Listening
Introduction to Speech
Listening
• This skill begins with a decision.
• Hearing comes naturally, but listening is a
learned social skill.
• You have to decide to do it!
5 Steps to Listening
Process:
Step 1
• Hearing – You hear sounds.
• Barriers to hearing: noise, hearing impairment,
fatigue, distraction and sender deficiency.
Step 2
• Interpreting – Decoding the signals and
understanding the sensory input. You relate
what you hear to what you already know.
Step 3
• Evaluating – Distinguishing facts from opinions
and identifying possible biases. You figure out
the speakers’ intent after you fully understand
his or her point of view.
Step 4
• Remembering – You remember what you
understand of what you said. You consciously
commit some things to memory because you
need the information or because the
experience is important to you.
Step 5
• Responding – Reacting to a speaker by
sending cues.
• Example: nodding and saying “I see” or smiling
at a speaker.
What to listen for:
• Information – This is what you do most of the
time in school.
• Emotion – The speaker sets out to establish a
relationship. Sometimes people talk due to
insecurity or nervousness.
• Attitude – Distinguish fact from opinion.
Speakers may talk about something they’ve
observed. How they say it will convey how
they feel about it.
Continued…
• Goals and Hidden Agendas – Sometimes a
listener can pick up on a strong theme that
may not be expressed directly.
• Thoughts, Ideas, Opinions – Pay attention to
what the speaker leaves out. People talk
about things that interest them and omit
things that don’t.
4 Barriers to Listening
• As a listener, your job is to duplicate in your
mind the speaker’s exact message and intent.
Barrier 1
• External Barriers: begin outside the speaker
and listener, usually in the surrounding
environment.
• Examples- Noise, Physical Distraction,
Information Overload
Barrier 2
• Listener Barriers: internal or psychological.
They begin with the listener.
• Examples – Boredom, Laziness, Waiting to
Speak, “Opinionatedness”, Prejudice, Lack of
Interest
Barrier 3
• Speaker Barriers: They begin with the speaker.
• Five Examples –
•
•
•
•
Appearance (clothes, age, sex, etc.)
Manner (how he/she behaves, moves, talks)
Power (too much or lack of)
Credibility (degree to which people can believe the
speaker)
• Message (Awe or Yawn)
Barrier 4
• Cultural Barriers: Prejudice, Speaking Styles,
Source Credibility, Nonverbal Communication,
Accents
3 Types of Listening
Type 1
• Active Listening – You engage your mind and
listen for the speaker’s meaning.
• Empathetic Listening – When you use the steps
of active listening to seek emotional rather than
intellectual understanding of the speaker.
(Sharing the speaker’s mood)
• Creative Listening – When you listen and use
your imagination simultaneously. This is useful
in generating ideas in a brainstorm session.
Type 2
• Informational Listening – You listen mainly for
content, attempting to identify the speaker’s
purpose, main ideas and supporting details.
Type 3
• Critical Listening – You analyze, evaluate, and
draw conclusions about the speaker’s ideas.
Used in formal situations, especially when
listening for persuasive messages.
Propaganda
• This is a form of persuasion that discourages
listeners from making an independent choice.
Propagandists state their positions or opinions
as though these are accepted truths, without
evidence to back their claims.
• Examples: jumping on the bandwagon, namecalling, emotional appeals, stereotypes, and
creating drama.