Introduction to Effective Listening

Course content

Lesson 1

Learning Objectives
This lesson aims to help students:

1. describe the listening process and identify the primary features that

distinguish listening from hearing.

2. discuss three reasons why listening is important in our lives.

3. identify the different fallacies of listening.

Content

This lesson aims to describe to the listening process. It further will enlighten the
students to distinguish the difference between hearing and listening. In addition, the
different fallacies of listening will be discussed as it will enhance the understanding of
the students pertaining towards the importance of listening.

Class Discussion

What are some examples of professional situations (i.e., not interpersonal relationships) in
which you felt another person was not listening effectively? Why do some people fail to be
good listeners even though it may be part of their job’.

Listening is one of the most important communication skills that we can acquire. Listening
is the primary way that we understand others, enrich our own lives, and learn important,
often vital, information. In this chapter you will learn how to develop your own listening
skills in your relationships with others, in the workplace, and in the classroom.

What is Listening?

Discussion

What are situations where you might hear but not listen? Do you have to listen all the time to
be an effective communicator?

Have you ever had the embarrassing experience of having someone ask you a question during
a conversation when you were only pretending to listen.

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You have no idea what the question was, so you have no idea what the answer should be.
Or have you ever had someone ask you to do something that was important to that person but
unimportant to you—so you forgot to do it? The sounds may go into your ears, but that does
not mean that your brain interprets them; nor does it mean that your mind stores the
message or that your body does what the message requested. Sometimes you hear, you
listen, and you even understand the message, but you do not obey. The listening process
is complicated. Much happens between the reception of sounds and an overt response by
the receiver.
The first step in learning about listening is to understand the distinction between
hearing and listening. Hearing is simply the act of receiving sound. You can close your eyes
to avoid seeing, pinch your nose to avoid smelling, and shrink away to avoid touch, but your
ears have no flaps to cover them. Their structure suggests that for your own protection, your
ears should never be closed, even when you sleep. Because you cannot close your ears, you
receive and hear sounds constantly.

Facts about Listening

 Listening is our primary communication activity.

 Our listening habits are not the result of training but rater the result of the lack of it.

 Most individuals are inefficient listeners

 Inefficient and ineffective listening is extraordinarily costly

 Good listening can be taught

 Listening: Learned first, Used most (45%), Taught least.

 Speaking: Learned second, Used next most (30%), Taught next least.

 Reading: Learned third, Used next least (16%), Taught next most

 Writing: Learned fourth, Used Least (9%), Taught most.

Fallacies about Listening

 Listening is not my problem!

 Listening and hearing are the same

 Good readers are good listeners

 Smarter people are better listeners

 Listening improves with age

 Learning not to listen

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  Thinking about what we are going to say rather than listening to a speaker

 Talking when we should be listening

 Hearing what we expect to hear rather than what is actually said

 Not paying attention

( preoccupation, prejudice, self-centeredness, stereotype)

Styles of receiving

There are a number of styles of receiving information.  The appropriate style is dependent upon
the relative importance of content compared to the relationship and the involvement of the
individual receiving the information.

Ten keys to effective listening

 Find areas of interest.

The Poor Listener: Tunes out dry topics.
The Good Listener: Seizes opportunities: "What's in it for me?"

 Judge content, not delivery.

The Poor Listener: Tunes out if delivery is poor.
The Good Listener: Judges content, skips over delivery errors.

 Hold your fire.

The Poor Listener: Tends to enter into argument.
The Good Listener: Doesn't judge until comprehension is complete.

 Listen for ideas.

The Poor Listener: Listens for facts.
The Good Listener: Listens for central theme.

 Be a flexible note taker.

The Poor Listener: Is busy with form, misses content.
The Good Listener: Adjusts to topic and organizational pattern.

 Work at listening.
The Poor Listener: Shows no energy output, fakes attention
The Good Listener: Works hard; exhibits alertness.

 Resist distractions.
The Poor Listener: Is distracted easily.

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 The Good Listener: Fights or avoids distractions; tolerates bad habits in others; knows
how to concentrate.

 Exercise your mind.

The Poor Listener: Resists difficult material; seeks light, recreational material.
The Good Listener: Uses heavier material as exercise for the mind.

 Keep your mind open.

The Poor Listener: Reacts to emotional words.
The Good Listener: Interprets emotional words; does not get hung up on them.

 Thought is faster than speech; use it.

The Poor Listener: Tends to daydream with slow speakers.
The Good Listener: Challenges, anticipates, mentally summarizes, weights the evidence,
listens between the lines to tone and voice.

Discussion

In groups of three, choose two of the fallacies of listening and give relevant examples.

Questions

1. Hearing is a ______ process, and listening is a ______ process.

a. mental; physical
b. mental; psychological
c. physical; mental
d. physical; physical

2. Which of the following statements is true?

a. Personal and business relationships are not

affected by listening.
b. When communicating, college students spend
over half of their lives listening.
c. Listening constitutes only a small fraction of
our communication activities.
d. Listening does not contribute to recognizing
deceit.

3. If you are thinking about what happened last weekend at college while listening to your
mom on the phone, you are exhibiting what type of barrier to listening?

a. stereotypes
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b. egocentrism
c. personal bias
d. mental distraction