English 100 – Communication Arts in English

Definition : Communication Art

Communication art refers to communication design. It is a discipline that is mixed and has
a wide scope for designing information development. It deals with how presentations and media
interact with individuals. It might include audio with or without visual art.

Definition: Communication

Communication is a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to

create shared understanding. Communication is a continuous, ongoing process.

This process requires a vast of repertoire (list) of skills:

 Intrapersonal and interpersonal processing

 Listening
 Observing
 Speaking
 Questioning
 Analyzing
 Evaluating

According to The Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, communication is the act of

passing news, information. . . the act of sharing or exchanging thoughts, ideas, feelings with
others or with a group.

Communication is derived from the Latin word “communis,” which means, “Belonging to
many” or “equally” and “communico”- to confer with others. It is the mutual exchange of
information, ideas, and understanding by any effective means. (Ballesteros, 2003)

Communication refers to the process of human beings responding to the symbolic

behavior of other persons (Adler and Rodman, 1997).

 Communication is Human..
 Communication is a Process.
 Communication is Symbolic.

1
Definition: Language

Language is a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and written

symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or writing..

According to Collins English Dictionary, a language is a system of communication which

consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular
country or region for talking or writing.

Definition: Language skills

Language skills are the abilities that enable you to express your thoughts coherently and
communicate with others. These skills provide structure and relevance ...

Language skills are capabilities that allow an individual to comprehend and produce spoken
language for proper and effective interpersonal communication.

What are language skills?

These language learning skills are four in number: LSRW

Order of Language Skills

1st Listening skill 3rd Reading skill

2nd Speaking skill 4th Writing skill

1. Listening Skill - The first and foremost communication skill that we learn in our lives is
nothing but “LISTENING’.
 1st language skill
 Receptive skill
 Passive skill
 Natural language skill
 Requires our ears and brain to comprehend

2. Speaking skill
 2md language skill
 Productive skill
 Active skill
 Natural language skill
 Requires our vocal tract and brain to produce language through sound

2
 3. Reading skill
 3rd language skill
 Receptive skill
 Passive skill
 Artificial language skill
 Requires our eyes and brain to comprehend

4. Writing skill
 4th language skill
 Productive skill
 Active skill
 Artificial language skill
 Requires our hands and brain to produce the written symbols that represent our
spoken language

Key Points #1

Natural language skills Artificial language skills

Listening skill Reading skill
Speaking skill Writing skill

Key Points #2

Receptive skills Productive skills

Listening skill Speaking skill
Reading skill Writing skill
Key Points #2

Active skills Passive skills

Speaking skill Listening skill
Writing skill Reading skill

Objectives of Listening

 To learn
 To increase one’s understanding
 To advise or counsel
 To relieve one’s boredom (listening to music)

3
Definition: Listening

 Listening is an activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from

something we hear.
 Listening is the most important communication skill.
 We probably spend more time using our Listening Skills than any other kind of skill.
 Like other skills, listening takes practice.
 Real listening is an active process.
 Listening requires attention.

What is effective listening?

 Effective listening is the process of analyzing sounds, organizing them into recognizable
patterns, interpreting the patterns and understanding the message by inferring the
meaning.
 Many of the problems we experience with people in our daily lives are primarily
attributable to ineffective listening or lack of listening.

Definition: Listening Skill

Listening skill is the ability to actively understand information provided by the speaker,
and display interest in the topic discussed.

Difference between Hearing and Listening

Listening is not hearing.

According to the Elmhurst College Learning Center:

 Listening and hearing are not the same. Hearing is the first stage of listening.
Hearing occurs when our ears pick up sound waves which are then transported to
our brain. This stage is our sense of earing.
 Listening is a communication process and, to be successful, is an active process. In
other words, we must be active participant in this communication process. In
active listening, meaning and evaluation of a message must take place before a
listener can respond to a speaker. Therefore. The listener is actively working
while the speaker is talking.
 How can this happen? It is simple. Our though speed I much fast than our speech
speed. But be careful! Don’t allow the thought speed to race into daydreaming.
This habit will defeat our attempt to become an active listener.
4
 Hearing Listening
The act of perceiving sounds and receiving The act of hearing the sounds and
sound waves or vibration through your ear. understanding the meaning expressed by the
speaker.
Ear Ear Brain
Accidental Focused
Effortless Intentional
Involuntary Voluntary

Stages of Listening

Receiving: Response caused by the sound waves stimulating the sensory receptors
of the ear; it is physical response.
Understanding: Stage at which you learn what the speaker means- the thoughts
and the emotional tone.
Remembering: Process of placing the appropriate information into short-term
storage.
Evaluating: It is a stage in which active listeners participate. It is the process of
deciding the value of the information to the receiver.
Responding: This stage requires that the receiver complete the process through
verbal and/or nonverbal feedback.

Essential for Listeners

1. Recognition of sounds ex. Pin Bin

2. Recognition of words
3. Understanding grammar ex. I am speaking.
Am I speaking?
4. Recognition of Linguistic and Non-linguistic cues

Recognition of Linguistic and Non-linguistic Cues

Linguistic cues Non-linguistic cues

 Intonation  Body language
 Stress  Gestures
 Pitch  Facial expression
 Tone  Posture
 Rhythm  Eye contact
5
Importance of Listening Skills

1. Basic to language development

2. Source of learning
3. Support academic success
4. Become a better student
5. People will perceive you as intelligent and perceptive
6. Good listening can help your public speaking

Process of Listening

1. Receiving or Hearing
2. Selecting
3. Understanding
4. Evaluating
5. Remembering
6. Responding

 Receiving or Hearing – 1st stage of listening process which is represented by the ear
because
it is the primary tool.
- Basic stage where an individual hears a message being sent by a speaker,
receiving
raw data
 Selecting – choosing stimuli
 Understanding – To understand symbols we have heard, we must analyze the meaning of
the speaker.
- Assigning meaning
- The stage that you learn what the speaker means, the thoughts and the
emotions.
- The listener must understand the intended meaning and the context
assumed by the
sender.
 Evaluating – is a stage in which active listeners participate in analyzing and judging
-The active listener sorts facts from opinion and determines the presence or
absence of bias or prejudice in a message.
- It consists of judging the message in some way.
- At time, you may try to evaluate the speakers underlying intentions or
motives.
 Remembering- is important listening process because it means that an individual has not
only received and interpreted a message but has also added it to the
6
 mind’s storage bank; but just as our attention is selective, so is our
memory what is remembered may be quite different from what was
originally heard.
- Drawing on memory
 Responding – At this stage, we plan our reply to the message.
- This stage requires that the receiver complete the process through verbal
and/or
nonverbal feedback because the speaker has no other way to determine if
a message
has been received.
- If response is positive, it means listening is effective.
- Feedback

The Listening Process

Steps in Active Listening Process:

 Hearing - is the first essential step in the listening process and relates to the sensory
perception of sound. The listener further processes the perceived sound.
For learning to be effective, hearing needs to be done with attentiveness and
concentration.
 Filtering - The next step involves sensing and filtering of heard sounds. The heard
message is categorized as wanted or unwanted. The unwanted message is
discarded. The sense of judgment of the individual comes into play, that
is, the filtering process is subjective and a person chooses to retain what
makes sense to him.
 Comprehending – The listener understands what the speaker has tried to convey.
This activity can be described as absorbing, grasping or assimilating. The
listener uses his knowledge, experience, perception and cognitive power.
 Remembering – The assimilated message is stored in memory to facilitate future recall.
 Responding - Responding to a message takes place at the end of the communication,
immediately after or later, to show that the message is being received and
comprehended.

8
Listening Cycle

Feedback Receiving

Evaluating Understanding

Remembering

Modes of Listening

Disengaged

Competitive
Passive Modes of Listening /Combative

Active

9
 10

Disengaged Competitive/Combative Active Passive

 Means the  This type of  This is the  In this type of
listener’s body listening that is most listening, we
is present but done when people effective are genuinely
his mind is not want to push listening interested in
present during their own type of model. what the
the view or opinion  In this model, person is
communication. rather than you actively saying.
 He hears the listen listen and  At this point,
words that the to someone’s understand we are not yet
person is else’s. what the at the point of
saying and can  With this type of other person responding and
even listening, we is saying. being involved,
repeat them mostly are  Here, we but we
but he is not waiting to jump in listen to what understand
really listening and say the other the points that
because his something or person has to the speaker is
mind is on point out flaws in say before we trying to make.
something else. what the other try interject  We may agree
 For example, a person is saying. what we with what is
student sitting  We pretend that would like to being said, but
in the class but we are listening, share. we are doing
busy when really, we  In this model, so in a passive
with a friend ‘s are formulating you restate manner, rather
birthday our own ideas and or share back than in a
planning. just waiting for information reflective one.
the person to with the  Means a
break so we can speaker, listener listens
blurt them out. showing that carefully and
 The downside is you are paying seeks to
that we fail to attention and understand
actually take in actively but he doesn’t
what the other involved. ask any
person is saying  Means a questions to
and have closed listener the speaker.
our minds, which demonstrates Neither he
is a barrier to his interest in shows his
good listening. what the interest in the
 Means the speaker conversation.
listener is thinks, feels  He also doesn’t
listening with the or means. want to
intention of  He validate his
“topping” what continuously understanding.
the speaker is either asks a  For example, in
saying. question or a group, few
 Whether it’s gives people sit
accomplishments, feedback to there, only to
possessions, or the speaker listen but they
relationships, the either by never take
underlying goal of body language part in
listener is to or words. conversation
prove himself  The listener though they
better than the restates what attend the
speaker. he heard to whole meeting
 For example, in reflect the and also listen
the horizontal message back to understand.
level meeting (all to the
are at the same speaker for
level) everybody validation.
wants to prove  The validation
himself more makes this
knowledgeable the most
than the other. effective
listening mode
and
distinguishes
it from all the
other models.
 For example,
in a workshop,
active
participants
win prizes
because they
actively take
part in the
ongoing
activity.

11
Types of Listening

 Discriminative Listening - It involves identifying the difference between various sounds.

It also enables one to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar language.
 Comprehension Listening – It involves attaching meaning to what is being listened to. It
may also include comprehending the non-verbal messages being conveyed by
the speaker.
 Evaluative Listening – It involves evaluating and analyzing the message being received. It
involves judging the acceptability of what is said depending on how logical one
finds it to be.
 Attentive Listening – It involves paying attention to the words that are being spoken.
 Pretense Listening - It involves more hearing than listening. It means pretending
through
facial expressions that one is listening when actually one is not.
 Selective Listening - It involves selecting the desired part of the message and ignoring
the
undesired part of the message.
 Intuitive Listening – It means listening through the intuitive mind by silencing the other
forms of internal dialogues going on simultaneously.

Models of listening

1.

12
2. Brook’s Listening Model

or

13
Three stages of the model:

 Hearing - Sound waves are being received by the ear.

 Auditory Acuity – ability of ear to respond to various tones.
 Masking - Separating background noises from the conversation.
 Auditory Fatigue – A monotonous tone or a droning voice can have
the effects creating auditory fatigue.
 Identifying and recognizing – The sounds and sound sequences are recognized as words.
 Auditory Analysis – Comparing the incoming sounds with sounds familiar to
individual.
 Mental Reorganization – Process where the listener applies some system
that will aid retention oncoming sounds.
 Association – Stage where the listener associates the sounds heard with
other sounds.
 Auding - the practice of listening to and processing spoken language in order to
understand.
- Translation of the flow of words into meaning.
 Indexing - Refers to outlining or ranking of information according to
importance.
 Appreciating – Responding to the aesthetic nature of message.

3. Joseph Devito’s Model of Listening

14
4. Blaine Goss Listening Model

Three Stages of the Model

 Signal Processing - Act of transmitting the message to the listener.

 Literal Processing – Taking the words in the message assessing their
probable meaning.
 Reflective Processing - Listening to evaluate.
5. The Ross 3 Step Model

Three Stages of the Model

 Sensation – A physical feeling caused by having one or more of the sense

organs stimulated.
 Interpretation – An explanation or establishment of the meaning or
significance of something.
 Comprehension – The grasping of the meaning of something.

15
 The Figure illustrates that some messages are never heard because they never reach the
sensation circle or level. Other messages may only reach the interpretation circle and perhaps
never be totally understood. Even the messages that penetrate the comprehension circle may
not be totally understood.

Three Basic Steps in Real Listening

 Hearing - Hearing just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is saying.
For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras, and the
speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact,
then you have heard what has been said.

 Understanding – The next part of listening happens when you take what you have
heard and understood it in your own way. Let’s go back to that report on
zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that
might mean. You might think, “Maybe this means that the pattern of
stripes is different for each zebra.”

 Judging - After you are sure that you have understood what the speaker has said,
think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have
heard? You might think, “How could the stripes be different for every
zebra? But then again, the fingerprints are different for every person.
I think this seems believable.”

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 improvs with age.
 Listening skills are difficult to learn.

16
Importance of Listening

 Communication is not complete without effective listening.

 An attentive listener stimulates better speaking by the speaker.
 A good listener learns more than an indifferent listener.
 A good listener can restructure vague speaking in a way that produces clearer
meaning.
 A good listener learns to detect prejudices, assumptions and attitudes.

Difficulties/Barriers to effective Listening

 Physical Barriers
 Noise
 Poor acoustics
 Defective mechanical devices
 Frequent interruptions
 Uncomfortable seating arrangements
 Uncomfortable environment
 Message overload

 People- Related Barriers

 Physiological Barriers
 State of Health – State of health of the listener and the speaker
affects the listening ability. Fever, pain or any other form of bodily
discomfort makes it difficult for a person to listen or speak comfortably.
 Disability – Hearing deficiencies may lead to poor listening. Similarly,
speech disorders of the speaker may make a speech incoherent to the
listener. Speaker’s accent may also make it difficult for the listener to
comprehend.
 Wandering attention – Human mind can process words at the rate of
about 500 per minute, whereas a speaker speaks at the rate of about 150
per minute. The difference between the two leaves the listener with
sufficient time to let his mind wander.

17
 Psychological Barriers
 Being unsure of the speaker’s ability – Based on past experience or inputs
from sources, the listener may have a preconceived notion of the
speaker’s ability. He may perceive the speaker to not be well informed,
or to be lacking in depth and ability. Hence the listener will not listen to
what the speaker has to say.
 Personal anxiety – Sometimes the listener is preoccupied with personal
concerns and anxieties. This makes it difficult to perceive what is being
said by the speaker.
 Attitude – The listener may be highly egocentric with a “know it all
attitude” and may not listen as he feels that he already knows what the
listener has to say.
 Impatience - The listener may not have patience to wait for the other
person to finish what he has to say. He may be intolerant or may be
eager
to add his own points to the discussion. As a result, his desire to speak
overcomes his desire to listen, this acting as a barrier.
 Emotional blocks – Our deep seated beliefs in certain ideas may make it
difficult for us to listen to ideas which go against our belief. We may
hear
such as an idea wrongly or it may get distorted in our mind to match our
perception or we may completely block it off by not listening to it. Many
a
time, we block something off completely because of painful memories
associated with it.

18
Barriers/ Difficulties of Effective Listening

Benefits of Effective Listening

 Enhances Productivity
 Improves Relations
 Avoids Conflict
 Improves Understanding
 Improves Negation Skills
 Helps You Stand Out
 People Will Appreciate It

Features of Listening

 Listening is a mental activity.

 It improves by consciousness and concentration.
 It is a skill as it can be improved by experience.
 Non-verbal communication also helps in listening.
 Listening stimulates speaking.
 Listening involves paying close attention to the sounds that come in way of communication.

19
Traits of a Good Listener

L - Look interested – get interested

I - Involve yourself by responding

S – Stay on target

T – Test your understanding

E - Evaluate the message

N – Neutralize your feelings

Tips for Being a Good Listener

 Give your full attention on the person who is speaking. Don’t look out the window or at
what else is going on in the room.
 Make sure your mind is focused. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think
you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your
mind wandering change the position for your body and try to concentrate on the
speaker’s words.
 Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance
to say everything they world like to say without being interrupted. When you
interrupt, it looks like you aren’t listening, even if you really are.
 Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak!. You can’t really listen
if you are busy thinking about what you want to say next.
 Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker
wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and
repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with
phrases such as “My point is ….” Or “The thing to remember is. . .”
 Ask questions. If you not sure you understood what the speaker has said just ask.
For example, you might say, “When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean,
that the stripes said that no two zebras are alike., did you mean that the stripes are
different from each one?
 Give feedback. Sit up straight and look directly at the speaker. Now and then, nod to
show that you understand, At appropriate points you may also smile, frown, laugh, or
be silent. These are all ways to let the speaker know that you a really listening.
Remember, you listen with your face as well as your ears!
20
Techniques of Listening Skills

 Focus on key points.

 Being aware of both verbal and no-verbal messages.
 Listen with an open mind.
 Avoid false attention and pretending to listen.
 Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying question.

Rules of good Listening

 Stop talking
 Stop thinking
 Remove distractions
 Do not let your mind wander
 Do not pre-judge
 Be patient
 Empathize with the speaker
 Be attentive, but relaxed.

Listening Pitfalls

 Appearance and delivery

 Separating ideas from facts
 Interrupting
 Pretending
 Distraction
 Sarcasm

Research Findings

One quarter of our walking time is spent in listening. Research shows that
at the workplace, on an average, personnel spend about:
 32.7 percent of their time listening
 25.8 percent of their time speaking
 22.5 percent of their time writing
Effective Listening is the most crucial skill for becoming a successful manager.
It requires paying attention interpreting and remembering sound stimuli.

21
39