Chapter 4 Listening Critically 4.1 Are you really listening? => Hearing is a sensory process. Nerve endings in the ear receive sound waves and transmit them to the brain; the brain receives them, and we become conscious of sound. - This is a physiological process. => Listening is a mental operation. It involves processing the sound waves, interpreting their meaning, and storing the interpretation in memory so that we can recall it, think about it, or act on it. => Some people are better listeners because they have trained themselves to: Focus attention Minimize distractions Process messages accurately Think critically Why Listening is Important => Checking for Accuracy: - we usually want to check the accuracy of what we heard, because the consequences of faulty listening can be far more serious - To avoid faulty listening, we often check that we have heard and understood correctly. - For eg: Employees who misunderstand the supervisor's instructions could jeopardize company profits and to avoid that they can ask questions about instructions => Giving (and Getting) Feedback: - Careful listening also enables hearers to provide feedback to speakers. - Feedback: Verbal and nonverbal audience response to a speech; usually taken seriously by a speaker and incorporated into the speech when possible. - in formal situations the speaker and the audience both send and receive messages. - The audience members' reactions are usually nonverbal applause, head nodding, bored or distracted looks, and indications that they are having trouble following the speaker's argument. - Such feedback enables speakers to modify their message and improve the likelihood of achieving their purpose. - During the speech, careful listening makes feedback possible; after the speech, it helps listeners to remember and think about the speaker's ideas. => Evaluating Messages: - A third reason listening is so important is that you need to listen in order to evaluate and respond to what you hear. - You need to be able to assess how the speaker's beliefs and method compare with yours and whether they are models to follow when it is your turn to speak. - not all speakers who seek our attention are scrupulous and ethical - Be aware that their influence depends precisely on the fact that it is easy for people to hear without really listening. - To protect yourself as a listener, you need to practice skills that will help you evaluate speakers and messages such as critical thinking.
- 4 factors: Listener distractions Limited attention span Jumping to conclusions Situational distractions 4.2 Why Listening is Difficult? => Listener Distractions: - We can think faster than we can listen. Since listening does not fully engage the brain, it may be easy for our minds to wander, which distracts us from listening effectively. - Although a speaker can't be held responsible for listeners' habits, a well-prepared, welldelivered speech is the best defense against listener distractions. => Limited Attention Span: - Attention span: the length of time they will attend to a message without distraction - Shorter messages are generally less complex and make fewer demands on listeners' powers of concentration. The speaker simply doesn't have time to try out many ideas, to develop them fully, and to suggest all their implications - experience with the Internet has increased our confidence in our ability to multitask. => Jumping to Conclusions: - People sometimes assume that they "know" what the speaker is going to say - Most untrained listeners sometimes make such assumptions and misinterpretations. People who attend a speech, as committed supporters of the speaker's cause already "know" that they will agree with the message and hence do not listen to it carefully. - They sometimes find themselves endorsing a position that they don't really support. Other listeners who strongly oppose a speaker's cause almost instinctively reject every part of the message. - Listeners jump to conclusions through assimilation: they blur the distinction between two similar messages and regard them as identical. => Situational Distractions: - Distractions in the specific speaking situation can make listening difficult. For eg: the wind blows the door shut while you are speaking and listeners get distracted - The first thing a speaker can do in such case is to try to offset the distraction by repeating or rephrasing the part of the speech that had to compete with it. Overcoming 4 obstacles to good listening Remedy Remedy Obstacles Listener s bad habit Listener Speaker Thinking is faster Listener s mind may Concentrate on the Keep the speech focused; than listening Listener s attention span is short Listener jumps to conclusions Situations contain distractions wander Not listening to speeches that are long or complex Missing speaker s point judging by listener viewpoint only. Following the distraction rather than the speech speech; take notes Practice gradually listening to longer speeches Try to set prejudices aside Concentrate on the speech tie each point to main thesis Divide speeches into small, compact segments Careful audience analysis; extra effort on clarity Stay flexible; adapt to situation
4.3 Strategies for Careful Listening - Some people try to overcome the difficulties of listening by focusing on each and every word the speaker utters. This approach rarely works because the attempt to take in everything makes it less likely that you will think about, interpret, and assess what you are hearing. - Two techniques that can help you focus on the thesis and the main ideas that support it and thus become a more careful listener are mapping and note taking. Mapping - The listener draws a diagram showing the relationship between the thesis of the speech and the main ideas that support it. This involves four basic steps: 1. Identifying the thesis 2. Identifying the main ideas 3. Assessing the main ideas 4. Deciding whether the main ideas support the thesis => Identify the thesis of the speech: - Careful listeners should be able to identify not only the general topic of a speech but also its thesis, whether stated explicitly or not. - If the speaker states the thesis explicitly in the introduction, you can follow along and see how the claim is developed and supported in the body of the speech. - But if the thesis is only implied by supporting material or is stated only in the conclusion of the speech, you have to listen carefully to extract the thesis and map its relationship to the main ideas. - The thesis almost always can be expressed in one or two sentences; from this central point, the proofs and other supporting materials radiate. => Identify the main ideas that develop the thesis: - The structure of ideas in a speech map may or may not correspond to the actual organizational structure of the speech. - only together and not individually do the main ideas support the thesis. => Assess the adequacy of the main ideas: - This is an evaluation step in which you judge whether the main ideas have been advanced solidly. => Decide whether the main ideas support the thesis: - This second evaluation step moves beyond judging the main ideas in their own right to judging whether they link to the thesis. Even if the ideas are true, they may not support the thesis. - Mapping a speech enables you to listen carefully, because you have a clear purpose: to discover and evaluate the thesis, the main supporting ideas, and the links between the thesis and the supporting ideas. Note Taking - not a substitute for thinking about the speech during its presentation. - goals are to record as much significant information as possible and to do so as efficiently as possible
The following suggestions will help you: => Focus on the thesis and main ideas: Try to identify these critical elements, and take notes that will help you recall their relationship. Avoid being sidetracked by examples and less important points. => Take notes quietly on paper or an electronic device that is silent. Avoid typing on a laptop if the clacking of the keyboard is audible. => Use keywords rather than sentences. Don't record every word; this is inefficient and distracting. => Organize the notes as a rough outline. You don't need a formal outline of the speech; the crucial thing is to identify major headings and subheadings (claims and supporting ideas). If you leave plenty of space in the left-hand margin and between items in your notes, you can insert headings, subheadings, and related points wherever they belong whenever the speaker presents them. => Abbreviate and use symbols whenever possible. By establishing some consistent, memorable abbreviations and symbols, you can take notes quickly without missing anything the speaker says. => Also make notes to help you evaluate the speech. Because careful listening and evaluation are ongoing responsibilities, also write down comments that will help you prepare a critical assessment of the speech. 4.4 Listening Critically - Critical listening: Listening that enables you to offer both an accurate rendering of the speech and an interpretation and assessment of it. Critical Thinking - the ability to form and defend your own judgments rather than blindly accepting or instantly rejecting what you hear or read. - It is a conscious, systematic method of evaluating ideas wherever you encounter them - By reflecting on the ideas you hear or read, you can form judgments about which are strong and which are weak. The Characteristics of Critical Thinkers: => Critical thinkers are reluctant to accept assertions on faith: Unsupported assertions carry little weight with critical thinkers, who are skeptical. => Critical thinkers distinguish facts from opinions: - Facts: Statements that can be independently verified by others; they are either true or false. - Opinions: Judgments that cannot be independently verified and that are not clearly true or false. - Opinions may be highly individualistic, or they may be widely shared. Opinions can be changed. - the strength of an opinion depends on the ethos of the person who holds it (or who dismisses it). => Critical thinkers seek to uncover assumptions: - Assumptions: are unstated, taken-for granted beliefs in a particular situation.
=> Critical thinkers are open to new ideas: Although critical thinkers do not hold their opinions and beliefs lightly, they are willing to consider challenges to what they believe and are open to the possibility that they may have to change their minds. => Critical thinkers apply reason and common sense to new ideas: Critical thinkers ask whether anew idea makes sense, whether it seems internally consistent, and whether they can see and understand the links made by the speaker or writer in developing the idea. - If reason and common sense tell them that everything is in order, they give the idea a good hearing, whether or not they expect to agree with it. - But if reason and common sense tell them the idea is wrong, they are likely to reject it, even though it might support a conclusion with which they agree. => Critical thinkers relate new ideas to what they already know: They ask, "Is the new idea consistent with what I already think or know to be true? - If not they ask how their existing attitudes and beliefs need to be modified and whether such modifications are justified. - These steps enable them to put the idea into a broader context and to incorporate it into their constantly developing system of beliefs and attitudes. - these six characteristics of critical thinking have in common; emphasis on reflective judgment - neither blind acceptance nor automatic rejection of an idea, but a considered and thoughtful opinion about whether the idea and its support merit acceptance The Skills of Critical Thinking => Questioning and challenging, both your own ideas and the ideas offers, so that you will neither accept nor dismiss an idea without thoughtful reflection. => Recognizing differences between ideas, between facts and opinions, between explicit claims and unstated assumptions, and between easily explained events and anomalies or puzzles. => Forming opinions and supporting claims so that you can state and evaluate ideas. => Putting ideas into a broader context by seeing how they relate to what you already know and by understanding what they imply about other things you might assert or believe. Applying Critical Thinking to the Speech Situation - uncritical judgments are made w/o reason or reflection - for eg: A statement sounds right, so you decide it must be true; or it is at odds with your beliefs, and you conclude immediately that it is false. - Critical Judgments: Judgments that can be articulated and defended by providing the reasons for them. - Critical listening begins with mapping and is aided by note taking, but it adds the step of reflection before judgment. Reflective listeners think consciously about the speech and ask themselves questions about it. - critical listeners elaborate the message. Their minds are engaged, and they think actively about the speaker's ideas and how they might be answered. - They are willing to accept a speaker's ideas, but only if those ideas satisfy the appropriate tests
Below are some examples of questions that critical listeners might pose to test a speaker's ideas. Are the main ideas identifiable? Are the links among the ideas reasonable? Are the ideas supported where necessary? How does accepting or rejecting the thesis affect my other beliefs? => Are the main ideas identifiable? - it is important to know not just the general topic of the speech, but also its specific thesis and the main ideas that support it. => Are the links among the ideas reasonable? - When we addressed this question earlier, we asked only whether the links seemed to square with common sense. - But critical listeners want to know more than that; they will ask whether the speaker has proved the claims in a reasonable way. - As a critical listener you would ask such questions as: a. Does the speaker prove what he claims? b. If the links are established, should you accept the speaker s claim? => Are the ideas supported where necessary? - some statements are accepted at face value by most listeners, whereas other statements need to be supported by facts, narratives, data, or opinions. As a critical listener, you require a speaker to support ideas that need it, and so you would ask such questions as: a. Does the idea need support? - maybe the idea is dear intuitively, or perhaps the speaker's explanation makes it seem so obvious that no further support is required b. Has the speaker offered enough supporting material? => How does accepting or rejecting the thesis affect my other beliefs? - Critical listeners recognize that beliefs and values do not exist in isolation. Almost always, accepting or rejecting a speaker's thesis will have consequences for your beliefs about other matters. - These four sets of questions are intended to help you develop a clear understanding of what a speaker is asking you to think about, to believe, or to do. They will help you to form a careful and reflective judgment about whether to agree with the speaker. 4.5 Evaluating Speeches Critically - This evaluation centers on three questions: 1. Did the speech demonstrate the principles and techniques of public speaking? 2. What was strong and what was weak about the speech? 3. How might the speaker improve the speech? Evaluation Standards - Like judgments about the content of a speech, assessments of its quality can be made uncritically - the goal is to make critical assessments, which depend on the 4 critical thinking skills described earlier - remember that a speech is a strategic communication - it is presented in a specific situation to achieve a specific purpose
- by focusing on the below concepts, you will develop evaluation criteria that turn careful listening into critical listening 1. Rhetorical Situation: - A situation in which people's understanding can be changed through messages. - critical listeners realize that it is not fair to evaluate a speech w/o considering the situation in which the speaker prepared and delivered it - the key questions are: a. what was the specific rhetorical situation? b. what constraints and opportunities did it pose? c. how well did the speaker respond to the situation? - when evaluating a classmate s speech, consider both the constraints imposed by the immediate audience and the constraints imposed by the larger rhetorical situation - also consider whether the speaker s ideas and supporting material were interesting and effective for the specific audience 2. Speaker s Purpose: - you should evaluate a speech in light of its stated or implied purpose. - If you understand the purpose of the speech, then the next key question is "How well did the speaker achieve the purpose?" This focuses on the means used by the speaker and whether they were the best choices available. - Evaluating a speech in terms of its purpose raises a third important question: "Should a speech be judged by its effects or by its artistry? - Expediency Standard: Evaluation of a speech according to the effects it produced. - By this standard, anyone would be regarded as a good speaker who was effective in achieving his purpose, without considering the ethical or moral dimension. - Most theorists, however, reject effectiveness as the sole basis for evaluating a speech. - the goal is not only to achieve a stated purpose but also to achieve it while following accepted principles and observing ethical norms. - Artistic Standard: Evaluation of a speech according to its ethical execution of principles of public speaking without regard to its actual effects. - it asks whether the speaker followed the principles of the art, and hence whether he or she did the best that could be done, consistent with ethical norms, in a specific rhetorical situation -The artistic standard does not ignore the issue of effectiveness, however, because the application of public speaking principles and the observance of ethical norms generally make a speech more effective than it otherwise would be. Evaluating Classroom Speeches - you and your classmates must listen carefully and critically to each other. By exchanging valuable feedback, you will help each other become better speakers, and you will all sharpen your skills as critical listeners. - When assessing a classmate's speech, be sensitive to the specific purpose of the assignment - A constructive attitude is essential in evaluating classroom speeches, because that provides the best environment for learning from each other. If criticism is hostile or antagonistic, the speaker may become defensive and may ignore useful feedback. - At the same time, listeners who are too eager to criticize a speech may not properly assess the speaker's situation and purpose. - emphasize what the speaker can improve and how to do that - informal discussions can take place after a speech so that you can critique the speech
- sometimes evaluation involves an impromptu speech of criticism in which the critic follows the speaker w/ a presentation that assesses the speech - this will sharpen your own critical skills and at the same time give you practice in speaking Evaluating Speeches Outside the Classroom - you need to have a clear understanding of the rhetorical situation and the speaker's purpose. - Speeches are presented in specific situations to achieve specific goals, and the critique must take these into account. - you need to decide which standards to use for evaluation, probably including such factors as the validity of the speaker's reasoning and assertions, any value judgments made consciously or unconsciously, and the ethical implications of the speech. Rhetorical Criticism - The analytical assessment of messages that are intended to affect other people. - Careful, critical listening and evaluation of speeches will help you develop a mind-set for rhetorical criticism. It will give you experience in thinking rhetorically about speeches: -> asking yourself what the speaker's purpose seems to be -> what opportunities and problems are presented by the speaker's situation -> how the speaker has chosen to go about the task -> whether other choices were available, and -> whether the selected means and ends were the best possible in that situation. - Engaging in rhetorical criticism has two major by-products. 1. it gives you insights into your own public speaking by providing a range of speakers to study and by drawing your attention to how they apply principles of public speaking. 2. Second, it develops your sensitivity to public speaking and makes you more aware of how it works.