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CHAPTER 4 BECOMING A SKILLED LISTENER
CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY
Chapter 4 helps students to be a more active, engaged, and critical listener. The chapter distinguishes
between hearing and listening and explains three types of listening: passive, active, and critical
listening. The ethical implications of listening, including ideas for improving listening, are described.
Common distractions and potential mitigations are identified. Details for better note-taking and giving
constructive feedback are also included.
CHAPTER 4 OUTLINE
I. Introduction: Public hearing and listening
A. Difference between hearing and listening
1. Hearing = receiving sounds
2. Listening = actively processing what you are hearing
a. Engage ideas
b. Think about concepts
c. Good recall
II. Types of listening
A. Passive listening
1. No active engagement of speaker’s ideas and arguments
2. Rude to speaker
3. Speaker cannot do all the work
4. No meaningful questions for speaker
B. Active listening
1. Attentive listening for meaning and relevance of speech
C. Critical listening
1. Active listening + evaluation of speech content
2. Application of standards, regardless of personal preferences
a. Effective or ineffective
b. Strong or weak arguments
c. Relevant or irrelevant supporting evidence
d. Logical or illogical conclusions
3. Critical listener qualities
a. Think
b. Ask
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c. Appreciate
d. Sort
e. Assess
D. Passive, active, and critical listener feedback differs
III. Ethics of listening
A. Good listening choice has ethical components
1. Ethical and civic obligation to listen carefully and critically
a. Reciprocal relationship
b. Listen as would expect to be listened to
c. Special type of ongoing conversation
B. Behaviors to listen and improve audience environment
1. Be ready to listen
2. Visibly pay attention
3. Eliminate potential distractions
4. Respect the forum
5. Practice good turn-taking
6. Listening with open mind
C. Benefits of enhancing listening skills
1. Listen carefully to arguments of people you don’t agree with
a. Change mind
b. Make you a better advocate
2. Better at listening for specifics
a. Quality of arguments
b. Soundness of evidence
c. Strengths/shortcomings of various positions
IV. Obstacles to good listening
A. Distractions
1. Obstacles to paying full attention to speaker
a. Built into setting
b. Outside distractions (noise)
i. Literal noise
ii. Visuals hard to see or understand
c. Resume focus on active listening
i. Note taking
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a. Try to be open minded
3. Internal objections or arguments
a. Refocus on speaker
b. Refocus on note taking
c. Asterisk by problems
V. Taking good notes
A. Key tool of active and critical listening
1. Translate words into ideas
2. Note meaning and context
3. Understand and remember better
C. Note taking techniques
1. Make outline
2. Indicate relationships between ideas (arrows, lines)
3. Comment on concepts and arguments (key words, questions)
VI. Giving constructive and useful feedback
A. Critical feedback
1. Argued (supported) opinion
2. Well thought out and useful
3. Still hard to hear
B. Constructive criticism
1. Specific feedback about strengths/weaknesses
2. Specific suggestions for improvement
3. Consider how people feel = deliver feedback effectively and receive criticism
C. Unrealistic speaker assumptions about criticism
1. Filter feedback and transform criticism
2. Produce negative feelings
D. Try to keep feelings and reactions under control
1. Reflect on the feedback
2. Decide which elements are appropriate and useful
E. Four feedback tips
1. Criticize speech not speaker
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READING TARGET FOR CHAPTER 4
This is the instructor-assigned goal for students to consider in their writing, discussion, and individual
reflections:
Read this chapter with the goal of understanding of why you should be a better listener and
what you can do to be a better listener.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR CHAPTER 4
General strategies and techniques
Use the Questions for Review and Questions for Discussion at the end of Chapter 4 as prompts
for writing or discussion (in class, online, before and after class).
Use the Try It activities in the chapter as the basis for points of discussion, in-class activities, or
assigned work outside of class.
Use student speech days to practice active and critical listening skills (see general resources in
this instructor manual for more learning activities during student speeches).
▪ Identify characteristics of good speaking.
▪ Tell students to keep track of one or two characteristics of good presentations for every
▪ Ask students to identify words used (or information provided) that enhanced the clarity of
the speaker’s message.
▪ Assess and reflect on speech content.
• Reinforce the value of connecting with an audience by asking the audience members as
they listen to each speech to respond in writing to the question, “To what degree did
you find this speech relevant to your life?”
• Students can list something new to them or what they learned from each presentation.
• Ask students to write what they felt or thought while listening to each speech.
• After each speech, students can identify whether they agreed or disagreed with the
main point and claim of the presentation.
▪ Generate deeper thinking and discussion about presentation content.
• The audience can write one thought-provoking question that would continue the
dialogue for each presentation. These can be discussed after each speech (if time
allows) or written on slips of paper to provide valuable feedback about what the
audience would like to know.
• The audience can identify and assess the evidence provided to support claims.
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Chapter learning objective: Distinguish between hearing and listening
Have students work with partners to generate examples of the difference between hearing and
listening. What are some situations when hearing only is useful? For example, consider tuning
out noise when studying. Report their examples to the larger group.
Chapter learning objective: Contrast passive, active, and critical listening and their
uses
Passive listening experience. List examples of passive listening experiences, such as watching
television or a movie. Ask students to project how the listening experience would be different if
they were actively listening and critically listening.
What different types of listening look like. Ask students to describe or dramatize what passive
the speaker after watching the media clip. Compare the value of feedback generated based on
each type of listening.
Remember critical evaluation. Ask students to remember and write about a time they made a
critical evaluation that could have been, but was not, determined by personal opinion. If they
cannot remember a time, ask them to describe a hypothetical instance. How would that
experience be different if they had not used critical evaluation?
Chapter learning objective: Define and explain some of the ethical issues that
confront listeners
Good listening reminder. On student presentation days, briefly review the ethical listening
guidelines discussed in the text (be ready to listen, visibly pay attention, eliminate potential
distractions, respect the forum, practice good turn-taking). Explain specific expectations that
you might have.
How would you feel? Ask students to write a list describing how they would feel if they had
carefully planned, prepared, and practiced a presentation as their part in the public
conversation, but when delivering the speech, several members of the audience weren’t ready
to listen and were visibly distracted.
were critically listening to each other.
Chapter learning objective: Identify obstacles to listening and how to avoid them
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Try It (what is distracting you?). Instruct students to write a list of what is distracting them in
that class meeting. In small groups or as an entire class, discuss what individuals can do to
shorten the list.
Class assumptions. Ask students to identify assumptions that they make about their classmates.
How would they describe this group of students to a friend or roommate? Share the
assumptions in small groups to assess which ones most people share, and then discuss how
likely these assumptions are to be accurate.
Listening barrier skits. Assign small groups to select a listening barrier from the text and to
create a skit that demonstrates the barrier and its effect. Each group leads the class in a short
discussion about what can be done to mitigate or avoid the listening problem illustrated in the
skit.
Chapter learning objective: Evaluate which note-taking techniques work best for
you
Ask students to examine the three note-taking styles illustrated in the book (outline, Cornell,
mapping) to determine a personal preference and reasons for that preference. Divide the class
into three groups (one per style), and have students join the group of the style that they most
challenging about that particular technique. Over the course of a few class meetings, students
can try all three methods. You can also use this exercise during student speeches, using one
note-taking technique per day.
Chapter learning objective: Develop strategies for giving effective constructive
feedback
For a speech early in the term, model constructive feedback by providing two observations for
every speaker, one strength and one suggestion for improving the speech.
On student speech days, tell students to keep a running list of strengths and weaknesses that
they observe during the presentations. Ask them to write specific suggestions to address each
weakness that they identify. The observed strengths and weaknesses can be discussed generally
in small groups or with the entire class, with the aim of generating suggestions for future
speakers.
Ask students to provide detailed written feedback for one speaker each day (several students
assigned to each speaker). You can provide a rubric, checklist, or writing prompts to direct their
attention and help them develop specific constructive feedback. Collect the feedback, and
return it to the speaker with your evaluation of the speech.
MINDTAP AND CENGAGE RESOURCES
Chapter 4 support materials in MindTap include the following:
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Quiz questions that reinforce student learning and understanding
Observe—Watch a speech to gain insights into public speaking concepts.
General resources cited at the beginning of Part II
GLOSSARY OF TERMS IN CHAPTER 4
Active listening: seeking to find the meaning and relevance of what is being said
Critical feedback: argued and supported opinion about what worked and what didn’t in a speech
Constructive criticism: Definition: specific feedback about strengths and weaknesses, with specific
suggestions for improvement
Mental zone: what is going on inside of you during a presentation that may impede active listening
Passive listening: allowing ideas and words to wash over you without actively engaging with the ideas
Stereotypes: generalizations based on a single dimension of the person, distracting us from
active listening