ACTIVE LISTENING
WHY AND HOW ?
M. Nur ALTINÇEKİÇ
Fatma SERGİCİ
M. Nihan BOZDOĞAN
Mahmut ŞAHİN
Canan KARATAŞ
THE LISTENING PROCESS
“Listening is being silent with another
person in an active way”
Morton Kelsey
THE LISTENING PROCESS




Listening in communication
process
The Listening Process
Purposes of Listening
Listening and Your life
Nur ALTINÇEKİÇ
3

----You
can’t learn to listen. You are either good at
it or not

---- Listening requires very little effort

---- The words “listening” and “hearing” mean the
same thing.

---- Listening involves only ears

---- Listening is an objective process. Your
emotions do not affect your ability to listen
4

---- You tend to speak more than you listen

---- Good speakers are usually good listeners

---- You listen better as you get older


---- Your need to listen becomes less
after you leave school

---- You listen primarily to get information
5
LISTENING IN
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
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LISTENING IN COMMUNICATION PROCESS
Here is what Paul Rankin
found:
Our communication time is
devoted:
9 percent to writing,
16 percent to reading,
30 percent to speaking,
and 45 percent to LISTENING
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LISTENING IN COMMUNICATION PROCESS
The communication
Process:
communication involves sharing
of meanings

Sharing: Person who is
listening working hard also

Meanings: Common
meanings make it possible to
communicate
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LISTENING IN COMMUNICATION PROCESS
There are three main ideas to remember
about listening
 Speaking and listening happen at the same
time
 Listeners must be aware of both verbal and
nonverbal messages
 Effective communication occurs when the
speakers and listeners share their meanings
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THE LISTENING PROCESS
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THE LISTENING PROCESS
Listening is a process of receiving,
interpreting, evaluating and responding to
messages




Receiving – Using Your Ears and Eyes
Interpreting – Tying in Your Experience
Evaluating – Examinig the Message
Responding – Expending an Effort
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THE LISTENING PROCESS
Ali says:
“It looks as if my father is going to get
married”.
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PURPOSES OF LISTENING
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PURPOSES OF LISTENING
To engage in social rituals
One practical reason to listen well is to be able to
participate in social situations.
 To exchange information
We listen most frequently to understand what another
person trying to tell us
 To exert control
You need to be able to take control of your response
 To share feelings
Sharing feelings requires personal effort and risk both
speaker and listener
 To enjoy yourself:
You listen other people’s speech for pleasure

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To engage in social rituals
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To exchange information
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To exert control
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To share feelings
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To enjoy yourself:
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GETTING THE MEANING
The Perception Process
The Context
Barriers to Listening
FATMA SERGİCİ
“I know you believe you
understand what you think I
said, but I’m not sure you
realize that you heard is not
what I meant.”
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A. THE PERCEPTION PROCESS

Perception, is the process by which you
filter and interpret what your senses
tell you, so you can create a
meaningful picture of the world.
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Two-step perception process:
1
Something affects your senses
2
You interpret your sensation
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Why not everyone assigns the same
meaning to the same messages ?
PHYSICAL
DIFFERENCES
PAST
EXPERIENCES
PRESENT FEELINGS
AND
CIRCUMSTANCES
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PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES

Although most of us have the use of all our senses,
we don’t have exactly the same abilities.
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PAST EXPERIENCES
Our past experience will
influence how we accept
or reject a message.
Past experiences may range
from those that are
considered general, or
shared by many people
you know, to those that
are unique, or shared by
few people.
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PRESENT FEELINGS AND CIRCUMSTANCES



Emotions
Health
Various
concerns
Factors in
how we
listen
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B. THE CONTEXT

Context
background of a message
that throws lights on the meaning of the
words.

Good listeners are like good detectives.
They put pieces of a puzzle together to get
the whole story
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The
Occasion
The
Person
CONTEXT
The
Verbal/Nonverbal
Communication
The
Setting
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1. THE OCCASION

An occasion or an
event calls for
certain type of
communications.
People tailor their
conversation to
certain occasions.
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2. THE VERBAL/NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION

Think of the many meanings that you could
give to the short sentence, “I will send the
flowers.” depending on which word gets the
emphasize




“I”  not you
“will”  I didn’t do it yet
……
Although words are valuable source of
meaning, the nonverbal cues help to put
them in context.
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3. THE SETTING


Effective listeners consider place and time
when interpreting a message.
The size, privacy,
and comfort of a
place may affect e
speaker’s message
as well as the
listener’s
effectiveness in
hearing it.

The time of day, or the
amount of time
available, often
influence what
someone says, or how
someone says it.
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4. THE PERSON

When you know people
well, you are more likely
to interpret their
messages accurately

The more a listener
knows about a speaker,
the easier it is to put the
speaker’s remarks in
context.
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C. BARRIERS TO LISTENING

We have barriers
in all aspect of life
as well as in
communication
and accordingly in
listening.
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1. EXTERNAL DISTRACTIONS

Situations in the
environment that
keeps you from
paying attention to
the speaker.
Temporary
Permanent
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2. INTERNAL DISTRACTIONS

Your own worries,
excitements and even
physical state will distract
you from listening.

If possible, it is suggested
to take precautions in
advance.
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3. CONFLICTING DEMANDS


There are times when you are trying to do
too many things at once, so you cannot
listen carefully.
Think that you are watching a program on
TV while your mother trying to tell you her
problems. How effectively can you listen to
her?
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4. THE SPEAKER’S CREDIBILITY

Crediblity refers to how believable the
speaker is to you.
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5. THE SPEAKER’S STYLE

Style refers to the speaker’s
appearence, manner of speaking, and
ability to relate to the listener.

If the speaker has worn big earrings or
if he is keeping on playing his fingers,
these may tend to distract the listener.
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6. YOUR LACK OF INFORMATION

It is hard to try to interpret what the speaker is
saying if the person doesn’t use verbal/nonverbal
symbols you are familiar with.
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7. YOUR PERSONAL BIASES


Our beliefs and attitudes generally
creates a barrier toward certain
subjects.
This occur when the subject is
uninteresting to us, sensitive, political,
etc…Or when the speaker and we have
the opposite ideas.
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8. YOUR DESIRE TO TALK

Most people would rather talk than listen,
especially if they have to listen carefully.

They should learn the value of controlling
their talking. Paraphrasing is a technique
that can be used in this situations.
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LISTENING FOR BASIC
INFORMATION
“Nature has given us one tongue
but two ears, that we may hear from
others twice as much as we speak.”
Epictetus
LISTENING FOR BASIC
INFORMATION
Making things memorable
Using thinking strategies
Following directions
M. Nihan BOZDOĞAN
Listening For Basic Information
Everyone has some difficulty getting basic
information. To show how to increase your
ability to get basic information, we will look at
the following areas:
Making things memorable
Using thinking strategies
Following directions
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Making things memorable
What makes you sit up and take special notice
even if the speaker is not very interesting?
When we examine the parts of the MTM (making
things memoable) model, we are looking at:
(1) change, (2) novelty, (3) repetition,
(4) application, and (5) thought speed.
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Making things memorable
Change
What makes you pay special attention to the
speaker? He or she makes something different
happen. Something changes.
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Making things memorable
Novelty
One can make things memorable through
novelty.Novelty is unique to each situation.
Someone may dress in a dramatic way, make
outrageous comments or sing in the middle of
the presentation.
Although novelty involves personal risk, it will
force listeners to pay attention.
Novelty must be used only once in a while,
or it loses its effectiveness.
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Making things memorable
Repetition
If information is repeated a
number of times, you are more
likely to remember it than if you
only hear it once.
From introductions to full-fledged
political speeches, repetition sends
the signal – important!
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Making things memorable
Application
Application involves “making it your own.
You as a listener ask and answer the questions
“So what?” and “How does it relate to me?”.
If you can apply information to yourself, you
are more likely to understand and use it.
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Making things memorable
application
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Making things memorable
Thought speed
Good listeners use their thought-speed advantage
in order to make things memorable. When
listening to basic information, these listeners are
saying to themselves:
“Did I get it?”
“What can I do with it?”
“What else might I need to know?”
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Using thinking strategies
Although not all good listeners use the same
methods, they all have some thinking
strategies to help them get the information
they need.
Let’s look at the example and see how
listeners might work with them.
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Using thinking strategies
Example:
Directions
“When you go to the store remember to bring home:
A bag of white beans,
A half gallon of strawberry ice-cream,
A gallon of milk,
A pound of butter,
A loaf of bread.”
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Using thinking strategies
Example (cont.):
Let’s see how three listeners might remember that list.
Listener 1
“The way I would go about remembering that would be
to picture a hill of beans with an upside down
strawberry ice cream cone melting on top into rivers of
milk and butter coming down the sides. I would sit it
all on a piece of bread.”
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Using thinking strategies
Example (cont.):
Listener 2
“I would remember this by three Bs- beans,
bread, butter, plus milk and ice cream.”
Listener 3
“I would remember this by picturing myself
walking through the grocery store where I
always shop.
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Using thinking strategies
There are five different thinking
strategies people use to listen and to
remember:
visualization
association
memory magic
chunking
focusing
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Using thinking strategies
Visualization
Some people learn to visualize or create mental
pictures to help them retain information. The person
who istened to the grocery list and pictured the ice
cream melting on the beans was visualizing.
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Using thinking strategies
Association
Listeners that use this technique try to create a connection
between the new information or idea and something
familiar.
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Using thinking strategies
Memory Magic
Memory magic involves quickly finding a “gimmick” to
help you recreate the important points at a later time.
“3Bs” in the previous example , “5Cs” in Finance …
“Hergele Necmi Arsız Karısını Kesip Rendeledi” in
Chemistry …
“SWOT” in Business Administration…
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Using thinking strategies
Chunking
Chunking involves listening and
sorting things into large sections or
“chunks” for easier recall.
The speaker may provide major
points or headings. Often the listener
has to create order from a large set of
information.
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Using thinking strategies
Focusing
Focusing implies identifying what is most important
for you as a listener and working hard to remember
that most important part.
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Using thinking strategies
focusing
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Following directions
When following directions the listener can use
many of the techniques we examined before.
(visualization, association… etc)
Yet, listening to directions can be more difficult
than other types.
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Following directions
It takes some extra techniques.
These are:
Predicting pitfalls
Questioning for problem spots
Repeating the highlights
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Following directions
Predicting pitfalls
unfamiliar language:
A careful listener will ask
“What does ____ mean?”
when following directions
depends upon understanding
a word or phrase that is
unfamiliar.
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Following directions
clarity:
Whereas the language issue
rises the question, “What
does ____ mean?”, the issue
of clarity requires another
question, namely “What do
you mean by __ when you
use the word?”
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Following directions
Questioning for problem spots
Good listeners usually ask speakers to tell them what
might be problem spots in the directions. Questions
that produce additional needed information to the
listener are such as;
“What problems might I run into using
these directions?”
“Are there any tricky parts in these directions?”
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Following directions
Repeating the highlights
Very often a good listener will repeat back the
important parts of a set of directions in order
to check out the accuracy of the message.
This technique gives the highlights but it also
gives the speaker a chance to correct or clarify
something that is incorrect or vogue.
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LISTENING FOR
STRUCTURE
“My assignment is to talk to you
for a while, and yours is to listen to
me. I trust we will both finish our
work at the same time.”
Adlai Stevenson
LISTENING FOR
STRUCTURE
Finding main pointes
Supporting material
Organizational pattern
More organizational clues
Mahmut ŞAHİN
LISTENING FOR STRUCTURE

In order to see how effective listeners look
at structures, we will examine the following
areas:
1. finding main points
2. recognizing organizational patterns
3. finding additional organizational clues
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Finding main points

Sometimes speakers give you very clear indications
of their main points. Other times you have to figure
out what is important for yourself.

It is not easy to seperate main ideas from supporting
ideas.

Usually the most important ideas are the main ideas.
The other material is called supporting material,
because it is used to backup the main points.
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Supporting material
Types of supporting materials include:
1- descriptions
2- humor
3- statistics
4- real life examples
5- personal examples
6- stories
7- questions
8- quotations
9- definitions
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Supporting material
EXAMPLE:
“There have been many breakthroughs in
science that help us lead healthy lives. One is
the discovery of the benefits of fiber in foods.
If you base your diet on high fiber foods, you
can lose weight and gain another health
benefits. Foods high in fiber include beans,
bran cereals, cereal products, nuts and dried
fruit. Many vegetables are relatively high in
fiber. So eat your corn, carrots, broccoli, and
greens. Eat to keep yourself happy.”
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Supporting material
Key ideas

We can talk about the main point in two ways: as the
“key idea” when discussing conversational, informal
statements and as the purpose statement when
referring to a formal speech.

Which sentence provides a general sense of what this
statement is about?

What key idea appears to be supported by statistics,
quotes, examples?
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Supporting material
Purpose statements

The purpose statement in a speech is similar to the
thesis statement found in an essay. The purpose
statement provides the central idea that controls the
shape of the speech.

Which sentence provide a general sense of what the purpose of this
speech will be?

How is the purpose statement supported by questions, examples,
quotations, statistics…etc?
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Organizational patterns
There are a number of common organizational patterns
that listeners need to be able to recognize. These include:
1. Chronological order
2. Spatial order
3. Topical order
4. Process order
5. Problem-solution order
6. Inductive order
7. Motivated sequence
order
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Organizational patterns
Chronological order


Placing the points of the speech into a time
pattern.
This time-oriented pattern is easy to follow
because you are able to see the logical
movement through a chronological order.
“the history of airtravel”
“the past and future of the Olympics”
“For the next few minutes I would like to describe
the seven days of the Outward Bound program that
you will attend.”
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Organizational patterns
Spatial order

Organizing information based on the physical relationship
of people, places, or objects.

You may realize that a speaker is talking about experiences
or people in one place and then moving on to another place.
“historcal sites in Turkiye”
“the neighborhoods of Malatya”
“As an exchange student I had the opportunity to live for three
months in three different cities, Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin.
Let me tell you a little each of them.”
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Organizational patterns
Topical order

Dividing a whole topic into natural parts. Any point
could be first or last.
“types of video games”
“the paintings of Picasso”
“The success of this art center rests with three
factors:faculty, facilities, and funding. We need to
look at each of these in depth.”
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Organizational patterns
Process order
“the making of music videos”
“creating home made pizza”
“If you want to become a naturalized
citizen, you must go thruough a very
specific set of procedures. It will save
you a lot of time to do this paperwork
in the right order.”
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Organizational patterns
Problem-solution order

Organizing information around two
major areas: problems and solutions.
“the rising national debt”
“acid rain and pollution”
“In order to reverse the pollution from acid
rain, we need to understand the extend of the
damage and to moount a three-pronged
attack to prevent more extensive pollution.”
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Organizational patterns
Inductive order
Organizing facts or examples to build to a
conclusion.
“donating to local charities”
“raising salaries for educators”
“I would like you to picture a number of prison
situations with me and then decide what might or
should be done about them.”
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Organizational patterns
Motivated sequence order
Specific pattern for persuasive speeches
developed by the late Alan Monroe, proffesor at
Purdue University.
There are five steps to this pattern:(1)attention,
(2)need, (3)satisfaction, (4)visualization, and
(5)action.
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Organizational patterns
Motivated sequence order
The speaker tries to get the listeners’ attention
and to describe some problem or situation that
needs to be changed.
“teenage unemployment”
“cost of medical care”
“I’ll give some shocking statistics about child abuse, describe the
problem in our city, point out new directions, describe the
benefits of these directions and ask for your support in my fight
for children’s lives.”
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More organizational clues
Transitions
Transitions are those words or phrases that
form bridges or links between one idea and
another.
meanwhile, first-second, also, next, on the contrary,
moreover, finally, because, since, similarly, in the
second place…etc
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More organizational clues
Repetition
As a listener, you have to pay close attention
for the speaker’s repetition, which tells you
the main ideas and order of the speech.
(I) “…Disney World is a whole recreational park. I’ll
talk about the areas I find most exciting, the
Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, and the River
area.”
(C)“…So the next time you get to Florida, do spend a
few days at Disney World and be sure to see my
favourite places, the Magic Kingdom, Epcot
Center, and the River area.”
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More organizational clues
Predictions
By predicting the important points, the speaker allows
the listener to sort out what is important from what is
unimportant.
“I’ll be describing Vincent Van Gogh’s childhood, and I want you
to listen for those things that might have influenced his painting.”
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LISTENING TO FEELINGS
Sharing Feelings
Listening Between the Words
Listening Response Styles
Reflective Listening
CANAN KARATAŞ
LISTENING TO FEELINGS

Listening is usually defined as a “5E” process
involving your ears, eyes, experience,
examination and effort.

We can add one more “E” for empathy. This
involves listening to another person by putting
yourself in his or her shoes-by being sensitive to
that person’s thoughts and feelings.
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Sharing Feelings

As an empathic listener you are
able to share the feelings of
another because you recognize
your own feelings and you can
recognize messages containing
feelings.

People cloak their feelings in
statements such as “I think…” or “I
believe…”.For example; Instead of
saying “I am angry…” a person
may say “I think you made a big
mistake.”
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Listening Between the Words

Hearing what is inferred but not
actually said
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
Many people do not say
what they mean,
particularly when they
are talking about
feelings-especially
negative ones. As a
listener, you hear a hint
or part of what is in the
speaker’s mind. But
you do not get the
whole story directly.
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
How might you interpret the following
statement by a friend?
“I am certainly not up for spending Thanksgiving at
my father and step-mother’s. I wish the day would
just disappear.”
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
Depending on your knowledge of the context of this
person, you may interpret the underlying feelings
as:

“I am jealous of my father’s time with his new wife”
“I feel guilty leaving my mother on Thanks giving”
“I feel uncomfortable in their house. I just don’t fit
in.”
“I feel sad not spending Thanksgiving with my
mother.”
“I feel upset watching Dad relate to this new
woman.”
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




You must listen for deeper
meanings.

Listen for the
paralanguage elements of
speech.

How something is said
rather than what is said.

Aspects of verbal
communication unrelated
to the words used.
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
When listening between the words, use the advice of
a wise person who says:
“Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying
So when I’m going through routine
Do not be fooled by what I’m saying.”
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Listening Response Styles
If someone shares feelings with you, do you have a
predictable response?
Could you describe the ways in which you respond
to feeling statements?


The same feeling statement may receive very
different responses from various listeners.
Different responses can change the future direction
of the conversation.
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“Wow, after all these years of pharmacy
school, I thought it was guaranteed that I
could get a job right after graduation. I’ve
been looking everywhere for a position,
but I can’t find one. My parents always
told me that after I graduated they
wouldn’t support me anymore. With
graduation coming up next month, I’m
totally overwhelmed.”

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5 listening response styles

Judgmental Response: “Everyone who really
wants a job badly enough can get one, even if you
have to work at a fast-food place for a while until you
get something in your field.”

Advice-Giving Response: “Network with last
year’s alumni, look for the postings by the student
lounge and call the hospital’s employment office.”
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
Quizzing Response: “Have you asked all your
professors? Have you looked in the newspaper? Did
you go to the career placement office?

Placating Response: “Oh, don’t worry so much, I’m
sure something will turn up soon and then you’ll laugh
when you look back and see how silly you were to get
so worked up.”

Empathic Response: “Wow, with graduation right
around the corner and feeling as though you can’t turn
to your parents one more time for help, you sound
pretty worry.”
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Reflective Listening
 Reflective listening involves giving feedback to a
speaker on what you are hearing in terms of feelings
and content.
 Reflective listening encourages the speaker to go
deeper into the situation. It does not move the
speaker on to new directions.
 When you listen reflectively ,you are not taking
charge of the conversation. Rather you are letting
the speaker determine the flow of the conversation.
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
An example to an reflective listening:
Speaker: “This is a stupid assignment. Why should we have to do an
analysis on the Civil War and have to use all those resources. It is
due next Monday and I don’t care. It is stupid.”
Listener: “You are angry with the assignment and the time schedule.”
Speaker: “You bet I am. I don’t have 20 hours this weekend to do a
paper.”
Listener: “This is going to mess up your weekend.”
Speaker: “It sure will. I don’t read as fast as other people, and it will
take me eight hours just to read to book. And then ! Have got to
write the analysis. I hate it that it takes me so long.”
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The technique of reflection

In reflection, the listener tries to clarify and restate
what the other person is saying. This can have a
threefold advantage:
 it can increase the listener's understanding of
the other person;

it can help the other to clarify their thoughts;
and

it can reassure the other that someone is willing
to attend to his or her point of view and wants to
help.
107
Some principles of reflective listening

More listening than talking

Responding to what is personal rather than to what is impersonal, distant,
or abstract.

Restating and clarifying what the other has said, not asking questions or
telling what the listener feels, believes, or wants.

Trying to understand the feelings contained in what the other is saying, not
just the facts or ideas.

Working to develop the best possible sense of the other's frame of
reference while avoiding the temptation to respond from the listener's
frame of reference.

Responding with acceptance and empathy, not with indifference, cold
objectivity, or fake concern.
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The Choices Made by the Reflective
Listener
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Rules for Active Listening
The goal of active listening is for you to hear and understand
other people - their words, thoughts, and feelings; to let them
know you have heard and understood them, and to go beyond
their stated positions and assertions.
You are best positioned to change someone's mind after you
have listened to that person. People tend to close down and
stick to their position until they feel heard.
Acknowledge others' motivations, feelings, and point of view,
even when you don't agree with what they are saying. Your
goal is to understand the message, not judge the veracity of
what they say.
Talk about things they have said that you can agree
with. Focus on shared viewpoints as a way of building
common ground.
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When listening, resist the urge to defend yourself or to
disprove what the other person is saying.
Listen more than you talk.
Listening gives you the advantage. The better your
understanding, the more flexibility and creativity you'll have as
you create options. Talking gives this advantage to the other
side.
Find your own listening style.
Don't use active listening when you're unwilling to put aside
your point of view. Forced responses that feign interest are
worse than no responses at all. People will see through your
act. Hostility, instead of communication, will result.
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