ELI 80
What is Listening?
Presentation in everyday life.
Daly, J. A. & Engleberg, I. N. (2001).
Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Skip the sections on Empathic Listening (p. 29) and Appreciative Listening (p. 31).
1. How would you define listening? What is the difference between hear
and listen?
2. When people are communicating, which of the four language skills
(listening, speaking, reading, writing) do we use the most?
Support
your answer.
3. What does comprehensive listening focus on? What are its two steps?
4. What would you say is the key word to analytical listening?
5. How can you plan to listen? Which method of planning to listen do you
think would be the most effective one for you?
6. What is extra thoughts speed? When do good listeners use their extra
thought speed productively?
7. How would you describe the golden listening rule?
8. What are some distractions in listening?
9. In listening for the big ideas, what can good listeners identify?
10. What is paraphrasing? Do you think it is an important academic skill?
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Answer Key
What is Listening?
Presentation in everyday life.
Daly, J. A. & Engleberg, I. N. (2001).
Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Skip the sections on Empathic Listening (p. 29) and Appreciative Listening (p. 31).
1. How would you define listening? What is the difference between hear
and listen?
(p. 28) Listening is the ability to understand, analyze, respect, and
appropriately respond to the meaning of another person’s spoken and
nonverbal messages.
Hearing: requires only physical ability
Listening: requires thinking ability
2. When people are communicating, which of the four language skills
(listening, speaking, reading, writing) do we use the most?
Support
your answer.
(p. 28) Listening is number one communication activity. A study shows that
listening takes 40-70 percentage of communication. Refer to Figure 2.3.
3. What does comprehensive listening focus on? What are its two steps?
(p. 29) Comprehensive listening focuses on accurately understanding the
meaning. Two steps involved are:
1) accurately hearing what is said while simultaneously paying attention to
nonverbal cues
2)
accurately interpreting the speaker’s meaning (identifying the key
pointes as well as the evidence used to support an argument)
4. What would you say is the key word to analytical listening?
(p. 30) The key word to analytical listening is opinion or critical thinking
because it focuses on evaluating whether a message is reasonable.
You
are asked to make a judgment based on your evaluation of the speaker’s
arguments.
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5. How can you plan to listen? Which method of planning to listen do you
think would be the most effective one for you?
(p. 31, box) Do some prior study. Identify your listening goals. Match
your listening style to the presentation’s purpose.
Generate some
questions in advance. Share the message.
6. What is extra thought speed? When do good listeners use their extra
thought speed productively?
(p. 32) Most people talk at about 125-150 words per minute, and think at
about three to four times the rate at which we speak. Thus the difference
or the spare thinking time is the extra thought speed.
Good listeners use their extra thought speed productively when they:
-
identify and summarize key points
-
pay more attention to nonverbal behavior
-
analyze arguments
-
assess the relevance of speaker’s comments
7. How would you describe the golden listening rule?
( p. 33) It’s listening to others as you would have them listen to you.
8. What are some distractions in listening?
(p. 33)
Distractions in listening include speaker’s volume, rate, tone,
mannerisms and appearance, listener bias, prior experience, etc.
9. In listening for the big ideas, what can good listeners identify?
(p. 34) In listening for the big ideas, good listeners can identify a speaker’s
purpose, central idea, and key points.
10. What is paraphrasing? Do you think it is an important academic skill?
(p. 35)
Paraphrasing is restating or finding new words to describe
something. It’s an important skill because it can be used to clarify meaning,
to ensure understanding, and to summarize.
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