Chapter 3. Lecture Notes - Public Speaking

Public Speaking Chapter 3 1. THE LISTENING PROCESS In the popular mind Listening is often thought to he the same as hearing-it's just something that takes place when you're in hearing range of speech. Actually Listening and hearing are not the same Listening is a lot more complex than hearing, as illustrated in our five-stage model. -The Five Stages of Listening The process OF listening can be described as a series of five stages or steps : receiving. Understanding. Remembering, evaluating and responding This process is represented in Figure 4.1. Receiving. Unlike listening bearing begins and ends with this first stage of receiving Hearing is something that just happens when you get within earshot of some auditory stimuli. Listening is quite different : it begins (but does not end) with receiving the messages the speaker sends The messages are both verbal and nonverbal ; they consist of words as well as gestures facial expressionsvariations in volume and rate and much more. At this stage you recognize not only what is said (verbally and nonver-bally) but also what is omitted The politician's summary of accomplishments in education as well as the omission of the failures in improved health care programs are both received at this stage. Receiving messages is a highly selective process. You don't listen to all the available auditory stimuli. Rather you selectively tune in to certain messages and tune others out Generally. You listen carefully to messages that you feel will prove of value to you or that you feel are particularly interesting At the same time you give less attention to messages that have less value or interest. Thus you may for example, listen carefully When your instructor tells you what will appear on the examination but will listen less carefully to an extended story or to routine announcements. -When receiving, you should : - focus your attention on the speaker's verbal and nonverbal messages, on what is said and on what isn't said. - avoid focusing your attention on distractions in the environment. - focus your attention on what the speaker is saying rather than on any questions you may wish to ask later. Understanding Understanding is the stage at which you learn what the speaker means. This understanding includes both the theughts that are expressed as well as the emotional tone that accompanies these thoughts, for example The urgency or the joy or sorrow expressed in the message. To enhance understanding : - relate the new information the speaker is giving to what you already know (in what way will this new proposal change our present health care ?). - see the speaker's messages from the speaker's point of View ; avoid judging the message until you fully understand it as the Speaker intended it. - rephrase (paraphrase) the speaker's ideas into your own words as you continue to listen Remembering Messages that you receive and understand need to be retained for at least some period of time In public speaking situations you can augment your memory by taking notes or by taping the messages. What you remember is actually not what was said, but what you think (or remember) was said. Memory for speech isn't reproductive ; you don't simply reproduce in your memory what the speaker said Rather, memory is reconstructive ; you actually reconstruct the messages yen hear into a system that seems to make sense to you This is well illustrated in the Accompanying box "Do You Really Remember What You Hear ?» -In remembering : - identify the thesis or central idea and the major propositions. - summarize the message in a more easily retained iorm being careful not to ignore crucial details or qualifications. - repeat names and key concepts to yourself. - identify the organizational pattern and use it (visualize it) to organize what the speaker is saying. Do You Really Remember What You Hear ? To illustrate the reproductive nature of memory. Try to memorize the following list‘of 12 words (Clucksherg and Danks. 1975) Don't worry about the order of the words. Only the number remembered counts Take about 20 seconds to memorize as many words as possible Don't read any further until you've tried memorize the list of words. -Listening and Culture Listening is difficult in part, because of the inevitable differences in the communication systems between Speaker and listener Each person has had a unique set of experiences, so each person's communication and meaning system is going to be different from each other person's When Speaker and listener come from different cultures the differences and their effects are even greater Here are just a few areas where misunder-standings can occur. Language and Speech Even when speaker and listener speak the same language they speak it with different meanings and different accents No two speakers speak exactly the same language Every speaker speaks an idiolect a unique variation of the language Speakers of the same language will at the very least have different meanings for the same terms because they have had different experiences. Speakers and listeners who have different native languages and who may have learned English as a second language will have even great differences in meaning 'Frtmsieticns are never precise and never fully capture the meaning in the other ianguage if your meaning for "house" was teamed in a culture in which everyone lived in their own house with lots of land around it then communicating with someone whose meaning was learned in a neighborhood of light rise tenements is going to be difficult Although you'll each hear the same word the meanings you'll each develop will be drastically different in adjusting your listening-especially when in an intercultural setting-understand that the speaker's meanings may be very different from yours even though you each Speak the same language. Still another part of speech is that of accents In many classrooms throughout the country there will be a wide range of accents Those whose native language is a tonal one (such as one of the Chinese languages) where differences in pitch signal important meaning differences, may speak English with variations in pitch that may seem unnatural to othersf. Those whose native language is Japanese may have trouble distinguishing the sound of "1" from "r" since Japanese does not make this distinction. The directness or indirectness with which a Speaker presents his or her ideas varies greatly from one culture to another Some cultures. Western Europe and the United States for example favor a direct style in communication ; they advise us to "say what you mean and mean what you say" Many Asian cultures on the other hand favor an indirect style : they emphasize politeness and maintaining a positive public image rather than absolute truth Listen carefully to persons with different styles of Directness. Consider the possibility that the meanings the speaker Wishes to communicate with say indirectness may be very different from the meanings you'd communicate with indirectness. The case of feedback provides a good example of the difference between direct and indirect styles Members of some cultures give very direct and very honest feedback Speakers from these cultures the United States is a good example expect the feedback to be an honest reflection of what their listeners are feeling In other cultttres~japan and Korea are good examples it"s more important that speakers be positive than truthful and so they may respond with positive feedback even though they don't feel it. Listen to feedback as you would all messages with a lull recognition that different cultures view feedback very differently. Nonverbal Behavioral Differences Speakers from different cultures have different display rules cultural rules that govern which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate and which are inappropriate in a public setting As you listen to another person you also "listen" to their nonverbals. If these are drastically different from what you expect on the basis of the verbal message, they may be seen as a kind of noise or interference or they may beseen as contradictory messages Also, different cultures may give very different meanings to the same nonverbal gestur. For example. Americans consider direct eye contact an expression of honesty and forthrightness but the Japanese often View this as a lack of respect The lapanese will glance at the other person's face rarely and then only for very short periods (Axtell 1990a) Among some Latin Americans and Native Americans Direct eye contact between say A teacher and a student is considered inappropriate, perhaps aggressive ; appropriate student behavior is to avoid eye contact with the teacher. Ethnocentrism One problem that hinders effective listening is the tendoncy to see others and their behaviors through your own cultural filters. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to evaluate the values, beliefs and behaviors of your own culture as being more positive logical and natural than those of others The nonethnocentric on the other hand, would see both himself or herself and others as different but equal With neither being inferior nor superior. Ethnocentrism exists on a continuum People are not either ethnocentric or not ethnocentric ; rather, most are somewhere between these polar opposites And of course your degree of elhnocentrism varies depending on the group on which you focus. For example, if you're Greek American, you may have a low degree of ethnocontrism when dealing with italian Americans (because of the similarities in the cultures of Greeks and Jtaliens) but a hig degree when dealing with lapauese Americans (because of the greater differences between the Creel ; and the Japanese cultures) Most important for our purposes is that your degree of ethnocentrism (and we are all ethnocentric to at least some degree) will influence your listening effectiveness. Table 4.1, drawing from a number of researchers (Lukens 1978 ; Gudykunst and Kim 1984 ; Gudykunst 1991) Summarizes some of the inter-connections This tahle identifies five degrees of ethnocentrisrn ; in reality of course, there are as mini degrees as there are people. The "communication distances" are general tenses that highlight the attitude that dominates that level of ethnocentrism tinder "listening" are some of the major ways people might listen given their particular degree of ethnocentrism. Recognizing the tendency toward ethnocentrism is the first step in combating any excesses. In addition, try following the suggestions for effective listening offered in this unit, especially when you're in an intercultural public speaking situation Also expose yourself to culturally different experiences. At the same time resist the temptation to evaluate these through your own cultural filters For many this Will not be an easy experience But, in light of the tremendous advantages to be gamed Through increased intercultural experiences, the effort seems well worth it. -Listening and Gender According to Deborah tannen (1990) in her best-selling You Just Don't Understand : Women and Men in Conversation, Women seek to build rapport and establish a closer relationship. and they use listening to achieve these ends. Men, on the other hand, will play up their expertise, emphasize it. and use it to dominate the interaction. Women play down their expertise and are more interested in communicating supportiveness.Tannen argues that the goal ‘of a man in conversation is to be accorded respect and so he seeks to show his knowledge and expertise. A woman, on the other hand seeks to be liked and so she expresses agreement. Men and women also show that they're listening in different ways. In conversation, a woman is more apt to give many listening cues such as interiecting yeah, libuh nodding in agreement and smiling. A man is more likely to listen quietly, without giving many lislening cues as feedback 'l‘annen argues. however. that men do listen less to women than women Listen to men. The reason says 'l‘armen, is that listening places the person in an inferior position whereas speaking pieces the person in a superior one. We can try to apply these gender differences to listening in public speaking. Men may seem to assume a mane argumentative posture while listening, as if getting ready to argue They may also appear to ask questions that are more argumentative or that are designed to puncture holes in your position as a way to play up their expertise Women are more likely to ask supportive questions and perhaps offer criticism that is more posio tive than men Women also use more cues in listening in a public speaking context They let the speakerl see that they're listening Men on the other hand use less listening cues in conversation and probably also in public speaking Men and women act this way to both men and women ; their customary ways of listening don't seem to change depending on whether the speaker is male or female. There's no evidence to Show that these differences represent any negative motives on the part of men to prove themselves superior or of women to ingratiata themselves Rather, these differences in listening are largely the result of the way in which men and women have been socialized.