LISTENING AND EVALUATING

What makes a good listener?

• Hearing and listening are not the same thing.• Hearing means being able to detect a sound. • Listening means getting meaning from sounds

that are heard.

What does being a good listener means?

• Attentive and • Receptive• Seek information• Evaluate what they hear• And respond to it.

What can you do as a good listener?

• You can

– Develop your interpersonal skills– Discover unexpected coming– Increase your knowledge– Improve your performance in school and at work

Analyzing the factors that affect listening

• Your physical and mental state• The speaker• Your prejudices• The environment

physical and mental state

• Requires:– Energy and focus

• Can be affected if you are tired or hungry

The speaker

• Personality involves a person’s traits, attitudes, and habits.

PrejudicesPrejudicesA prejudice is a prejudgment: a beliefs A prejudice is a prejudgment: a beliefs

you have already formed that may not you have already formed that may not be grounded in facts.be grounded in facts.

Environment

• Environmental factors:– Temperature– Light– Noise– Space– Seating – Other people

How to control factors that affect listening

• Be energetic and focused: eat and sleep well• Focus on the message: listen to what is being

said.• Keep an open mind: be ready to learn

something new.• Do what you can do to adjust the physical

environment_: block out noises

Listening critically

• Critical listening: it means that you need to test the strength of the ideas and not only comprehending.

• Identifying the speaker’s goal:– The speaker’s goal is the purpose he or she has for giving a

speech.

• Identifying the main ideas:– Main ideas are the speaker’s most important points.– Once the speaker imply the main ideas you will have to

analyze to identify what you think are the main ideas.

– A speaker may used repetitions repeat a certain word, phrase, or sentence each time a new point is mention.

– Some rely on signal words words that indicate that a list, contrast, or connection is about to be made.

• Identifying supporting details– Supporting details are the examples, facts,

statistics, reasons, anecdotes, or expert testimony that speaker used to support the main idea

• Using context clues– This is used when you are giving a speech that

contain new words, and the speaker tries to give clues such in terms in the context.

– Context the surrounding words and sentences.

• Taking Advantages of nonverbal clues– Nonverbal clues:• Eye contact• Posture• Paralanguage (voice and sound variation)• Movement and gestures• Facial expression• silence

– Emphasis speakers can emphasize key meaning through changing volume, stressing certain words, and using gestures.

– Contradiction contradicting what the other person says.

Listening Actively• Good listener are active.• They look for meaning.• Think about what they heard.• Respond to it.

Techniques for Active Learning• Strategy– Apply what you hear

to yourself– Think as you listen– Use associations a

and devices to remember important details

– Take notes– Give the speaker and

yourself feedback

• Examples•Relate the information to your own experience.

•Summarize and review throughout the presentation.•Make an association – a mental images that will help you to remember.

•Do not write every detail but use your own words.

•Use body language such as eye contact, gestures and more.

Evaluating a speaker’s reasoning

• The most important about being an effective listener is evaluating the speaker’s reasoning.

• You nedd to ask yourself if the speaker is using a faulty reasoning

• What is a faulty reasoning? – Statement that seem reasonable, even well

reasoned, are very often based on mistakes in logic.

• Hasty generalizations– Generalitazions are gerenal conclusions or

opinions drawn from particular observation.– Valid generalization are based on sufficient evidence

(use the words most, some and generally)– Hasty generalization are conclusions or

opinions that are drawn from very few observation

• Begging the question means assuming the truth of a statement before it is proven.

• Listeners must be careful to see that speakers have actually proven what they claim as fact.

• False premises– A premise is a stated or implied starting point of an

argument.– A false premise is a premise that is untrue

• False analogies– Analogy: is a form of reasoning by comparison. A

good analogy draws valid conclusions from items that can be logically compared.

– A false analogy: draws invalid conclusions • A band member says to a friend, “I wish you’d learn to play

the saxophone so you could join the marching band”– Irrelevant evidence: is information that has nothing to

do with the argument being made.• Ex: the merchandise at the UTRa store is top quality .

Examining propaganda techniques

• Persuasion – is the attempt to convince others to do something or to change a belief of their own free will.

• Propaganda – is persuasion that intentionally discourage people from thinking for themselves.

• Transfer: is a method that builds a connection between things that are not logically connected. – In advertising this connection is built between a

product and a positive value.• Bandwagon: the bandwagon technique

encourages people to act because everyone else is doing it.

• Name-calling: is labeling intended to arouse powerful negative feelings. Its purpose is to represent a particular person or group as inferior or bad without providing evidence to support their declare.

• Card- stacking: is based on half-truths. It presents only partial information in order to leave and mistaken impression.

• Stereotypes: is a unfair belief about a whole group of people based on insufficient or irrelevant evidence.

• Loaded work: evoke, or draw out, very strong positive or negative attitudes toward a person, group or idea.– Connotation: the feeling associations a word evokes.– Denotation: specific meaning.

• Emotional appeals: or statements used to arouse emotional reactions.

Listening and evaluating

• Once the speaker finished presenting you are going to evaluate him or her– Critique: is an analysis and evaluation.• The oral critique: analyze and evaluate given out loud.• The written critique: detail look at a speech than a oral

critique.