>> Okay. Today we're going to continue on with the Lucas [assumed spelling] and we'll go
to listening, chapter three, and listening and public speaking.
So before we get in to listening we do need to kind
of define what listening is versus what hearing is.
So hearing is the vibration of sound waves on the eardrums
where listening is paying close attention to what we hear.
So hearing is that physiological thing where listening is assigning meaning to what we hear.
So most of us can hear.
If not, we might be hearing impaired.
But if we can hear, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are listening.
Some of us might be listening impaired at different points.
So we'll talk about that in a few slides.
So hearing versus listening.
We want to focus on listening.
And there are different types of listening that we engage in in public speaking.
The first type is appreciative listening.
And then we go on to empathic listening, comprehensive listening, and critical listening.
And we'll go through these one at a time.
So appreciative listening is listening for pleasure and enjoyment.
And you've probably already done this at some point today because it's stuff like listening
to the radio, watching television, movies, that kind of thing.
Reading books.
Reading magazines.
In appreciative listening because we're getting something out of it we're being entertained.
Appreciative listening kind of relates to public speaking and speeches like a lot
of times commemorative speeches, whether that's celebrating a person or an event or a thing.
So commemorative speeches a lot of times involve appreciative listening.
After dinner speeches or speeches to entertain might be appreciative listening.
And then we go to -- With these we're willing to listen to these over and over and over again.
As a matter of fact, we'll even pay good money for it.
We'll buy a song.
We'll buy a movie.
We'll go to a movie.
We'll buy a book.
And we'll go over it many, many times.
We'll put that on repeat or we'll watch a movie over and over again because we appreciate it.
Empathic listening, this is listening to provide emotional support for the speaker.
So this might be more what we do in a personal communication, but it's also going to come
up in things like some of the ceremonial speeches,
wedding toasts, eulogies, that kind of thing.
And this is when we're listening to close friends or family members or sometimes
that certain person that just uses us as a sounding board or uses us to vent.
So empathic listening again is some of the ceremonial speeches we'll be hearing.
Comprehensive listening is a little bit different.
Comprehensive listening is listening to understand the speaker's message.
This is what we do in classrooms or when we watch a documentary or a biography.
Not to be confused with a docudrama or a biopic.
Those are entertaining things so those, a docudrama or a biopic, those would be something
that we listen to or watch to be entertained as opposed to being informed.
So the documentaries, think about the stuff that you get in a history class.
You know, the black and white footage, the still pictures
with the voiceovers, that kind of stuff.
The news. The news that we get on network broadcasts, the 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, channel 5,
those kinds of things, the news at 10 or 11.
The broadcast news that's for a general audience, that's what we listen
to comprehensively because when we're listening comprehensively all we're doing is taking
information in and putting it away.
We're not necessarily going through it to assess it.
That's when we get to critical listening and critical listening is listening
to evaluate a message to accept or reject it.
So this is sales people, politicians, opinions, theories, that kind of stuff.
So when we're listening to these people they're trying to persuade us.
And when they're trying to persuade us we need to decide whether we're going to believe it
or not or what we're going to do with that information.
So we're not just taking the information in and putting it away.
We are assessing it.
We're evaluating it.
And sometimes we're rejecting it.
Sometimes we are accepting it.
Now what can happen sometimes is what I'll call listening type confusion,
and that's when we should be listening one way, but we're listening another.
So things like informational programs and commercials.
Informational programs like cooking shows are things that we watch comprehensively.
We want to learn how to cook better so we watch that show.
We're learning something.
TV commercials are different.
They're trying to persuade us so we should be listening critically.
But if we have an infomercial on a cooking product they might try to fool us
in to listening comprehensively while trying to sell us something.
So infomercials, I will say, kind of lead to this listening type confusion.
News and opinion shows.
So cable news will have regular news on during the day.
So if we're thinking about MSNBC or CNN or Fox or [inaudible] America,
those kinds of networks, they'll have a news show on.
They'll go to commercial.
They'll come back and then they'll put an opinion show on where it's a celebrity
or a personality or a pundit, and they're going to give their opinion.
Well, we were watching the news comprehensively to figure out what's going on in the world,
and now we're getting someone's opinion about it and if we're just still taking it
in comprehensively that can be bad.
So listening type confusion.
And I'm sure you can think of other places where this happens.
Okay. So moving on.
Causes of poor listening.
Earlier I said that sometimes people are listening impaired and that's
because sometimes we aren't concentrating.
We're not paying attention to what's going on.
We're not paying attention to the words.
And what happens when we don't concentrate is we have this spare brain time,
and what this is is the difference between a rate of talk, 120 to 150 words a minute,
and the rate at which the brain processes language which is 400 to 800 words a minute.
And what happens is our brain starts to wander and starts thinking about other things.
So if someone's talking and we're listening and we know --
We believe we know what they're going to say.
So our brain starts to think about other stuff like, "When's this going to end?
What am I going to have for lunch?
Can I just take the quiz now?"
Whatever it is.
And you don't necessarily pay attention to what's coming next or to the format.
So sometimes our brain just kind of wanders off.
So not concentrating is one problem.
So the solution to that might seem to be concentrate more.
The next cause of poor listening is listening too hard.
Really? Not concentrating and concentrating too hard or listening too hard.
And yeah. What happens is we start listening too hard.
We listen to the actual words or the language and we don't get the ideas behind it.
We don't get the whole comprehensive message.
We kind of get stuck on the details.
So the old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees," because you're looking too hard.
Sometimes we jump to conclusions, and this can happen in class
because you've already presumably read the material.
You've gone through this.
You've seen this information.
You've seen this [inaudible] and now I'm just going through.
And so your brain starts to wander and you start thinking about other stuff like lunch
and you jump to conclusions so you don't -- You don't listen to some of the examples
or what I'm -- some of the things I'm saying.
So you jump to conclusions.
Or you jump to the wrong conclusion.
Sometimes we focus too much on the delivery or the personal appearance and we don't listen
to the actual message that's being given.
So how do you become a better listener?
Well, to become a better listener, take it seriously.
Yeah. We can all hear or we have strategies that can maximize our hearing
or get over any challenges that we have with hearing,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that we listen well.
So take it seriously.
Be an active listener.
That doesn't mean move around a lot while you're listening.
That means pay attention.
That means make eye contact.
It means focus on the person.
Sit up. Take notes if that's what you need to do.
So be an active listener.
Resist distraction.
So turn your phone off.
Put it in -- Put it away.
Put it in your backpack or your bag so it's not there.
If you're taking notes on a computer, don't open a web browser.
Just open up a doc where you can take notes.
So whatever those distractions are.
Know where you need to sit in class.
I know for me when I'm a student I need to sit right up front because if I'm sitting
in the back everything in front of me distracts me.
So I need to sit up front.
So resist distractions.
And then don't be diverted by appearance or delivery.
Listen to the concepts and the words and you'll be fine.
Okay. Suspend judgment.
Just because you think you know what someone's going to say or you know what they're trying
to persuade you to do or know or believe, suspend that judgment.
Listen to what they have to say.
I mean the worst thing that's going to happen is you'll get a new opinion
about something or change a behavior.
You can always change it back if it doesn't work out.
Develop note taking skills whether that's Cornell notes or shorthand
or whatever it is that works for you.
If it's [inaudible] or whatever, develop some type of note taking skills that you can use
that you can refer back to later.
And then focus your listening, and you should focus your listening
on starting with the big things.
So things like main points.
And even before that, what's the thesis?
What's the proposition?
What's the central idea?
What's the point of this?
And then the main points.
How is that being supported?
What evidence is being used to support the main points?
And then what technique, what structure,
is being used to support the main points that support the thesis?
So focus on the stuff that matters so you don't get lost in the minutiae and the details.
Stuff. Okay.
So next time we're going to move on to selecting a topic and a purpose.
And that is going to be a very important chapter in the text
because if you do a bad job selecting your topic and purpose,
it means you're probably going to have a bad speech.
Now that's not to say if you do a good job with selecting a topic
and purpose you'll have a good speech.
You have plenty of other opportunities to screw up your speech.
But if you do a bad job here, it makes your life much more difficult later on.
Okay. Thanks again, and have a wonderful --