Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 1
Chapter 6—Listening Effectively
At a Glance
What It Means to Listen
Ways of Listening
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. Differentiate between listening and hearing.
3. Identify examples of how culture affects listening behavior.
5. Differentiate and give examples of informational listening, critical listening, and
empathic listening.
7. List and summarize the barriers to effective listening.
9. Assess your listening skills.
10. Describe strategies for improving your informational, critical, and empathic listening
skills.
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Lecture Outline
I. What It Means to Listen
A. What is listening?
1. Listening is the active process of making meaning out of another person’s
spoken message.
3. Listening involves attending to someone’s words or paying attention well
enough to understand what that person is trying to communicate.
4. Researchers have identified four distinct styles, each consisting of a different
set of attitudes and beliefs about listening.
a. People-oriented style: This style emphasizes concern for other people’s
5. Effective listening requires listening with the consciousness and explicit goal
1. A study by Richard Emanuel and others found that college students spent
3. Listening is also one of the most important communication skills in families
and in other personal relationships.
1. Myth: Hearing is the same as listening.
2. Myth: Listening is natural and effortless.
a. Listening is a learned skill, not an innate ability.
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 3
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
D. How culture affects listening behavior
1. Culture affects listeners’ expectations for directness.
a. Listening behavior is influenced by how people in a given culture think
2. Culture affects nonverbal listening responses.
a. In some cultures, people expect listeners to maintain eye contact during
3. Culture affects understanding of language.
a. Listeners who aren’t fluent in a language can have a hard time
understanding what is being said.
II. Ways of Listening
A. The stages of effective listening can be described by the HURIER model,
developed by Judi Brownell. This model suggests that active listening has six
elements represented by the acronym HURIER:
1. Hearing, the physical process of receiving sound, is where listening begins.
3. Remembering is being able to store something in your memory and retrieve it
when needed.
4. Interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to information that has
been selected for attention and organized.
5. Evaluating involves assessing the value of the information we’ve received.
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 4
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
6. Responding is indicating to a speaker that we are listening.
a. Stonewalling is responding with silence and a lack of expression on your
face.
b. Backchanneling is using facial expressions, nods, vocalizations, and
verbal statements to let the speaker know you’re paying attention.
c. Paraphrasing is restating in your own words what the speaker has said to
show that you understand.
B. Types of listening
1. Informational listening is listening to learn.
2. Critical listening is used when our goal is to evaluate or analyze what we are
hearing.
3. Empathic listening occurs when you are trying to identify with the speaker
by understanding and experiencing what he or she is thinking or feeling.
4. Other types of listening include inspirational listening, or listening to be
inspired, and appreciative listening, or listening for pure enjoyment.
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 5
III. Common Barriers to Effective Listening
A. Pseudolistening and selective attention are two common barriers.
1. Pseudolistening is pretending to pay attention to someone when you really
B. Information overload refers to the huge amount of information that each of us
takes in every day.
1. We talk to people, watch television, listen to the radio, surf the Internet, get
3. Information overload can be particularly distracting for people with attention-
deficit hyperactivity disorder, a developmental disorder.
C. Glazing over is daydreaming or allowing the mind to wander while another
person is speaking.
1. Glazing over can cause you to miss important details in what you’re hearing.
D. Rebuttal tendency is the propensity to debate a speaker’s point and formulate a
reply while that person is still speaking.
1. The rebuttal tendency requires mental energy that should be spent paying
E. Closed-mindedness is the tendency not to listen to anything with which one
disagrees.
2. People who are closed-minded tend to overreact to certain forms of language,
such as slang and profanity, and to stop listening to speakers who use them.
F. Competitive interrupting is also a barrier to effective listening.
1. Interrupting happens when a person involved in a conversation talks when it
is not that person’s turn to speak.
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 6
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
a. Sometimes people interrupt to express enthusiasm or support for what the
other person is saying.
b. Sometimes people interrupt to stop the speaker and ask for clarification.
c. Sometimes people talk out of turn to warn the speaker of an impending
danger.
2. Competitive interrupting is the practice of using interruptions to take control
of the conversation.
IV. Honing your listening skills
A. Become a better informational listener.
1. Separate what is and what isn’t said.
a. An effective way to determine whether you have understood a speaker’s
2. Avoid the confirmation bias.
a. Confirmation bias is the tendency to pay attention only to information
3. Listen for substance more than style.
a. The vividness effect is the tendency of allowing dramatic, shocking
1. Be a skeptic.
a. Skepticism is a method of questioning that involves evaluating evidence
2. Evaluate a speaker’s credibility.
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 7
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
a. Credibility refers to the reliability and trustworthiness of someone or
something.
b. It’s sometimes easy to confuse expertise with experience.
c. Bias can also affect a speaker’s credibility.
3. Understand probability.
a. Evaluating the merits of a claim means speculating about the likelihood
that the claim is true.
b. We sometimes confuse what’s possible with what’s probable and what’s
probable with what’s certain.
i. An event or fact is possible if there’s even the slightest chance that it
might be true.
C. Become a better empathic listener.
1. Listen nonjudgmentally.
2. Acknowledge feelings.
a. Respond to speakers with continuer statements, phrases that identify the
3. Communicate support nonverbally.
a. Eye contact is an important nonverbal behavior.
b. Other important empathic behaviors are the use of facial expressions and
touch.
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 8
Key Terms
listening
hearing
informational listening
critical listening
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Additional Lecture Ideas
1. Contact your college’s student support center and invite an interpreter to class to discuss
2. Therapists “listen for a living.” Invite a professional counselor or psychiatrist to class.
Ask your guest speaker to provide tips to the class on how they can become better
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Classroom Discussion and Activity Topics
1. Informational listening through art. Divide students into four or five small groups. Have
each group elect one person to be the “team artist,” and send that person to the board.
Provide dry erase markers/chalk for each artist. Distribute abstract art to each of the
teams: for example, two circles with an arrow going through horizontally with five
squares, containing polka dots, floating around the outside (get creative). The artists
3. As you lecture, have students complete a “personal listening inventory.” Include the
following elements:
a. Do you consider yourself a “good listener?” Why or why not?
b. At what type of listening do you need the most improvement? Informational? Critical? Empathic?
4. Read a silly and short story to your class (make one up, or find a children’s book), and
don’t allow your students to take any notes. Once the story is over, give them a five-
question “pop quiz” to see how well they were listening. For example, here is a silly story
you might use:
Calvin went to the store to buy orange juice, asparagus, eggs, peanut butter, and avocado. While he was
there, a masked robber walked up to the seafood counter and stole 10 lbs. of tilapia. A mother with her two
children ran to get away.
Questions:
a. What five items were on Calvin’s grocery list?
5. Divide students into six groups, and assign each group one element of the HURIER
6. The Dark Side of Communication—Need Someone to Listen? Just Click. Sometimes
when we need to vent or talk about problems, it can be difficult to find someone who is
available to listen to us or someone who is skillful at listening. Have students read the
about the website 7cupsoftea.com in Chapter 6, and engage the class in a discussion.
• Have you ever felt that you had no one to talk to? What did you do?
• Do you ever want to express your feelings about a situation without receiving advice in return?
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
For Review
1. What does it mean to listen effectively?
2. Why is listening effectively so challenging?
3. How can you improve your listening skills?
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 13
Pop Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following statements most accurately reflects how culture affects listening
behavior?
a. In monochronic cultures, people tend to think of time as something that can be saved or
spent, and listeners tend to be impatient when speakers do not get to the point.
b. In polychronic cultures, people tend to think of time as something that can be saved or
spent, and listeners tend to be impatient when speakers do not get to the point.
c. When listening, people in individualistic cultures pay close attention to nonverbal
behaviors to determine the meaning of a speaker’s message.
d. When listening, people in collectivistic cultures pay close attention to nonverbal behaviors
to determine the meaning of a speaker’s message.
2. The type of listening in which we try to understand a situation from a speaker’s perspective is
a. informational listening.
b. appreciative listening.
c. critical listening.
d. empathic listening.
3. Marilyn’s listening style, which emphasizes organization and precision, is best described as
a. people-oriented.
b. action-oriented.
c. time-oriented.
d. content-oriented.
4. In class, Charyn cannot keep her mind off her problems at work. Instead of skipping class,
she attends and pretends to listen to the professor’s lecture. This behavior is known as
a. information overload.
b. closed-mindedness.
c. pseudolistening.
d. competitive interrupting.
5. Understanding probability is crucial for being a good critical listener. Evaluate these
messages and identify which one is true.
a. For a message to be probable, it has to have at least a 1 percent chance of being true.
b. For a message to be certain, it must be true 99 percent of the time.
c. For a message to be possible, it need have only the slightest chance of being true.
d. For a message to be certain, it has to have a 51 percent chance of being true.
Chapter 6 Listening Effectively
Floyd: Communication Matters, 3e IM-6 | 14
Fill in the Blanks
6. Using facial expressions and verbal statements such as “I understand” to let the speaker know
you are paying attention is called _____.
7. Jack’s tendency to daydream when he isn’t listening increases his chances of _____.
8. The _____ style of listening emphasizes efficiency.
9. The tendency to pay attention only to information that supports our values and beliefs, while
discounting or ignoring information that does not, is called the _____.
10. _____ is anything that distracts you from listening to what you wish to listen to.