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Listening is a vital skill in public speaking and beyond.

In this chapter, we discussed a major contrast: hearing noises, sounds, and words versus listening to them. Hearing refers to passively receiving these stimuli; listening refers to how one processes and understands them. This is particularly relevant to public speaking because both speakers and audience members must develop good listening skills to effectively convey and understand information. Good listening is not limited to words or even sound; by paying attention to an audience’s responses, a speaker can tell if he or she needs to adjust tone of voice, rate of speech, or some other aspect of his or her delivery.

We further explored how the listening process works, how information is retained, the types of listening styles, what causes ineffective listening, and how to improve your listening skills both as a speaker and as an audience member. Listening is vital not only for developing and delivering a successful speech but also for observing and critiquing a presentation, and happily it is a skill that can be learned. To make the transition from hearing to listening, a person must process that message, coming to his or her own conclusions, and then retain or remember the message.

There are a host of culprits that lead to unsuccessful listening, including unprocessed note taking, nonlistening, interruptive listening, agenda-driven listening, argumentative listening, and nervous listening. Techniques for better listening include filtering out distractions, focusing on the speaker, and showing that you are listening. As a speaker, you can anticipate ineffective listening before your speech and plan accordingly, and you can maximize listening during your speech by tailoring your message and watching out for argumentative, defeated, and superficial listeners.

As an audience member, make sure to take notes and identify the speaker’s main points. When giving feedback, offer constructive criticism by considering the speech’s objectives, supporting your feedback with examples, and keeping appropriate ethical guidelines in mind.