between our speaking rate
and our listening rate. We listen in our
spare time as we speak 120 – 180 words per
minute, but we hear and process much faster.
*We hear the first 50 words…tune in and
think about them. While we’re doing this,
we tune out the next 60 words and our mind
wanders. Then we hear the next 70 words and
tune back in and think about them.
II. 5 LEVELS TO LISTENING
1. Listening for enjoyment is the most
basic. No expectations here…favorite TV,
movie, music
2. Listen for information is the next level
of listening. You are supposed to find the
information and you may need to recall
facts, so you have expectations here.
3. Critical Listening…”analyzes and
evaluates” speaker’s message. This is what
speech teachers do when listening to
speeches. We should be able to break down
and study the rhetoric of politicians,
teachers, life…according to our TEKS.
4. Precision listening is hearing the
changes in voice and non verbal
communication that denotes the speakers
feelings or attitude about a subject
5.
Empathic Listening is being
sympathetic; acts as a sounding board
and it’s how you say something not
what you say. Women are very good at
detecting emotional moods and we do
this all the time. No judgement is
involved just listening and
III. WHY WE FIND LISTENING DIFFICULT
*PROBLEM:
Tune out dull topics
Fake attention
Yield to distractions
Criticize delivery or speakers physical
appearance
Jump to conclusions
Overreact to emotional words
Interrupt…when we speak, we are no longer
listening but the speaker
*DISTORTIONS TO LISTENING
Experience, biases, emotions, family, age,
attitude, religion, morals, and physical
condition make us what we are and how we
react to certain things.
*To show you are listening use…”eloquent
grunts” and “door openers” like “Go on”,
“Really?”, “Oh?”
*Use your E A R S
Explore – think ahead
Analyze message
Review – think about what has been said
Search – look for hidden messages
ACCEPTING CRITICISM
*don’t tune out criticism – it’s offered to
make you better, for improvement
*be coachable – change, accept the comments
*Overcome Obstacles to Criticism – put
yourself in their shoes and know that
employers, teachers, coaches want to correct
not criticize.