{"id":1218,"date":"2015-02-25T22:27:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T22:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/publicspeaking1xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=1218"},"modified":"2016-08-15T23:10:20","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T23:10:20","slug":"chapter-4-encouraging-effective-listening","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-publicspeakingprinciples\/chapter\/chapter-4-encouraging-effective-listening\/","title":{"raw":"Encouraging Effective Listening","rendered":"Encouraging Effective Listening"},"content":{"raw":"[caption id=\"attachment_1264\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"208\"]\"William<\/a> \"William Henry Harrison\"<\/a> by James Reid Lambdin. Public domain.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWilliam Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States. He\u2019s also recognized for giving the worst State of the Union address\u2014ever. His two-hour speech delivered in a snowstorm in 1841 proves that a long speech can kill (and not in the colloquial \u201cit was so good\u201d sense). Perhaps it was karma, but after the President gave his meandering speech discussing ancient Roman history more than campaign issues, he died from a cold caught while blathering on standing outside without a hat or coat.[footnote]William Henry Harrison: Inaugural Address. (1989). U. S. Inaugural Addresses. Bartleby.com<\/a>. Accessed Sept. 2, 2012. [\/footnote]\r\n\r\nNow, when asked what you know about Abraham Lincoln, you\u2019re likely to have more answers to offer. Let\u2019s focus on his Gettysburg Address. The speech is a model of brevity. His \u201cof the people, by the people, for the people\u201d is always employed as an example of parallelism, and he kept his words simple. In short, Lincoln considered his listening audience when writing his speech.\r\n
The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people\u2019s minds. -\u00a0Walter Bagehot<\/blockquote>\r\nWhen you sit down to compose a speech, keep in mind that you are writing for the ear<\/strong> rather than the eye. Listeners cannot go back and reread what you have just said. They need to grasp your message in the amount of time it takes you to speak the words. To help them accomplish this, you need to give listeners a clear idea of your overarching aim, reasons to care, and cues about what is important. You need to inspire them to want to not just hear but engage in what you are saying.\r\n

Make Your Listeners Care<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nHumans are motivated by ego; they always want to know \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d So, when you want to want to get an audience\u2019s attention, it is imperative to establish a reason for your listeners to care about what you are saying.\r\n\r\nSome might say Oprah did this by giving away cars at the end of an episode. But, that only explains why people waited in line for hours to get a chance to sit in the audience as her shows were taped. As long as they were in the stands, they didn\u2019t need to listen to get the car at the end of the show. Yet Oprah had audiences listening to her for 25 years before she launched her own network. She made listeners care about what she was saying. She told them what was in that episode for them. She made her audience members feel like she was talking to them about their problems, and offering solutions that they could use\u2014even if they weren\u2019t multibillionaires known worldwide by first name alone.\r\n\r\nAudiences are also more responsive when you find a means to tap their intrinsic motivation<\/strong>, by appealing to curiosity, challenging them, or providing contextualization.[footnote]VanDeVelde Luskin, C. (2003, September). Mark Lepper: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and the process of learning. In Bing Times Online, Stanford University, retrieved from http:\/\/web.stanford.edu\/dept\/bingschool\/cgi-bin\/bt\/sep2003\/mark-lepper-intrinsic-motivation-extrinsic-motivation-and-the-process-of-learning\/<\/a> [\/footnote] You might appeal to the audience\u2019s curiosity if you are giving an informative speech about a topic they might not be familiar with already. Even in a narrative speech, you can touch on curiosity by cueing the audience to the significant thing they will learn about you or your topic from the story. A speech can present a challenge too. Persuasive speeches challenge the audience to think in a new way. Special Occasion speeches might challenge the listeners to reflect or prompt action. Providing a listener with contextualization comes back to the what\u2019s in it for me motivation. A student giving an informative speech about the steps in creating a mosaic could simply offer a step-by-step outline of the process, or she can frame it by saying to her listener, \u201cby the end of my speech, you\u2019ll have all the tools you need to make a mosaic on your own.\u201d This promise prompts the audience to sit further forward in their seats for what might otherwise be a dry how-to recitation.\r\n

Cue Your Listeners<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1266\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"Duck<\/a> \"Make way for ducklings\"<\/a> by lee. CC-BY-NC-ND<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAudiences also lean in further when you employ active voice. We do this in speaking without hesitation. Imagine you were walking across campus and saw the contents of someone\u2019s room dumped out on the lawn in front of your dorm. You\u2019d probably tell a friend: \u201cThe contents of Jane\u2019s room were thrown out the window by Julie.\u201d Wait, that doesn\u2019t sound right. You\u2019re more likely to say: \u201cJulie threw Jane\u2019s stuff out the window!\u201d The latter is an example of active voice. You put the actor (Julie) and the action (throwing Jane\u2019s stuff) at the beginning. When we try to speak formally, we can fall into passive voice. Yet, it sounds stuffy, and so unfamiliar to your listener\u2019s ear that he will struggle to process the point while you\u2019ve already moved on to the next thing you wanted to say.\r\n
Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good. -\u00a0Plato<\/blockquote>\r\nKnowing that your audience only hears what you are saying the one time you say it, invites you to employ repetition. Listeners are more likely to absorb a sound when it is repeated. We are often unconsciously waiting for a repetition to occur so we can confirm what we thought we heard.[footnote]Brownell, J. (1996). Listening: Attitudes, principles, and skills<\/em>. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [\/footnote] As a result, employing repetition can emphasize an idea for the listener. Employing repetition of a word, words, or sentence can create a rhythm for the listener\u2019s ear. Employing repetition too often, though, can be tiresome.\r\n\r\nIf you don\u2019t want to repeat things so often you remind your listener of a sound clip on endless loop, you can also cue your listener through vocal emphasis. Volume is a tool speakers can employ to gain attention. Certainly parents use it all of the time. Yet, you probably don\u2019t want to spend your entire speech shouting at your audience. Instead, you can modulate your voice so that you say something important slightly louder. Or, you say something more softly, although still audible, before echoing it again with greater volume to emphasize the repetition. Changing your pitch or volume can help secure audience attention for a longer period of time, as we welcome the variety.\r\n\r\nPace is another speaker\u2019s friend. This is not to be confused with the moving back and forth throughout a speech that someone might do nervously (inadvertently inducing motion sickness in his audience). Instead it refers to planning to pause after an important point or question to allow your audience the opportunity to think about what you have just said. Or, you might speak more quickly (although still clearly) to emphasize your fear or build humor in a long list of concerns while sharing an anecdote. Alternately, you could slow down for more solemn topics or to emphasize the words in a critical statement. For instance, a persuasive speaker lobbying for an audience to stop cutting down trees in her neighborhood might say, \u201cthis can\u2019t continue. It\u2019s up to you to do something.\u201d But imagine her saying these words with attention paid to pacing and each period representing a pause. She could instead say, \u201cThis. Can\u2019t. Continue. It\u2019s up to you. Do something.\u201d\r\n

Convince Them to Engage<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nListeners respond to people. Consider this introduction to a speech about a passion for college football:\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1265\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"194\"]\"Clemson<\/a> \"Clemson Tigers football running down the hill\"<\/a> by Jim Ferguson. CC-BY<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n

It\u2019s college football season! Across the nation, the season begins in late summer. Teams play in several different divisions including the SEC, the ACC, and Big Ten. Schools make a lot of money playing in the different divisions, because people love to watch football on TV. College football is great for the fans, the players, and the schools.<\/em><\/p>\r\nNow, compare it to this introduction to another speech about the same passion:\r\n

When I was a little boy, starting as early as four, my father would wake me up on Fall Saturdays with the same three words: \u201cIt\u2019s Game Day!\u201d My dad was a big Clemson Tigers fan, so we might drive to Death Valley to see a game. Everyone would come: my mom, my grandparents, and friends who went to Clemson too. We would all tailgate before the game\u2014playing corn hole, tossing a foam football, and watching the satellite TV. Even though we loved Clemson football best, all college football was worth watching. You never knew when there would be an upset. You could count on seeing pre-professional athletes performing amazing feats. But, best of all, it was a way to bond with my family, and later my friends.<\/em><\/p>\r\nBoth introductions set up the topic and even give an idea of how the speech will be organized. Yet, the second one is made more interesting by the human element. The speech is personalized.\r\n\r\nThe college football enthusiast speaker might continue to make the speech interesting to his listeners by appealing to commonalities. He might acknowledge that not everyone in his class is a Clemson fan, but all of them can agree that their school\u2019s football team is fun to watch. Connecting with the audience through referencing things the speaker has in common with the listeners can function as an appeal to ethos<\/strong>. The speaker is credible to the audience because he is like them. Or, it can work as an appeal to pathos<\/strong>. A speaker might employ this emotional appeal in a persuasive speech about Habitat for Humanity by asking her audience to think first about the comforts of home or dorm living that they all take for granted.\r\n

If you engage people on a vital, important level, they will respond. -\u00a0Edward Bond<\/blockquote>\r\nIn speaking to the audience about the comforts of dorm living, the speaker is unlikely to refer to the \u201cdormitories where we each reside.\u201d More likely, she might say, \u201cthe dorms we live in.\u201d As with electing to use active voice, speakers can choose to be more conversational than they might be in writing an essay on the same topic.\r\n\r\nThe speaker might use contractions, or colloquialisms, or make comparisons to popular television shows, music, or movies. This will help the listeners feel like the speaker is in conversation with them\u2014admittedly a one-sided one\u2014rather than talking at them. It can be off-putting to feel the speaker is simply reciting facts and figures and rushing to get through to the end of their speech, whereas listeners respond to someone talking to them calmly and confidently. Being conversational can help to convey this attitude even when on the inside the speaker is far from calm or confident. Nevertheless, employ this strategy with caution. Being too colloquial, for instance using \u201cDude\u201d throughout the speech, could undermine your credibility. Or a popular culture example that you think is going to be widely recognized might not be the common knowledge you think it is, and could confuse audiences with non-native listeners.\r\n
Choice of attention\u2014to pay attention to this and ignore that\u2014is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be. -\u00a0W. H. Auden<\/blockquote>","rendered":"
\"William<\/a><\/p>\n

“William Henry Harrison”<\/a> by James Reid Lambdin. Public domain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States. He\u2019s also recognized for giving the worst State of the Union address\u2014ever. His two-hour speech delivered in a snowstorm in 1841 proves that a long speech can kill (and not in the colloquial \u201cit was so good\u201d sense). Perhaps it was karma, but after the President gave his meandering speech discussing ancient Roman history more than campaign issues, he died from a cold caught while blathering on standing outside without a hat or coat.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Now, when asked what you know about Abraham Lincoln, you\u2019re likely to have more answers to offer. Let\u2019s focus on his Gettysburg Address. The speech is a model of brevity. His \u201cof the people, by the people, for the people\u201d is always employed as an example of parallelism, and he kept his words simple. In short, Lincoln considered his listening audience when writing his speech.<\/p>\n

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people\u2019s minds. –\u00a0Walter Bagehot<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you sit down to compose a speech, keep in mind that you are writing for the ear<\/strong> rather than the eye. Listeners cannot go back and reread what you have just said. They need to grasp your message in the amount of time it takes you to speak the words. To help them accomplish this, you need to give listeners a clear idea of your overarching aim, reasons to care, and cues about what is important. You need to inspire them to want to not just hear but engage in what you are saying.<\/p>\n

Make Your Listeners Care<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Humans are motivated by ego; they always want to know \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d So, when you want to want to get an audience\u2019s attention, it is imperative to establish a reason for your listeners to care about what you are saying.<\/p>\n

Some might say Oprah did this by giving away cars at the end of an episode. But, that only explains why people waited in line for hours to get a chance to sit in the audience as her shows were taped. As long as they were in the stands, they didn\u2019t need to listen to get the car at the end of the show. Yet Oprah had audiences listening to her for 25 years before she launched her own network. She made listeners care about what she was saying. She told them what was in that episode for them. She made her audience members feel like she was talking to them about their problems, and offering solutions that they could use\u2014even if they weren\u2019t multibillionaires known worldwide by first name alone.<\/p>\n

Audiences are also more responsive when you find a means to tap their intrinsic motivation<\/strong>, by appealing to curiosity, challenging them, or providing contextualization.[2]<\/sup><\/a> You might appeal to the audience\u2019s curiosity if you are giving an informative speech about a topic they might not be familiar with already. Even in a narrative speech, you can touch on curiosity by cueing the audience to the significant thing they will learn about you or your topic from the story. A speech can present a challenge too. Persuasive speeches challenge the audience to think in a new way. Special Occasion speeches might challenge the listeners to reflect or prompt action. Providing a listener with contextualization comes back to the what\u2019s in it for me motivation. A student giving an informative speech about the steps in creating a mosaic could simply offer a step-by-step outline of the process, or she can frame it by saying to her listener, \u201cby the end of my speech, you\u2019ll have all the tools you need to make a mosaic on your own.\u201d This promise prompts the audience to sit further forward in their seats for what might otherwise be a dry how-to recitation.<\/p>\n

Cue Your Listeners<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Duck<\/a><\/p>\n

“Make way for ducklings”<\/a> by lee. CC-BY-NC-ND<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Audiences also lean in further when you employ active voice. We do this in speaking without hesitation. Imagine you were walking across campus and saw the contents of someone\u2019s room dumped out on the lawn in front of your dorm. You\u2019d probably tell a friend: \u201cThe contents of Jane\u2019s room were thrown out the window by Julie.\u201d Wait, that doesn\u2019t sound right. You\u2019re more likely to say: \u201cJulie threw Jane\u2019s stuff out the window!\u201d The latter is an example of active voice. You put the actor (Julie) and the action (throwing Jane\u2019s stuff) at the beginning. When we try to speak formally, we can fall into passive voice. Yet, it sounds stuffy, and so unfamiliar to your listener\u2019s ear that he will struggle to process the point while you\u2019ve already moved on to the next thing you wanted to say.<\/p>\n

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good. –\u00a0Plato<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Knowing that your audience only hears what you are saying the one time you say it, invites you to employ repetition. Listeners are more likely to absorb a sound when it is repeated. We are often unconsciously waiting for a repetition to occur so we can confirm what we thought we heard.[3]<\/sup><\/a> As a result, employing repetition can emphasize an idea for the listener. Employing repetition of a word, words, or sentence can create a rhythm for the listener\u2019s ear. Employing repetition too often, though, can be tiresome.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t want to repeat things so often you remind your listener of a sound clip on endless loop, you can also cue your listener through vocal emphasis. Volume is a tool speakers can employ to gain attention. Certainly parents use it all of the time. Yet, you probably don\u2019t want to spend your entire speech shouting at your audience. Instead, you can modulate your voice so that you say something important slightly louder. Or, you say something more softly, although still audible, before echoing it again with greater volume to emphasize the repetition. Changing your pitch or volume can help secure audience attention for a longer period of time, as we welcome the variety.<\/p>\n

Pace is another speaker\u2019s friend. This is not to be confused with the moving back and forth throughout a speech that someone might do nervously (inadvertently inducing motion sickness in his audience). Instead it refers to planning to pause after an important point or question to allow your audience the opportunity to think about what you have just said. Or, you might speak more quickly (although still clearly) to emphasize your fear or build humor in a long list of concerns while sharing an anecdote. Alternately, you could slow down for more solemn topics or to emphasize the words in a critical statement. For instance, a persuasive speaker lobbying for an audience to stop cutting down trees in her neighborhood might say, \u201cthis can\u2019t continue. It\u2019s up to you to do something.\u201d But imagine her saying these words with attention paid to pacing and each period representing a pause. She could instead say, \u201cThis. Can\u2019t. Continue. It\u2019s up to you. Do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convince Them to Engage<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Listeners respond to people. Consider this introduction to a speech about a passion for college football:<\/p>\n

\"Clemson<\/a><\/p>\n

“Clemson Tigers football running down the hill”<\/a> by Jim Ferguson. CC-BY<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s college football season! Across the nation, the season begins in late summer. Teams play in several different divisions including the SEC, the ACC, and Big Ten. Schools make a lot of money playing in the different divisions, because people love to watch football on TV. College football is great for the fans, the players, and the schools.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, compare it to this introduction to another speech about the same passion:<\/p>\n

When I was a little boy, starting as early as four, my father would wake me up on Fall Saturdays with the same three words: \u201cIt\u2019s Game Day!\u201d My dad was a big Clemson Tigers fan, so we might drive to Death Valley to see a game. Everyone would come: my mom, my grandparents, and friends who went to Clemson too. We would all tailgate before the game\u2014playing corn hole, tossing a foam football, and watching the satellite TV. Even though we loved Clemson football best, all college football was worth watching. You never knew when there would be an upset. You could count on seeing pre-professional athletes performing amazing feats. But, best of all, it was a way to bond with my family, and later my friends.<\/em><\/p>\n

Both introductions set up the topic and even give an idea of how the speech will be organized. Yet, the second one is made more interesting by the human element. The speech is personalized.<\/p>\n

The college football enthusiast speaker might continue to make the speech interesting to his listeners by appealing to commonalities. He might acknowledge that not everyone in his class is a Clemson fan, but all of them can agree that their school\u2019s football team is fun to watch. Connecting with the audience through referencing things the speaker has in common with the listeners can function as an appeal to ethos<\/strong>. The speaker is credible to the audience because he is like them. Or, it can work as an appeal to pathos<\/strong>. A speaker might employ this emotional appeal in a persuasive speech about Habitat for Humanity by asking her audience to think first about the comforts of home or dorm living that they all take for granted.<\/p>\n

If you engage people on a vital, important level, they will respond. –\u00a0Edward Bond<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In speaking to the audience about the comforts of dorm living, the speaker is unlikely to refer to the \u201cdormitories where we each reside.\u201d More likely, she might say, \u201cthe dorms we live in.\u201d As with electing to use active voice, speakers can choose to be more conversational than they might be in writing an essay on the same topic.<\/p>\n

The speaker might use contractions, or colloquialisms, or make comparisons to popular television shows, music, or movies. This will help the listeners feel like the speaker is in conversation with them\u2014admittedly a one-sided one\u2014rather than talking at them. It can be off-putting to feel the speaker is simply reciting facts and figures and rushing to get through to the end of their speech, whereas listeners respond to someone talking to them calmly and confidently. Being conversational can help to convey this attitude even when on the inside the speaker is far from calm or confident. Nevertheless, employ this strategy with caution. Being too colloquial, for instance using \u201cDude\u201d throughout the speech, could undermine your credibility. Or a popular culture example that you think is going to be widely recognized might not be the common knowledge you think it is, and could confuse audiences with non-native listeners.<\/p>\n

Choice of attention\u2014to pay attention to this and ignore that\u2014is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be. –\u00a0W. H. Auden<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div>