Become a More Active Listener
Active listening is a skill you can cultivate, a habit of mind of consciously receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to messages. Setting listening goals, listening for main ideas, and watching for nonverbal cues are practical steps you can take to become more adept at listening actively.
TABLE 4.2 Steps in Setting Listening Goals
| Identify your listening needs: “ I must know my classmate’s speech thesis, purpose, main points, and type of organization in order to complete and hand in a written evaluation.” |
| Identify why listening will help you: “I will get a better grade on the evaluation if I am able to identify and evaluate the major components of Suzanne’s speech.” |
| Make an action statement (goal): “I will minimize distractions and practice the active listening steps during Suzanne’s speech. I will take careful notes during her speech and ask questions about anything I do not understand.” |
| Assess goal achievement: “I did identify the components of the speech I decided to focus upon and wrote about them in class.” |
Set Listening Goals
Setting listening goals helps you prepare to get the most from a listening situation.16 What do you need and expect from the listening situation? Keep these goals in mind as you listen. Try to state your listening goals in a way that encourages action. Table 4.2 illustrates the steps in setting listening goals.
Listen for Main Ideas
To ensure that you hear and retain the speaker’s most important points, try these strategies:
- Listen for introductions, transitions, and conclusions to alert you to the main points. Most speakers will preview their main points in the introduction, giving the listener a chance to recognize them: “I have three points I want to make tonight. First, . . . ” Transitions can also alert the listener to the fact that a main point is about to be discussed: “Now let’s consider interest rates . . . ” Conclusions are a valuable place to recheck your memory of the main points: “Let me recap those three rules for living overseas . . . ”
- Take notes on the speaker’s main points. Several different methods of note taking—bullet, column, and outline—can be helpful.
A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Listening Styles and Cultural Differences
Research suggests that both innate behavioral traits and culture influence how we listen to one another. For example, most people listen in a habitual style, which tends to mirror aspects of their innate temperaments:1
- people-oriented listeners tend to listen supportively and with sensitivity to feelings and emotions;
- action-oriented listeners are task oriented—they are alert to errors and focus, sometimes impatiently, on what needs to be done;
- content-oriented listeners enjoy evaluating information and making reasoned judgments on it;
- time-oriented listeners want brevity—their goal is getting the message in the least amount of time.
At the same time, research suggests a link between our listening styles and a culture’s predominate communication style.2 A study of young adults in the United States, Germany, and Israel3 found distinct listening style preferences that mirrored key value preferences, or preferred states of being, of each culture (see Chapter 6 on cultural values and national differences). For example, the Germans tended toward action-oriented listening, Israelis displayed a content-oriented style, and Americans exhibited both people- and time-oriented styles. While preliminary in nature, and not valid as a means of stereotyping or essentializing (e.g., to reduce to essentials) a given culture’s group behavior, these findings confirm the cultural component of all forms of communication, including listening. They also point to the need to focus on intercultural understanding as you learn about your audience.
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