Lesson 2: Discriminative and Efferent Listening
In relation to the purposes of listening, these terms are
Listening, like the other language arts, involves a process.
It is more than just hearing, even though we often use the
terms hearing and listening synonymously (Lundsteen,
1979). Actually, hearing is only one step; the crucial part is
comprehending what was heard. The listening process has
three steps: receiving, attending, and assigning meaning
(Wolvin & Coakley, 1995). In the first step, listeners receive
the aural stimuli or the combined aural and visual stimuli
presented by the speaker. Next, listeners focus on
important stimuli while ignoring other, distracting stimuli.
Because so many stimuli surround students in the
classroom, they must attend to the speaker’s message,
focusing on the most important information in that
message. In the third step, listeners comprehend or assign
meaning to the speaker’s message. Responding to the
message is not considered part of the listening process;
the response occurs afterward, and it sets another
communication process into action in which the listener
becomes the message sender.
There are many accounts as to the process of listening,
Rost has also introduced a similar concept. In the process,
there are still processing phases, decoding,
comprehension, and interpretation. In his words:
l Decoding involves attention, speech perception, word
recognition, and grammatical parsing;
l Comprehension includes activation of prior knowledge,
representing propositions in short term memory, and
logical inference
l Interpretation encompasses comparison of meanings
with prior expectations, activating participation frames,
and evaluation of discourse meanings
These processes are important as these will dictate how
the receiver of the message respond or react the
messages transmitted.
Why do people listen? People often answer that they
listen to learn or to avoid punishment, but according to
Wolvin and Coakley (1995), people actually use different
types of listening for these four purposes:
◆ Discriminative listening to distinguish sounds
◆ Aesthetic listening for enjoyment
◆ Efferent listening to learn information
◆ Critical listening to evaluate information
similar to Verderber and company.
l When you listen to enjoy like music or watching your
favorite series, that is appreciative listening.
l When a person tries to discern linguistic codes like
speeches or when talking to someone that is
discriminative listening.
l When a person tries to recall information (from seminar
or lecture) that is comprehensive listening.
l Finally, when a person evaluates the value of the
message, he/she practices critical listening.
In the short exercise you had earlier, it was a brief
introduction to what discriminative listening is. When you
were young, you actually developed phonemic awareness
that is to blend and segment sounds.
l Blending- this is your ability to combine sounds and
eventually make words
l Segmenting- this is your ability to chunk the sounds and
make meaning to these sounds
l savoring word play- this is when you try to play with the
words and revisiting your mental lexicon for words related
to what you are hearing
l noticing verbal and nonverbal cues- fillers like ‘ahm’
‘okay’ or gestures also provide a listener hints to what the
message is.
Another type of listening is efferent listening, when you
listen efferently, you focus on the big ideas. You employ
specific strategies in order to and use strategies that help
them recognize these ideas and organize them so they are
easier to remember. For example, they use the questioning
strategy to help them pick out what’s important and
understand the relationships among the big ideas.
l Organizing- You put into order your understanding
l recognizing big ideas- You identify the salient points from
the message
l Questioning- You ask yourself for clarifications and have
them cleared
l Summarizing- You create a gist of the entire message for
easy recall
One active listening strategy that harnesses the power of
discriminative and efferent listening is attending. Attending
is the process of intentionally perceiving and focusing on a
message (O’Shaughnessey, 2003). Poor listeners do not
have this as they allow their minds to wonder and focus on
the message. Do you find yourself dreaming or thinking of
something else while in class? Or may be now while you
are listening to this?
To improve this strategy, there are simple techniques:
1. Get physically ready to listen. This simply means you
as the listener eliminates anything that could potentially
distract you from listening, your cellphones, gadgets, social
media, tv, and more.
2. Resist mental distractions. Always have control of what
is in your mind. Focus. Yes, it is easier said than done, but
practice and determination makes it happen (e.g., a
classmate who enters the room
e you while your supervisor is giving instructions), or a
physical distraction (e.g., wondering what you’ll eat for
lunch because your stomach is growling)
3. Hear the person out. At times, attending is not observed
when we already have biases toward a person. Practice
arguing with the person in mind and let him/her make his
point and wait for the time you can respond.
Additional Inputs
“Remembering is being able to retain and recall
information later. We may find remembering difficult, for
instance, because we filter out information that doesn’t fit
our learning style, our listening anxiety prevents us from
recalling what we have heard, we engage in passive
listening, we practice selective listening and remember
only what supports our position, and we fall victim to the
primacy–recency effect of remembering only what is said
at the beginning and end of a message. “
Verderber, K Sellnow, D., & Verderber, R., 2017
There are three techniques to develop:
1. Repeat the Information: try to recall the information
and repeat it either in your head or by saying it out loud.
This helps you in remembering important information. For
example in an emergency call, you must remember vital
information in order to provide the need of the caller.
2. Construct mnemonics: this is a common way of taking
down notes. In conversations though you do not take
down notes unless it is a formal meeting. Speaking of
which, when you communicate with your boss and
requires you to do numerous tasks, the best way to go
about it is perhaps employ mnemonics to recall all
instructions.
3. Take notes: Although note taking may not be an
appropriate way to remember information when engaged
in casual interpersonal encounters, it is a powerful tool for
increasing recall during lectures, business meet- ings, and
briefing sessions. Note taking provides a written record
that you can go back to later. It also allows you to take an
active role in the listening process (Dunkel & Pialorski,
2005; Kobayashi, 2006; Titsworth, 2004).
Lesson 3: Aesthetic Listening
Generally, aesthetic listening is used for enjoyment or
pleasure something that does really require too much of a
mental effort rather more on the affective domain. But at
the same time, this kind of listening allows you to practice
certain strategies while actually enjoying. Students learn
to use predicting, visualizing, connecting, and summarizing
strategies, and they apply what they’re learning as they
listen.
Predicting- Have you experienced watching a film or series
and tried to formulate how it will go? I bet you did.
Visualizing- Have you tried to imagine or picture out the
scenarios and how they will turn out?
Connecting-Have you experienced associating elements
from what you listened and watched to your beliefs or
connect them to the scenes in the film just to make sense
of what is happening?
Summarizing-Have you recalled a film/series and relay to
your peers or friends the gist of the movie?
All these are executed by us when we do aesthetic
listening. These are the same comprehension strategies
that students use when they read, but learning them
through listening is often more effective.
Listening style is our favored and usually unconscious
approach to listening (Watson, Barker, & Weaver, 1995).
Each of us tends to favor one of four listening styles.
However, we also may change our listening style based on
the situation and our goals for the interaction (Gearhart,
Denham, & Bodie, 2014).
There is this one listening style I think we can identify
ourselves with when doing aesthetic listening. Since it
impacts more our affective domain and focuses more on
enjoyment. When we watched and listened to drama or
tragic movies, they are still to entertain audiences. At
times, watching and listening to them makes us relate or
understand what they are going through.
People-oriented listeners focus on the feelings their
conversational partners may have about what they are
saying. For example, people-oriented listeners tend to
notice whether their partners are pleased or upset and
will encourage them to continue by using nonverbal cues
like head nods, eye contact, and smiles. (Gearhart,
Denham, & Bodie, 2014).
An active listening strategy we can associate with aesthetic
listening is understanding.
There are four techniques employed in understanding:
Identify the main point- When you are listening ask
yourself what the speaker is trying to convey.
Ask questions-When you don’t understand the context of
the conversation, you may ask questions to clarify your
confusion. In watching films though, you internalize the
questions for yourself and later find the answers.
Paraphrase- put the message in your own words in order
to better decipher the thought. By paraphrasing, you give
the speaker a chance to verify your understanding. The
longer and more complex the message, the more
important it is to paraphrase.
Empathize- Empathy is intellectually identifying with the
feelings or attitudes of another. Three approaches are
empathic responsiveness, perspective taking, and
sympathetic responsiveness (Gearhart, et al., 2014). When
you empathize, you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Perspective Taking- this is when you use your knowledge
of the person you are talking in order to understand
his/her point.
Sympathetic Responsiveness- is feeling concern,
compassion, or sorrow for another’s situation. Sympathy
differs from the other two approaches. Rather than
attempting to experience the feelings of the other, we
translate our intellectual understanding of what the
speaker has experienced into feelings of concern,
compassion, and sorrow for that person.
Lesson 4: Critical Listening
Listening with comprehension has same value as reading
comprehension. To comprehend meaning, words should
be familiar and sentences should be not beyond the
linguistic capability of the person that includes but not
limited to vocabulary and grammar. Understanding the
body of the text and identifying important details help a
person take hold of what others really mean. In this
module, you shall learn to evaluate messages from videos
and audio texts employing strategies in critical listening.
The last type of listening and personally a very important
skill to develop is critical listening. As students, you are
exposed to mass media (tv, radio, movies,) and it is
necessary then and now to clearly evaluate the messages
conveyed to us. Critical listening is actually an extension of
efferent listening. You need to organize ideas, ask
questions, recognize the big ideas, and summarize the
presentation so that you can evaluate the message.
Here are four strategies in critical listening
determining the author’s viewpoint.-knowing the
standpoint of the proponent or speaker gives you a better
grasp as to how you would process the message. This will
further expand your understanding considering different
perspectives.
identifying persuasive techniques-this is when you
examine how the message is conveyed and what purpose
do the sender of the message aims to accomplish.
Evaluating- this is when you associate your ideas to
someone else’s and put value judgment on the idea being
processed by you, would you agree, disagree, abstain?
drawing conclusions-this part is when you reach an end as
you fully processed the information.
I could associate two listening styles in critical listening we
have first: Content-oriented listeners focus on and
evaluate the facts and evidence. Content- oriented
listeners appreciate details and enjoy processing complex
messages that may include a good deal of technical
information. Content-oriented listeners are also likely to
ask questions to get even more information. (Gearhart,
Denham, & Bodie, 2014).
Second one is Action-oriented listeners focus on the
ultimate point the speaker is trying to make. Action-
oriented listeners tend to get frustrated when ideas are
disorganized and when people ramble. Action-oriented
listeners also often anticipate what the speaker is going to
say and may even finish the speaker’s sentence for
them. (Gearhart, Denham, & Bodie, 2014).
An active listening strategy we can connect with critical
listening is evaluating. Evaluating is a process that involves
the scrutiny of an information. It is done to validate the
authenticity of the message. There are two techniques:
Separation of facts from inferences. You must learn how to
differentiate and distinguish facts from inferences. Your
opinion may be valid on your end, but it does not stand
true to all. Facts are proven by evidences.
Probe for information- As a critical listener, you must allow
yourself to quench your thirst of knowledge and ask
further questions to the proponent or speaker in order to
authenticate your curiosity.
Lesson 5: Developing a Critical Ear
Being able to listen to others and critically evaluate what
they have said immensely provides oneself an opportunity
to gather thoughts and integrate them in one’s ideas.
People should listen without prejudice first to completely
comprehend what others really mean. Afterwards, people
can then create their own judgment based on what they
have heard and compare and contrast to what they know.
Also, people can learn from others so listening should
never be underestimated.
Just to consolidate the very idea of listening, it can be
deduced to processing of sounds and processing of
meaning. Listening is never always a success. At times,
misunderstanding still is underway. But as much as
possible one must try to process information accordingly.
Processing the sound pertains to your acoustic processing
of linguistic codes. If these sounds aren’t familiar they may
be affecting the communication or exchange of
information. Nevertheless, when we listen, we receive the
aural stimulus/ and process them.
Processing the meaning, when you listen you won’t
necessarily remember the exact language patterns, but
more on what was the message all about. Research on
listening has shown that syntax is lost to memory within a
very short time, even a few seconds, whereas meaning is
retained for much longer.
As closing to this unit, it is important to instill why we do
listen. We may forget the definitions of the types,
strategies and all, but an application of them would be
much more meaningful in real life. So why listen?
There is a great range and variety in input which of course
will expose you to varying linguistic codes. In return this
could help you develop comprehension.
In listening, you learn how to respond appropriately as you
also learn to take into account the context and the people
you are with.
Listening has different purposes (to be informed, to make
friends or acquaintances, to be entertained, and more).
With these purposes your strategy will greatly differ.
Listening can be done in different medium (face-to-face,
phone call). With this, factors may affect the
communication, but these challenges only bring out a
better listener in us as this shall strengthen the ability to
listen more.
Listening involves contextual factors and taking into
account these would make one a more effective listener.
Moreover, why listen in English? As second language users,
we learn language through formal schooling and others
may have learned at home while watching or listening to
English-language materials. Listening is a key to language
development because learners learn English as they listen.
Reason 1: Language Models: Through listening to
appropriate and correct materials, you gain knowledge of
words, sentences, grammar. They serve as foundation in
understanding exchange of information in English as
learners may acquire language patterns.
Reason 2: Expanding Knowledge: Through listening, one
can develop his/her knowledge of the world. They can
associate their personal experiences to what they have
learned and make them meaningful or simply they have
widened their knowing of things.
Reason 3: Transfer to Reading: Listening is an important
instructional tool because it is a receptive process, like
reading. Students can transfer the listening strategies they
learn to reading, and both listening and reading involve
the active construction of meaning. Effective listening
depends on expectations and predictions about the
content, language, and genre that the listener brings to
the text. In addition, whether students are successful
listeners depends on their background knowledge and
familiarity with the topic teachers are talking or reading
about.
It is worth quoting Vandergrift (1999: 168) in full to
reinforce this point:
Listening comprehension is anything but a passive activity.
It is a complex, active process in which the listener must
discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and
structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was
gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the
immediate as well as the larger sociocultural context of
the utterance. Co-ordinating all this involves a great deal
of mental activity on the part of the learner. Listening is
hard work.
Propaganda Devices
Glittering Generality
Propagandists use generalities such as “environmentally
safe” to enhance the quality of a product. This is when
they generalize and box a product or item to a term or
catchphrase as a form of branding. For example, the
popular line “We find ways” by BDO, “Hari ng Padala” by
LBC, and more.
Testimonial
Advertisers associate a product with an athlete or movie
star. This is a good way of enticing consumers as they use
models that are of high caliber who can potentially impact
the buying power of the people. However, they are
instances as well where ordinary people are used to
connect more with the masses.
Card Stacking
Propagandists often use only items that favor one side of
an issue; unfavorable facts are ignored. This is hiding the
unappealing aspect of the product. Like how fast food
chain that says 50% free, 50% more, but these are only use
to focus on the good part of the product.
Bandwagon
Advertisers claim that everyone is using their product. This
is done by telling the target audience that everyone uses
it. Like 9 out of 10 women, 8 out of 12 men…
Rewards
Propagandists offer rewards for buying their products.This
is common in our local products. Like you win load when
you buy this, you get 50% discount if you purchase the
product now, and so on
Name Calling
Persuaders try to pin a bad label on someone or
something they want listeners to dislike, such as calling a
person “unpatriotic.” Listeners then consider the effect of
the label. This happens when the competitor shows or
names the product and states the negative.
Lastly, let me share these set of active listening skill set by
Michael Hoppe.
Pay Attention. You have to pay attention to your frame of
mind, body language, and the person you are talking to.
This is setting creates a productive dialogue.
Holding Judgment. You allow yourself to have an open
mind. You must be open with new ideas, new
perspectives. If you disagree, you suspend your ideas and
allow the other party to make his/her point.
Reflect. Always allow yourself to see beyond what is said.
The way you understand things might be different and
never allow yourself to be clouded by your biases.
Clarify. Double-check on any issue that is ambiguous or
unclear. Open-ended, clarifying, and probing questions are
important tools.
Summarize. This is a brief restatement of core themes
raised by the other person as the conversation proceeds.
Summarizing helps people see their key themes, and it
confirms and solidifies your grasp of their points of view.
Share. As a listener, you are not there to just listen. You are
an active participant in the conversation. Open up and
voice your ideas as well.