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Chapter 5: Listening and Critical Thinking
Chapter Objectives and Integrator Guide
After reading and thinking about this chapter, students should be able to meet the
following objectives.
Objectives
1. Discuss three reasons why listening is important in our lives.
2. Define and describe various types of listening as a process.
Key terms: hearing, listening, active listening, empathic listening, critical listening,
listening for enjoyment, selective attention, automatic attention, working memory,
short-term memory, long-term memory, schema
3. Analyze how noise, perceptions, and your own characteristics can influence the listening
process.
4. Use critical thinking, nonverbal, and verbal strategies to become a better listener.
Key Terms: critical thinking, first-person observation, second-person observation,
source credibility
5. Adapt strategies for effective listening to specific situations, including the workplace, the
classroom, and mediated environments.
Key terms: lecture listening, lecture cues, information literacy
6. Engage in ethical listening behaviors.
Activities
Activity 5.1 Empathic Listening
Objectives
Students should be able to describe specific verbal and nonverbal behavior that
demonstrates empathic understanding; to demonstrate in a discussion their own ability to
listen empathically; and to discuss the effects of empathic listening on communication.
Procedure
Each student should read the statements that follow and decide for him- or herself what the
answers are. Then divide the students into groups of three or four. The groups should discuss
each statement and arrive at a consensus. However, during the group discussion, each student
should paraphrase the comments of the person who just spoke, before he or she is allowed to
make any new comments.
1. People under nineteen should not be allowed to get married.
2. Tirades should be eliminated in college evaluations.
3. All students should be required to take a speech course to graduate.
Class Discussion
After all of the groups have reached their decisions, the class should discuss the listening
behavior within the groups that indicated active listening and empathic understanding.
Usually, the students identify body position and posture, eye contact, paraphrasing, asking
probing questions, and words or gestures of affirmation—for example, head nodding or
saying “I see.” The discussion should relate behavior indicating empathy to the factors that
can create barriers to communication. The students should realize that empathy reduces the
barriers to effective listening. They should also discuss their feelings during the discussion
and the effect of empathic behavior on communication within the group.
Applications
This activity is similar to activity 3.5, “Paraphrasing.” The focus here, however, is on the
effect of empathy on communication, rather than on the nature of language. Empathy is also
important in the small-group discussion.
Activity 5.2 Communicating Feelings
Objectives
Students should be able to determine how emotions are communicated; develop the ability to
identify the emotional tone of a message; and demonstrate an ability to empathically listen to
others.
Procedure
Read the following statements to the class and ask students to identify the feeling expressed
by the content of the message:
1. I shouldn’t have failed the test! I studied all night for it! (amazement, shock)
2. Why did we start playing this game? It’s taking much longer to finish than I thought it
would. (boredom)
3. The candy is delicious. It was so nice of you to bring it. (pleased)
4. I can’t talk to my advisor alone. Will you go with me? (afraid)
5. Ever since my roommate got a new car, all he or she has been doing is going out!
(jealousy)
6. Don’t come near me. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. (hurt)
7. That jerk just ran a stoplight. (anger)
8. I’m sorry about what I said about your friend. I shouldn’t have said anything. (guilt)
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9. How fun to go out for dinner for a change! (excited)
10. Why can’t we go to a movie tonight? (confusion)
Class Discussion
Lead a discussion that focuses on differences in individual interpretations of the emotions
expressed, the frustration of some class members when attempting to accurately decode the
feelings expressed, and the cues that were used to accurately decode the feelings. Why are
communication.
Activity 5.3 Take a Stand
Objective
Students should be able to understand that active listening implies feedback and feedback is
essential to becoming a more effective communicator.
Procedure
Divide the class into small groups of five to seven students. Place statements/topics on the
board that are controversial in nature. Some suggestions are “Guns should not be allowed on
campuses,” “Gender neutral bathrooms,” or “The United States gives away too much foreign
aid.” Adapt the statements and/or topics to the students in your class.
In a “round-robin” fashion, each group member should first take a stance on the topic and
explain his or her viewpoint. Next, each group member must articulate a view contrary to the
one he or she genuinely feels. After one student states a viewpoint, every other member must
provide some sort of verbal feedback that indicates that the group member is actively
listening to the other. This process should continue until all group members have responded
to the statement in two ways.
Class Discussion
The students should be prepared to discuss the ease of articulating opinions that are
based on our values systems. However, what happens when we must try to respond to
contradictory opinions? How do we go about making sure that we are active listeners and
not just individuals prepared to talk? Trying to empathize is essential to gaining competence
in our interpersonal relationships.
Applications
This activity should emphasize the importance of individuals asserting their values and
understanding contrary values of others.
Activity 5.4 A Crime Report
Objectives
Students should be able to describe the barriers to active listening; to explain the differences
between inferential and objective listening; and to demonstrate an ability to listen without
drawing inferences.
Procedure
Have the students number a piece of paper from 1 to 10. Read the following story to the class
Read the statements that follow. The students should respond true, false, or the story doesn’t
say on their papers.
1. The woman opened her purse.
2. The purse contained money.
3. A woman had opened the door to the apartment.
4. The man was a burglar.
5. The man took the contents of the purse.
6. The apartment manager was the man at the door.
7. There was a man inside the apartment.
8. The woman was a tenant in the apartment.
9. The man who took the money ran away.
10. The man was a tenant in the apartment.
All of the answers to the statements are the story doesn’t say, except for #3, which is true.
Ask the students to say how many of their answers were correct. Then distribute a copy of
the story to each of the students and reread the statements. The students should explain why
the answers are the story doesn’t say.
Applications
This activity demonstrates the concepts of active listening. The inferences we make can
lead to misunderstandings. This exercise can also be used in the study of language and the
ambiguity of verbal symbols, and may be referred to when explaining the skills of public
speaking; that is, speakers should make their messages as clear as possible to reduce the
number of inferences the audience must make.
Activity 5.5 How Rumors Are Started
Objectives
Students should be able to determine how messages are distorted and changed as they are
exchanged from one person to another and explain why these distortions occur.
Procedure
Select five to seven students as participants. Ask all of these students, with the exception of
one, to leave the room. Provide the student remaining in the room with the following
message (or with a similar message of your own creation).
or change their positions. As a matter of fact, the limousine appeared to speed up just
before the crash. The drivers both died instantaneously, but the impact of the crash threw
the body of the person in the van onto the limousine. I need to go to the morgue to clarify
which driver was in which vehicle.”
After you have told the student remaining in the room this message one time, and only once,
believes he/she has heard.
Class Discussion
Lead a discussion that focuses on differences in individual understandings of the story, the
frustration of the senders and receivers of the message, the variety of different messages that
were offered, and the methods of distortion (adding new information, deleting existing
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Applications
This activity helps students to understand the concept of distorting, which must be
minimized if we are to understand others. You may want to relate this activity to perception,
self-concept, verbal codes, and supportive/defensive communication.
Activity 5.6 Listening for Detail
Objective
Students should be able to facilitate critical thinking skills.
Procedure
Invite an individual into the classroom to speak on a controversial topic, such as mandatory
AIDS testing, legalizing marijuana, or firearm laws. Instruct the students to pay close
attention to the speaker’s argument and take notes. Students should make notes of logical,
emotional, and personal proofs used by the speaker. After the speaker has finished and is out
of the room, discuss the presentation.
Class Discussion
Discussion might be guided by the following: How did the speaker use proofs in the
ability. It promotes awareness of the prevalence of a social issue and can be related to the
information in chapter 2 on self. This activity also provides an opportunity for students to
refine note-taking skills, a vital aspect of critical thinking.
Activity 5.7 Reasoning in Politics
Objective
particular candidate for political office. Ideally, students should be able to note each
candidate’s views to determine the validity of each argument. In addition, students should
isolate several of the informal fallacies discussed in this chapter.
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the recorder should construct a composite list of all fallacies identified. The discussion
should examine some of the common and consistent fallacies political figures employ.
Applications
This activity will serve as a catalyst for understanding two sides of one issue. Students will
become sensitized to the errors in critical thinking. Moreover, students will be better
equipped to respond to the fallacious arguments in both a mass and an interpersonal
communication setting.
Activity 5.8 Inferences in Arguments
Objectives
Students should be able to discern the differences between inference and observation-
making; and to distinguish between truth and validity.
Procedure
Instruct students to bring to class a “letter to the editor” from a magazine or newspaper.
Collect the letters and divide the class into small groups. Randomly distribute the articles.
Each student should determine whether the letter is based in observation, inference, or both.
When all the students have made their opinions clear within the group, conduct a class
discussion on the individual and group differences that may have occurred. The students
should come to recognize how opinions are derived from both observations and inferences,
and how the arguments are based on the individual propositions set forth.
Applications
Activity 5.9 Response Checklist
Objectives
Students should be able to identify their responses to others who are expressing deep
emotions; to relate their responses to guidelines for effective listening; and to discuss the
it helpful to think of a particular person each time. Read the following instructions to the
student:
Consider a situation in which another person is expressing a strong emotion. For each
emotion indicated on your “Response-to-Emotion Checklist,” indicate how you would
usually respond by assigning a percentage to each type of behavior. For example, if you
close friend and the casual acquaintance. Ask the students to indicate, by a show of hands,
which responses were most frequent in both situations.
Class Discussion
The students should relate each of their responses to the guidelines for effective listening and
decide whether the responses would facilitate open communication and the growth of the
the two people. As a variation, you may want to ask the students to demonstrate each
response in two-role skits.
Applications
This activity offers students an opportunity to examine their own listening and empathic
behavior and also illustrates the importance of recognizing the needs of others and of being
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Response-to-Emotion Checklist
When someone expresses
A. anger B. sadness C. hate D. loneliness E. love,
I usually:
Emotions
Response
A
B
C
D
E
make a joke.
change the subject.
respond intellectually.
pretend the person is kidding.
try to convince the person that he or she is wrong.
laugh at anything that remotely resembles a joke.
assure the person that he or she does not have to
feel so strongly.
hope it will soon be over.
know the person doesn’t want a response but just
wants to air some feelings.
try to help the person be more objective and
interpret the feelings for him or her.
think about my reactions to the feelings even
though I am trying to identify with the person.