| Improving listening
ability is a multifaceted undertaking. Listed below are ways to
accomplish this task.
Listening vs. Speaking
Many of us were required to take a speech communications course
while in college. However, probably none of us had to take a listening
course. Some of us are comfortable with the concept of speaking
in a way that positively impacts communication. Far fewer of us
are comfortable, or even think about, our listening skill set. Listening
is equally, if not more, important than speaking, for effective
communication to occur.
Effective Listening
Effective listening involves using the following skill set:
Through effective listening, the receiver can grasp the context
of the message being sent by the sender.
Active Listening Exercise
This exercise gives students practice actively listening
to others, a skill that incorporates both listening and giving feedback.
Guide for this exercise:
- One team member is the speaker, and the other members are the
listeners.
- The speaker takes a minute or so to express an idea, opinion,
thought, or feeling about what the team is working on at the time.
- The speaker then calls on one of the listeners to paraphrase
what was expressed.
- The speaker then gives feedback to the listener regarding the
accuracy of the response.
- The listener must then hone the response until the speaker is
satisfied with the accuracy of the response.
- Once the speaker is satisfied, the listener can follow up by
asking, “Is there anything else about that?”, thus
continuing the process.
- Once this is completed, the roles can be changed and the process
repeated.
Ladder of Inquiry
One of the advanced tools that can help people practice the discipline
of listening more actively and effectively is the ladder of inference.
The ladder of inference can help listeners break their jumps from
observable data to choices of action into different rungs on a ladder.
The first rung is observable data. On the second rung, people select
the data they will use and ignore the rest. Then, third, people
use their personal and cultural beliefs to construct meaning for
the data. Fourth, they make assumptions using the added meaning.
Fifth, they draw conclusions from the assumptions and selected data.
Sixth, they use the conclusions to adopt personal beliefs to use
in the future. Finally, they select an action based on their beliefs.
The ladder of inference and a simple example of observing a student
who was thirty minutes late to a team meeting are shown below.7
Faculty members might use the ladder of inference to help team members
make their chains of reasoning explicit to themselves and share
these with others on their teams.
[Chart will be inserted here soon.]
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