One component I enjoyed from this chapter is the section on active listening. This is a concept I remember from Public Speaking, and theories such as these really caught my eye and got me interested in the field of communication. As we have learned from the section of the four phases of listening, listening is not so much as simply being present, and hearing a message. Instead the message must be interpreted and absorbed in an active, engaging manner. The book discusses the eight barriers to active listening, including noise, lack of interest, distracting delivery, faking attention, thought speed (thinking ahead), and listening for facts (a common one, especially in school). I find all these barriers very well thought out and true to real life. How many times have you been in class and found many of these to prevent yourself from truly interpreting the message?
Similarly, the four responses to active listening are interesting to me because as a prospective teacher and as someone who enjoys tutoring small groups and giving group presentations, I am learning to look for these responses to see how engaged my audience is. The four responses are paraphrasing (in school this can be seen as taking good notes), asking questions, using nonverbal communication (good eye contact, sitting up straight, nodding head), and expressing understanding (rephrasing the information, adding original thoughts).
Finally, the best parts about active listening is that you can measure how well you are understanding the message and how well you are listening by using these tools. Are you asking questions, able to paraphrase, using good nonverbal comm., and are you able to express understanding? If not, and if you find yourself hitting some of the barriers, you need to adjust in order to be a better part of the group.
Hey, well you made me think, if youre a potential teacher it's a great idea to take this class! As a student, and being in a teacher role in the past, Id say the way I got involved in active listening was if a teacher made it easy to understand. When things started getting wordy or hard to grasp, they lost me. The hard thing about this is you dont want the advanced students to get bored. I had heard of a teacher who told stories from his childhood and had the students silent in admiration, yet all of them loved him so much they did the work, and he managed to intergrate it in the lessons. I think the more aware we are of other people's ability levels to listen we can cater better. Much like a five year old only has a five second listening span- we gotta make those five seconds count :)
ReplyDeletehey active listening is the topic of my third post as well so i think is it very important. you brought up a good point about when your speaking you look for clues that people are giving you when they are active listening. when someone is actively listening most of the time you could tell that they are. some of those clues are eye contact, sitting up in your chair and if your audience responds possibly using something you said in a question. it is very important that you practice active listening when you dont the people can take it as a form of disrespect. paraphrasing can be a tell sign that your audience is listening actively. the other thing i like it remember is it is a process and it take action active listening doesnt just occur
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