Chapter 6: Listening

Critical Listening

As you assess the credibility of a speaker (Chapters 15 and 16), you are critically listening. You focus, evaluate words and presentation style, and determine the main points. A critical listener listens to what the speaker doesn’t say, too; for example, did the speech about oil seepage on the coast account for natural seepage as well as that from oil platforms?

Most listening is informational, but we sometimes need to go a step further—to making a judgment about a message we’re hearing. When you evaluate or analyze information, evidence, ideas, or opinions, you engage in critical listening (sometimes called evaluative listening). This type of listening is valuable when you cannot take a message at face value. Most of us probably need to employ this type of listening when considering a big financial purchase, like a car. Don bought his last car from a friend of a friend and failed to ask enough questions about the vehicle’s history. If he’d listened more critically, he would have learned the car had been in two accidents.

Critical thinking is a necessary component of critical listening. When you think critically, you assess the speaker’s motivation, credibility, and accuracy (Has she presented all the facts? Is the research current?), and ethics (What does she stand to gain from this?). Four tips can help you improve your critical listening abilities:

Determine the thesis or main point of the speaker’s message. This isn’t always easy, particularly if the speaker is rambling on and on without making a point. But you can watch for key words and phrases like “What I’m trying to say . . .” or “The issue is . . .” or “Okay, here’s the deal . . .”
Focus your efforts. Listening is sometimes hard work. You might need to store up energy. For example, don’t head into your three-hour large group lecture after working out or frantically finishing a paper. You may also need to concentrate and avoid distractions.
Decode nonverbal cues. As you learned in Chapter 4, nonverbal behavior communicates volumes of information. Your friend might reveal sadness or anger in ways that don’t come across in his verbal message; your professor might hint at information that will be on a test by sharing it slowly and loudly or repeating it.
Use your memory. If you’re in a lecture or on a job interview, note-taking can help jog your memory of what was said. If you’re listening to a classmate share concerns about a group project, note-taking might be awkward, so try to make mental associations with her words. For example, if she says, “Benjamin’s too controlling,” you might think “bossy Benjamin” to remember her complaint.

WHEN MODERN FAMILY parents Claire and Phil Dunphy sit their children down for a family meeting or lecture, Haley, Alex, and Luke must listen more comprehensively than they would during casual, everyday interactions with Mom and Dad. ABC/Photofest