LISTENING AND FEEDBACK

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
In our louder and louder world,
says sound expert Julian
Treasure, "We are losing our
listening."

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Five Elements of Listening

Remembering
the
Assigning information
meaning to
Focusing the sounds
attention
Discriminating
or
Receiving distinguishing
sounds among them

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Types of listeners
• Active listeners
• Passive listeners
• Marginal listeners
• Non-listeners
• Evaluative listeners (may be
considered different from active
listeners)
Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
• Empathetic Listening?

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Listening Skills Are Valuable
• Listening takes up much of our time.
• Good listening skills are good job
skills.
• Good listening skills are good
academic skills.
• You have an investment in the
listening situation.

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Barriers to Listening
• Linguistic barriers
• Language differences
• Vocabulary differences

• Cultural barriers
• Cultural allusions

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Barriers to Listening
• Personal barriers
• Physical factors
• Psychological factors
• Receiver apprehension
• Stereotyping
• Prejudice

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Barriers to Listening
• Four common thought patterns
used during listening:
• Taking small departures from the communication
line
• Going off on a tangent
• Engaging in a private argument
• Taking large departures from the communication
line

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
Strategies to Improve Listening
• Develop advanced skills
• Improve your comprehension
• Comprehensive listening
• Prepare in advance.
• Use attention-directing strategies.
• Remember your goals.
• Use elaboration strategies.
• Use strategies that complement your learning style.
• Don’t get hung up on delivery.

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Improve Your
Critical Listening Skills
• Critical listening: using advanced
listening skills to analyze
evidence, and evaluate the merits
of messages before accepting
them

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Practice Dialogical Listening
• Give appropriate nonverbal
feedback
• Posture
• Eye contact
• Distance
• Movements

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Practice Dialogical Listening
• Give verbal feedback
• Clarification questions
• Closed questions
• Open questions
• Loaded questions (should be avoided)
• Requests for elaboration
• Comments

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Practice Dialogical Listening
• Give written feedback
• D-R-E method:
• Description
• Response
• Evaluation
• A feedback method that describes content,
shares personal responses, and gives
evaluation.

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Summary
• Listening is the communication activity
that we do most and study least.
• Fortunately, you can devise strategies to
listen more effectively.
• Practice dialogical listening by
contributing appropriate nonverbal,
verbal, and written feedback.

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
• https://www.ted.com/talks/julia
n_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_b
etter#t-449102

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.
 Discussion
• What Great Listeners Actually Do

Adapted from Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society, 8th Edition © 2016 . All rights reserved.