Chapter 4: Communicating Through Listening
Chapter Objectives and Integrator Guide
After reading and thinking about this chapter, students should be able to:
Objective
Resources
1. Explain the difference
between hearing and
listening.
Key Terms: Hearing and listening.
In the Text:
Page Reference: pages 61–64
Figure 4.1: Listening in the Workforce: Average Time Spent
Listening, Speaking, Writing, and Reading
Figure 4.2: The Difference between Hearing and Listening
Study Question 1 (p. 71)
IM Resources:
Discussion Starter 1: Understanding Others Through Listening
Activity 4.1: Communicating Feelings
Activity 4.2: Take a Stand
Mini Prezi: Listening is a Vital Communication Skill
(http://tinyurl.com/mculs3w)
2. Describe the different types
of listening.
Key Terms: Content, intent,
empathic listening, and listening for
pleasure.
In the Text:
Page Reference: pages 64–66
Skill Builder: Learning to Listen in Conversation (p. 65)
Study Question 2 (p. 71)
IM Resources:
Discussion Starter 2: Different Goals and Listening
Activity 4.3: Listening for Detail
Activity 4.4: Empathic Listening
3. Understand the factors that
affect attention.
Key Terms: Automatic attention,
selective attention, scanning and
choosing, short-term memory, and
long-term memory.
In the Text:
Page Reference: pages 66-68
Connecting Globally: Listen to Social Media to Expand Your
Perspectives (p. 67)
Study Question 3 (p. 71)
IM Resources:
Discussion Starter 3: Selective Attention and Active Listening
Activity 4.5: How Rumors are Started
Activity 4.6: Factual Listening Quiz
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4. Know how to overcome
barriers to listening.
Key Terms: Multitasking, status,
stereotype, personal bias, and
pseudolistening.
In the Text:
Page Reference: pages 68-70
Table 4.1: Barriers to Listening
Challenge Yourself: What do I need to know about effective
listening? I spend much of my time in college listening to
others, but my grades show that I’m not getting much out of
all that talk. (p. 70)
Study Question 4 (p. 71)
IM Resources:
Discussion Starter 4: Barriers to Listening
Activity 4.7: A Crime Report
Activity 4.8: Reasoning in Politics
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Chapter Outline
I. The Importance of Listening
A. Why Listen?
i. Although listening is the most used skill it is often the least studied.
ii. Effective listening is a critical skill for all types of careers and fields.
iii. Effective listening skills are critical for maintaining positive
relationships.
B. Hearing versus Listening
II. Types of Listening
Your purpose in listening determines how actively you try to process information.
Four different types of listening exist:
A. Listening to Discern Content and Intent
i. Content is the literal meaning of a message, such as, “where is the
salt?”
B. Listening for Learning
i. This type of listening requires considerable focus and attention.
ii. When listening to learn, writing down what is heard can aid in
C. Listening for Relating
Empathic listening is listening in an attempt to understand another person.
D. Listening for Pleasure occurs when we are listening for relaxation,
stimulation, or fun. Listening for pleasure does not involve critical analysis
of the messages.
III. Attention and Listening
The ability to listen changes depending on how much and how long we attend to
it. A. Attending and Focusing: You respond to what you hear in one of two
ways, either automatically or selectively.
i. Automatic attention involves listening in spite of ourselves, without
effort.
ii. Selective attention is the sustained focus we choose to give to
things that are important to us.
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B. Scanning and Choosing: listening involves the process of taking in stimuli
and choosing what to listen to further and how much attention to give to
the different stimuli.
C. Listening and Remembering: Remembering involves listening and
attaching meaning to what we hear and then deciding whether to store the
information in either our short-term or long-term memory.
i. Short-term memory: describes the temporary storage of
information.
1. Information stored in short-term memory is limited in both
2. Short-term memory can retain seven simple items, plus or
minus two.
ii. Long-term memory: describes reserving space for facts, figures,
and concepts that must be remembered.
IV. Barriers to Listening
Broken down into three general areas: noise, perception of others, and yourself.
A. Noise
i. Physical distractions: all of the distractions in the environment that
take away from focusing on a message.
B. Perception of Others
i. Status: devoting attention to someone you think is particularly
important.
C. Yourself
i. Egocentrism: seeing yourself on stage and in the spotlight in every
conversation.
ii. Defensiveness: acting threatened and feeling that you must defend
what you have said or done.
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v. Psuedolistening: pretending to listen but letting your mind or
attention wander to something else.
Discussion Starters
1. Understanding Others through Listening: Steven Covey, in his book “The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People,” reflects the importance of listening. He notes that
highly effective people first seek to understand before trying to be understood by
others. Why is effective listening so important? Who comes to mind for you first
when you think of someone who is an effective listener and actively tries to
understand your perspectives before explaining their perspectives to you? Have you
2. Different Goals and Listening: Share an example when you were pursuing one
listening goal and someone else was pursuing a different listening goal. How do you
deal with pursuit of different goals at the same time? For example, have you ever
just wanted to watch your favorite program and listen for pleasure when someone
3. Selective Attention and Active Listening: Recall a time when you noticed that
someone was only selectively listening to what you were talking about together.
Why do you think selectively listening occurred? How might things have been
4. Barriers to Listening: All of us experience barriers to listening. Examine the list of
different types of barriers to listening outlined in chapter four (noise factors, other–
centered perceptual factors, and individual factors). Identify one factor or item from
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Activities
ACTIVITY 4.1 COMMUNICATING FEELINGS
Purpose: 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 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:
2. Why did we start playing this game? It’s taking much longer to finish than I thought it
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)
6. Don’t come near me. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. (hurt)
8. I’m sorry about what I said about your friend. I shouldn’t have said anything. (guilt)
10. Why can’t we go to a movie tonight? (confusion)
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 some people more successful than others in
understanding people? How can we become more successful in understanding the
feelings of others?
Debriefing: This activity helps students to understand the feelings of others. The
activity can be related to perception, self-concept, nonverbal codes, and
supportive/defensive communication from earlier chapters.
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ACTIVITY 4.2 TAKE A STAND
Purpose: 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 on the board that are controversial. Some suggestions are “Homosexuals
should be allowed to marry,” “Some rap lyrics should be censored,” or “The United
States gives away too much foreign aid.” Adapt the statements and/or topics to the
students in your class.
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.
Debriefing: This activity should emphasize the importance of individuals asserting their
values and understanding contrary values of others.
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ACTIVITY 4.3 LISTENING FOR DETAIL
Purpose: Students should be able to facilitate critical thinking skills and practice
listening for learning.
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
the speaker has finished and is out of the room, discuss the presentation.
Discussion might be guided by the following: How did the speaker use proofs in the
presentation? To what extent did any of the barriers in listening play a role? Were there
things the speaker said or did to make it easier or more difficult to listen effectively? Cite
examples as necessary.
Debriefing: This activity illustrates the impact of a controversial/sensitive topic on a
student’s listening ability. It promotes awareness of the prevalence of a social issue and
ACTIVITY 4.4 EMPATHIC LISTENING
Purpose: 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.
3. All students should be required to take a speech course to graduate.
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
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ACTIVITY 4.5 HOW RUMORS ARE STARTED
Purpose: 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).
An accident report read: “I simply cannot wait to report to the police what I just
saw. It is essential that I go to the morgue as soon as possible. A large maroon
the second student. Then, the third student is invited back into the room, and the
second student tells the third student the story once. This procedure continues until all
of the participants are back in the classroom and each has been told the story. Each
student tells the story only once, and each student hears the story only once. The last
student writes down the story that he or she believes he/she has heard.
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ACTIVITY 4.6 FACTUAL LISTENING QUIZ
Purpose: As a way to expedite listening, this listening quiz will help students see how
frequently they listen by giving selective attention to a few details and then filling in the
rest of what they think is being said within their own minds.
Procedure: Tell students to take out a piece of paper and number it from one to ten.
Tell them you are going to give them a listening quiz. Tell them you will read each
question only once, so they should pay close attention to what you say. Tell them to
Questions:
1) How many members of each species did Moses take aboard the ark?
2) Can a man in South Carolina marry his widow’s sister?
3) If a farmer lost all but nine of his 17 sheep, how many would he have?
4) Does England have a fourth of July?
5) How many months have 28 days?
6) How many two-cent stamps are in a dozen?
7) What was the president’s name in 1970?
8) You are a baby bull. You have been away from home for a long time and are in
need of loving. To whom would you go, mama bull or papa bull?
9) You are the pilot of an airliner flying between New York and Chicago. The copilot
is five years younger than the pilot. The copilot’s spouse in three years younger
than the pilot’s spouse. The interior of the plane is blue, and the seats are red.
How old is the pilot?
10) A plane crashes on the border between the United States and Canada. In what
country would you bury the survivors?
Answers:
1) Moses took none, it was Noah.
3) Nine
5) All, some just have more.
6) Twelve
8) Papa bull – there are no mama bulls
10) Survivors won’t get buried.
After students complete the quiz, go through the correct answers. Ask students to raise
their hands to demonstrate how well they did. Frequently, the majority of the class
either fails the quiz or only gets 6 out of the 10 questions right. Discuss with the class
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way the questions were presented, with limited time to process and think about the
responses.
Debriefing: This exercise reinforces how frequently we engage in the process of
selectively deciding what facts to attend to when we take in information. This makes
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ACTIVITY 4.7 A CRIME REPORT
Purpose: Students should be able to describe the barriers to active listening; to explain
Procedure: Have the students write numbers on a piece of paper, from 1 to 10. Read
the following story to the class only once:
A woman had just opened the door to the apartment when a man appeared and
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.
3. A woman had opened the door to the apartment.
5. The man took the contents of the purse.
7. There was a man inside 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.
After the students explain the inference they made in answering the questions, the
discussion should focus on the ways inferences interfere with listening. Explain the
barriers to listening.
Debriefing: 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
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ACTIVITY 4.8 REASONING IN POLITICS
Purpose: Students should be able to identify some common fallacies that occur in
situations involving reason.
Procedure: Instruct students to watch examples of political announcements made on
television during an election campaign. Also ask students to listen to radio
advertisements that support a particular candidate for political office. Ideally, students
Debriefing: This activity will serve as a catalyst for understanding two sides of one
issue. Students will become sensitized to some of the barriers of listening. Moreover,
students will be better equipped to respond to the fallacious arguments in both a mass
and an interpersonal communication setting.
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Mini Prezi LISTENING IS A VITAL COMMUNICATION SKILL
Objective: This presentation helps students consider benefits of studying listening.
Presentation Script Information:
Overview
• You may wonder why a course in communication emphasizes listening as a vital skill.
Personal Benefits
• Your romantic relationships [click] can be enhanced through further study of listening. For example,
sometimes the only type of support your partner needs is for you to listen without trying to solve their
problems. Some couples recycle the same conflicts over and over again, simply because they forget
to listen to one another. [click]
• Your friendships and family relationships can be strengthened through further study of listening. A
child seeks advice or comfort from a parent because he knows they will listen to him without attaching
any judgments to what he says. A friend is a confidante, because she asks questions and listens,
Professional Benefits
• In addition to the personal, you will also experience a range of professional benefits when you study
effective listening and communication skills [click, click].
• You will likely spend a lot of time during your career listening to coworkers, clients, and bosses in
meetings and in one-on-one settings. In fact, [click] research suggests that you will actually spend
more time listening than any other activity in the workplace. [click, click, click]
Conclusion
• As you can see, effective listening may be among the most vital communication skills you will study.
• In both your personal and professional life, you will be expected to listen carefully to others in order to
interpret the information they are communicating and to understand where they are coming from.
Without this skill, you will be hard pressed to come up with meaningful messages to offer in response.
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