CHAPTER 3

Listening

Chapter Objectives and Integrator Guide

The opening page of each chapter in Communicating at Work lists desired learning outcomes.
The Integrator Guide will assist you in locating activities and resources relevant to each
objective.

Integrated Objectives Resources

Explain how effective listening can contribute to In the text:
your career success. Page references: 76-79

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 1,2
Classroom Activities: 1
Describe the barriers to your listening effectively, In the text:
and outline strategies for overcoming each barrier. Page references: 79-85
Activities: 1
Career Tip: Listening to Complaints
Ethical Challenge:
Gold and Platinum Rules

Instructor's Manual online:

Personal Reflection for Journaling
Discussion Launchers: 3-5
Classroom Activities: 2

Student Online Learning Center:

Internet Exercise 1
Identify your listening styles(s), and describe how In the text:
you might modify them as necessary. Page references: 85-87
Activities: 2
Key terms: action-oriented listening style; content- Self-Assessment: Listener Preference Profile
oriented listening style; people-oriented listening
style; time-oriented listening style Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 6,7
Classroom Activities: 3
Describe the best listening approaches you can use In the text:
in a given situation to promote understanding, Page references: 88-94
accomplish your goals, and enhance your Activities: 3-5
relationships with others. Career Tips:
Minimizing Interruptions
Key terms: counterfeit questions; paraphrasing; Use a Telephone Log

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sincere questions
Instructor's Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 8-10
Classroom Activities: 4-8
Video Activities: 1-3
Other resources found on the Online Learning Center:
Student online center
Glossary
Key Term Flashcards
Key Term Crosswords
Self-Quizzes
Instructor online center
PowerPoint Files

About Chapter 3

Often, students fail to understand the importance and value of effective listening in their daily
lives. Most research argues that in a typical week we spend more time listening to than speaking
to others. This chapter provides ample opportunities to review concepts from previous chapters
and to reinforce skills taught earlier. Chapter 1 introduced the notion that communication is a
transactional process involving communicators who simultaneously send and receive messages.
Chapter 2 discussed the need to listen to people who may communicate differently than we do.
Chapter 3 emphasizes the crucial (and often neglected) role of listening in the communication
process. In addition, it demonstrates that communication is more than talking and that one can
listen and send out messages simultaneously.

The first section of this chapter identifies the various barriers to effective listening, including
psychological, environmental, attitudinal, and sociocultural. Students can correlate the types of
noises taught in Chapter 1 with the barriers to listening discussed here. Additionally, this section
examines the flip side of intercultural and gender language differences described in Chapter 2 by
showing how these differences affect us when our primary role is that of listener. The difficulties
men and women experience in communicating often stem from the different listening styles they
use during their interactions with each other. The second section of this chapter helps students
assess their own listening styles with a Listening Preference Profile and descriptions of four
typical, but contrasting, styles of listening. The final section applies a practical application to the
listening process by providing guidelines for effective listening.

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Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling Assignment

Recall a situation when you felt what you were saying was important but the person(s) to
whom you were speaking didn't seem to be listening to you. What made you think they
weren't listening? How did that make you feel? What listening barriers do you think
were present? How can you use this personal reflection to encourage yourself to listen
more attentively to others?

Discussion Launchers

1. What examples of poor listening have you observed in the workplace, at school, or at home?
What were the consequences of the ineffective listening? In your experience, does
ineffective listening contribute as much, more than, or the same as ineffective speaking to the
presence of organizational errors?

2. In your own experience, particularly on the job, what are some of the reasons you and others
have listened poorly? Classify your examples according to those listed in the text. If
possible, suggest additional reasons not mentioned in the text.

3. List all of the barriers to listening listed in the book. Can you add others? Now, rank-order
the entire list from the most important (most frequent) barriers to the least important.

4. Based on your experience, which barrier to effective listening causes the most confusion in
an organizational setting? Illustrate with examples.

5. Identify typical differences between masculine and feminine listening styles. Do these
differences affect mens and womens ability to communicate effectively with each other?
Explain your answer.

6. Do you believe you and other people have a predominant listening style? Is it difficult to
switch styles if you are trained, say, as an evaluative listener? What advantages are there to
having the skills that enable you to competently switch styles?

7. Consider each style of listening explained in the text. Suggest scenarios in which each style
might be a good choice or a poor choice. Explain your choices. Can you find any
relationships between the listening styles introduced in this chapter and the cultural
dimensions we read about in Chapter 2? Explain.

8. Which of the guidelines for "Listening More Effectively" do you find most useful? Are some
guidelines more suitable for specific contexts such as friendships, work, school, or
completive sports? Explain your answer.

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9. Which the guidelines for "Listening More Effectively" will be the most difficult for you to
apply? Why? What suggestions do you have for becoming more competent in this area?

10. Communication is an art, not a science. Consequently, sometimes when were attempting to
be good communicators and use our best paraphrasing skills, either the other person isnt
receptive, or our words just seem to come out wrong. Think of specific examples from your
own experience that illustrate this unfortunate possibility. Explain your example to the class,
and ask your classmates to analyze why each situation turned out as it did. Make suggestions
about how you might handle a similar situation the next time around.

Classroom Activities

1. Standardized Listening Tests

Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to assess listening skills by
using a standard listening test.

Procedure: Obtain a standardized listening test. One that is readily available is: Barker,
Larry L., and Watson, Kittie W., Listen Up: Skills Assessment. Facilitator's Guide. [Available
from Pfeiffer & Company 1-800-274-4434]. The Watson-Barker Listening Test assesses five
categories of listening skills: (1) evaluating message content, (2) understanding meaning in
conversation, (3) understanding and remembering lectures, (4) evaluating emotional meaning,
and (5) following instructions. It comes with a 20-minute videotaped listening test followed
by multiple-choice questions. This version has 20 questions. A longer version includes two
40-minute videos (Form A and Form B) that can be used as pre- and post-listening tests.
Listen Up: Learning Activities, an activity manual, provides various activities you can
employ to teach listening skills.

Class Discussion: You can administer this test as a pretest. Discuss as a class:
What did you learn about your own listening skills from taking the test?
Do your results suggest that you rely on a particular style of listening?
Are there any sections of the listening chapter that you would like to focus on?
What can you do to improve your listening in those areas where you were the
weakest?

You might wish to re-administer the test after completing the chapter on listening. Have students
compare their first and last scores. Discuss whether students learned enough from this chapter to
make a difference on their scores. Why or why not?

2. Overcoming Listening Barriers

Objective: This activity helps students acknowledge ways they and others can improve
their own listening.

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 Procedure: Divide the class into groups of four or five students. Ask each group to
consider the following question: If you had three minutes to give the best advice you
could to help people overcome the reasons they listen poorly and to become better
listeners, what would you say? Be very specific.

Class Discussion: On the board, create a column for each of the listening barriers listed
in the text. Add an additional column titled Miscellaneous. Elicit from each group some
of their suggestions for listening improvement. Have the class classify each suggestion
according to which barrier it corresponds to. To allow you to continue engaging the
class, invite one or two students to act as scribes and record suggestions in the
appropriate columns on the board. After all suggestions have been classified, have the
class vote to choose the best solution for each barrier. Discuss why they chose these
solutions.

3. Listening Styles

Objective: This activity helps students understand differences among four types of
listening styles and understand when each style is appropriate or inappropriate. This exercise
helps sensitize students to the importance of developing a flexible listening style.

Procedure: Divide students into groups of four or five. Distribute copies of the
following chart.

Exploring Styles of Listening

People-Oriented Action-Oriented Content- Time-Oriented

Style Style Oriented Style Style
Example of a Tell me more. And your point Do you have any I have a meeting
response that is? evidence to in five minutes,
illustrates this prove that? but I can listen
style of listening for one minute if
you can tell me
what's on your
mind that
quickly.
Example of a
response that
illustrates this
style of listening
Situation when
such a comment
would be
appropriate

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Situation when
such a comment
would not be
appropriate
How the person
being listened to
might feel after
hearing this
comment.

Ask each group to fill in the empty blocks. After students have filled in all blocks, ask
group members to read an example aloud. Their classmates' task is to identify which style
of listening the response illustrates. Students will find that many responses could be
classified as examples of more than one listening style. Continue the discussion by
eliciting situations in which this response would be appropriate or inappropriate and
predicting the particular feelings the responses might evoke.

Class Discussion: Ask students whether any of the styles seem to be appropriate in more
situations than others. Do some seem more polite? Are some more productive? Are
some more self-serving? Have students come up with their own emotive descriptions of
each style.

4. A Good Listener

Objective: Students will recall and analyze examples of effective listening.

Procedure: Divide students into small groups. Instruct group members to describe someone
they know whom they consider to be an excellent listener. After each member has finished
with their description, the group will write general guidelines of effective listening that
reflect members descriptions.

Class Discussion: Ask groups to share some of their favorite descriptions and guidelines.
Try to match the student-generated guidelines to those in the text. If students suggest any
additional guidelines that arent mentioned in the text, write them on the board.

5. Asking Sincere Questions

Objective: Students will differentiate between sincere versus counterfeit questions.

Procedure: Divide students into groups of four. Students in each group will assume the
roles of Student A, Student B, Student C, and Student D. The task of Student A is to talk
about something interesting that happened to her or him during the past week. (If
students claim that they can't think of anything interesting, instruct them to talk about
something that isn't interesting.) Students B and C will ask questions, and Student A will

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 respond. Meanwhile, Student D will write down the questions asked by Students B and
C.

After three minutes have elapsed, stop the question-asking session. Remind students that
many questions that may seem sincere at first are actually hidden advice. Each group will
now look are the written version of the questions and decide whether the questions are
sincere, focused, irrelevant, and/or counterfeit.

Class Discussion: When groups have finished analyzing their questions, ask each group
to share two or three of their questions with the class. Evaluate with the class which type
of question each example illustrates. Ask students who assumed the role of Student A to
report to the class their reactions to the questions. Use this opportunity to reinforce
problems inherent with counterfeit questions.

Extend the discussion by eliciting times when students wanted to tell their stories but
were interrupted by others who were too busy giving advice to really listen. Encourage
students to practice asking sincere questions between now and your next class meeting.
In your next class, ask students to share their experiences as they attempted to apply this
new skill. To help students accomplish this task, give them a simple rule such as "When
you start to offer advice (unless the other person has clearly asked you for advice), say to
yourself 'Shut up and listen.' "

6. Seeking Feedback

Objective: To apply and practice skills at asking questions and paraphrasing in order to
discover the speaker's content, intent, and feelings.

Procedure: Ask students to listen to the statements you're going to read. After you've read
each statement, give the students two or three minutes to write a response aimed at
discovering the content, intent, and the feelings expressed in that statement. Acceptable
responses include sincere questions as well as paraphrases. Remind students that there are
many possible ways to paraphrase any statement. They should create a scenario and use their
own best judgment.

A. "My supervisor told me this morning that I was going to receive a bonus."
B. "Nobody cares how we do our jobs."
C. "I'm really under a lot of pressure this week."
D. "I'm trying to make ends meet, but it's difficult with all the expenses I have for school
and my family."
E. "I'm having trouble accepting the rating I got on my performance appraisal."
F. You've just told a colleague how a job needs to be done. He says, "It doesn't matter
how its done."
This exercise can also be done in groups. You could assign two or three of the statements to
each group, then compare responses.

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 Class Discussion: Class discussion could focus on the way students draw meaning from the
various statements.
What cues did you use to interpret the intent of each of these messages?
In what ways could these types of statements be misinterpreted?
How might the other person respond if your paraphrase is inaccurate?
Which of these statements has the most negative connotation? Why?
Did your paraphrase reflect that negativity?
How does the way we listen for and respond to content, intent, and feeling affect our
everyday interactions?

7. Listening Actively: An Online "Quiz"

Procedure: Direct students to the following Rochester College URL:

http://www.roch.edu/faculty/lhalverson/listening.htm

Have students complete the Active Listening quiz. They will read a series of four
paraphrases. For each, they will have an opportunity to decide whether the listener is
focusing on content, intent, tone, or all three. Caution your students not to click on
"Submit," because their work would be submitted to Rochester College, not to you.
Instead, they can copy the page for discussion in class the next day.

Class Discussion: Conduct an open-ended discussion to find out what students learned
from completing this exercise. You may wish to continue by placing them in groups and
asking each group to write paraphrases that focus on content, intent, tone, or all three.

8. Paraphrasing in Context
Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to understand the impact
of context on the listening process.
Procedure: For each statement in the previous exercise, discuss how a different context
might change their paraphrased response. Use the sample contexts below, or have students
make some up. In addition to using these general contextual settings, students might identify
each dimension of the context (review the communication model in the first chapter).
Randomly select some of the contexts to apply to each of the above statements, and have
students write a paraphrased response that differs from the ones they originally wrote.

Chronological Social Physical Cultural Preferred

Context Context Context Context Response

You've known the You've considered the In the hallway of the Both the same gender
person since first person a good friend, workplace. and same age; both
grade. It's early although you've only from Chicago;
morning and you worked for the same German ethnic
haven't had caffeine company for a year. background
yet. You are the manager.

You've just been You just met the Near the coffee pot in One is an immigrant
reprimanded by your person yesterday; you the break room of a from Denmark; one

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 supervisor; it's the are of different large corporation. an older worker who
middle of a rush job. genders; there are five is about to retire.
other coworkers
standing around.

When you have finished, choose one of the statements, and ask for several volunteers to read
their paraphrased responses. After three or four students have read their responses, ask which
responses students would prefer to hear if they were on the receiving end. Spend some time
talking about the different ways students paraphrased the same statement.

Class Discussion: Class discussion could focus on the way students paraphrased their
responses when viewed in different contexts.
In what ways did each of the context types affect your paraphrasing?
Which context has the most impact on an individual's interpretation of a message?
In what practical ways can you alter your listening practices to consider context?

Video Activities

1. Listening at Work: Health Care

Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to identify listening styles and
barriers in a work environment.

Procedure: In the third major scene of the film Mask (1985, Universal Pictures, starring Cher,
directed by Peter Bogdanovich), Rocky, the main character, visits a medical office. Four medical
workers speak with himan older male, a midlife male technician, a female, and a new, young doctor.
In these brief encounters, students can observe stark contrasts in listening/relating styles. These
encounters also provide a good place to review the nonverbal skills that can contribute to or detract
from effective listening. To emphasize the accompanying nonverbal behaviors, ask students to first
watch the scenes without sound.

Class Discussion: The following sample questions will focus attention on listening skills.
Which medical worker(s) listened best to Rocky?
How would you describe each of their styles?
Can you identify instances of paraphrasing content, intent, or feelings?
What were the barriers that interfered with the young male's listening effectively?
[Egocentrism will probably top the list here, but others are apparent also.]
Which medical worker(s) was (were) more interested in listening to understand? In giving
advice?
How did Rocky's mom (Cher) listen to the young male doctor?

2. Listening for Information

Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to apply principles of listening for
information.

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 Procedure: Videotape an informative speaker (C-SPAN is a good source for speeches), and play the
speech in class. Instruct students to apply the guidelines in the text by listening for key points and
taking notes. At the conclusion of the speech, allow time for students to add key information to their
notes.

Class Discussion: The following sample questions could be used to identify the difficulties students
had after watching the speech.
What were the key points identified by most students? Did most students select the same
points?
What common pieces of information did most students remember? Why?
How did selectivity of listening to and remembering information affect the information you
recalled?
How could the speaker have enhanced your ability to remember more information?

3. Listening to Evaluate

Objective: This activity helps students develop skills in listening to evaluate.

Procedure: Videotape a persuasive speaker (C-SPAN is a good source for speeches), and play the speech
in class. Instruct students to apply the following guidelines from the text: analyzing the
speaker's evidence, and examining emotional appeals. Have students write down the speaker's
key claims, examples of credible evidence, lack of evidence, and emotional appeals.

Class Discussion: Discuss students' evaluations with the class. You could use the following questions to
stimulate discussion:
What were the speaker's key claims?
To what extent were the claims supported with accurate and timely evidence? What other
types of evidence could the speaker have added to the speech?
What emotional appeals did the speaker use? Were these appeals relevant to the intended
audience? Were they realistic?
Did any of the emotional appeals obscure logical considerations?
Based on your analysis of evidence and emotional appeals, do you believe this speaker had
high or low credibility? Explain.

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Additional Resources

Print
Chen, G., & Starosta, W. J. (1998). Listening between cocultures. In Foundations of intercultural
communication. Allyn & Bacon.

This chapter provides insight into and instruction in the process of intercultural listening, with
examples and research highlights.

Meiss, R. (1994, March). Effective listening skills. Women in business, 46(2), 2831.
Emphasizes listening principles and styles, requirements to change listening behavior, and how
powerful listening is essential for personal and professional growth. Listening skills need to be
developed.

Owen, K. (1994, January). Listen to what patients don't say. RN, 57, 96.
Close listening has life and death significance. This article illustrates the importance of paying
attention to kinesics, paralanguage, complaints, and responses. Ideal for nursing students.

Purdy, M., & Borisoff, D. (1997). Listening in everyday life: A personal and professional
approach (2nd ed.). Lanham, ND: University Press of America.
Offers suggestions for listening in various settings.

Wolvin, A.D., & Coakley, C.G. (1992). Listening (4th ed.). Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown Co.
This comprehensive listening text covers major topics regarding listening, including a section on
the reaction to ineffective listening within the business world.

Video
The Art of Listening. 27 min. Learning Seed Video.
This video covers a variety of essential listening topics, including the value of silence, when and
how to take notes, and listening between the words to understand the speakers feelings.

Effective Listening. RMI Media.

This video looks at ways to improve listening. It focuses on 10 common habits that interfere with
listening effectiveness.

How to Listen Effectively. 62 min. Levitz-Sommer Productions.

Hosted by Dr. Tony Alessandra, this very thorough film explores stumbling blocks to listening
well, methods to improve listening, and a mnemonic to help listeners remember how to listen
well.

Listening Assertively. RMI Media.

This film concentrates on avoiding preconceived ideas that interfere with listening and improving
listening by being fully involved in the task.

The Power of Listening. CRM Films.

This film illustrates what active listening consists of and why it is helpful; it also explores pitfalls
to effective listening.

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Web
Association of Business Communication http://courses.sha.cornell.edu/orgs/abc/listen.htm
This site includes a bibliography of listening resources for businesses.

Center for Rural Studies http://crs.uvm.edu/gopher/nerl/personal/comm./e.html

This site provides a lecture outline and several exercises for teaching active listening skills.

College of St. Benedict/St. Johns University http://www.csbsju.edu/academicadvising/helplist.html

The CSBSJU Academic Advising Department has developed pages to help students listen, take
notes, and remember what they read.

Cyber Listening Lab http://www.esl-lab.com/

This site provides listening tests and resources for ESL students. Some of the most difficult tests
might also be useful for native speakers to test their own listening skills.

EQ International http://eqi.org/listen.htm
Provides examples of effective paraphrasing responses and links to more information.

Dr. Larry Nadig, Ph.D (Clinical Psychologist) http://www.drnadig.com/listening.htm

Dr. Nadig, a clinical psychologist, has prepared a concise page that summarizes listening theory,
listening difficulties, modes of listening, and tips for improving listening.

International Listening Association. http://www.listen.org/pages/resource.html

This organization, dedicated to improving listening in all contexts, has extensive resources to
promote the study and development of listening: bibliographies, databases, abstracts, and
videotapes. 1-800-452-4505.

Lets Talk Training Group http://www.lets-talk.org/true.htm http://www.lets-talk.org/article.htm

These two articles explain the differences between empathy and true empathy, and they give
suggestions for controlling our tendency to evaluate others negatively rather than listening to their
true intent.

Talico, Inc. http://www.talico.com

A variety of corporate training activities on listening are available through Talico, Inc. 2320 South
Third Street, #5, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250 .Fax: 1-904-241-4388. Phone: 1-904-241-1721.

Womens Business Center http://www.onlinewbc.org/docs/manage/listen.html

Visit this site for a listening test that helps you identify which styles of listening you tend to use
most.

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