Lesson 3 Short Answer

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Rio Salado Community College *

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110

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Communications

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Apr 29, 2024

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docx

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1. Evaluate your listening by identifying the stage of listening where you feel you need to make the most improvement. Incorporate in your answer specific details about that stage along with specific examples and a strong rationale as to why that stage needs the most improvement. The stage of listening where I need the most improvement is the stage of remembering. Chapter 4.4 spoke about remembering as a listening stage and identified that distraction, even for a moment, can cause a person to miss foundational information that is later built upon for new concepts. In conversations, whether casual or educational, I can become easily distracted by a person’s body language, external noise. Chapter 5.2 also explained a barrier to listening by “side-process[ing]” with the speaker says. I have been guilty of not remembering the speaker’s thoughts at times because I was reading too far between the lines of the words the person chose and getting lost. 2. Describe a plan using at least three specific ideas/strategies from the lesson for how you will make an effort to improve your skills in the stage you identified in response to question #1. 1. When I find myself getting distracted, I employ the method from Chapter 5.3 which suggests recalling the information communicated to me by mirroring the statements back to the sender so they can confirm or correct my understanding of the situation. 2. To further assist in remembering as I listen, I can give formative feedback such as what was discussed in Chapter 4.4 on taking notes and nodding affirmatively when I understand the message. 3. Lastly, I can use mnemonic devices which were suggested in Chapter 5.3. Such devices are proven in assisting memory recall and have been offered in previous lessons such as the DECIDE acronym, which is a type of mnemonic. A mnemonic I have used in the past helped me remember my now husband’s name by rhyming words with his unique and foreign first name to fit into the song “Mellow Yellow” (i.e.: they call him mellow Nelu…), which now helps me introduce him to new people so they can learn the pronunciation, and remember it. 3. Thinking back to the part of the lesson that addresses listening types and styles, explain how you would respond to the following situation: You are conversing with someone that you are only mildly acquainted with who starts to discuss a topic that you find morally offensive. How do you adjust your listening so that you can still listen to this person while also offering an honest response? Make sure to incorporate key terms from the lesson especially in regards to listening types and listening styles into your response. If an acquaintance began to discuss a morally offensive topic I would adjust my listening to ensure I understand the person’s position on the topic and practice patience before forming a response until I have more information. I would utilize a critical listening posture as I do not know the person well enough to understand their position on various issues or topics. This type of listening leans itself well to evaluating difficult topics before deciding to accept, reject, or withhold judgement in order to educate myself on the topic. The listening style of content-oriented listening is well- suited to this situation. This would emphasize paying attention to the message and it’s accuracy to determine an honest and respectful response to someone I do not know well enough to give quick and direct feedback. By paying attention to the content, I may learn something that I had narrow views on previously, or I could identify areas in

which the person has been misinformed or misled in their stance. 4. In regards to critical listening, empathetic listening, and contextual listening (refer to Chapter 5.3 in Communication in the Real World), which of the three do you feel you need to improve the most? Provide a specific example of a time when you struggled with being a critical listener, empathetic listener, or a contextual listener and what you could have done to become a better listener in that situation. Include some of the listening barriers that you experienced. I feel I could improve the most with my empathetic listening. An example of this was a supervisor for whom I worked when he misquoted a policy for which he wrote negative feedback in my file. In the same conversation, I brought his error to his attention in a respectful and empathetic manner, but I was met with his unwillingness to acknowledge his error. My error was in later conversations by judging the same supervisor with the preconceived notion that he would not listen and would only give orders. To be a better empathetic listener, I should have started each subsequent conversation fresh and suppress any judgements or notions I had gathered from the earlier interactions. Some of the barriers I encounter in this situation is a lack of listening preparation as meetings with this supervisor are often impromptu which interrupts the flow of my work. The interruption at times can lead me to engage in pseudo-listening where I act as though I am listening while multi-tasking. I have identified this as a bad habit that I would not appreciate if done to me, so I physically turn myself towards the supervisor so I am communicating that he has my full attention and give feedback to acknowledge understanding. 5. Ethical listening requires that you avoid prejudging the speaker. The lesson states that “active listeners make strategic choices and take action in order to set up ideal listening conditions.” Describe a situation where you had to adjust your behavior by deliberately choosing to avoid prejudging the speaker based upon culture or gender. What active listening techniques did you use (or could have used) to make this communication effective? Make sure to include detailed examples to illustrate your thoughts while also explaining your rationale behind your choice of active listening techniques. 6. A situation in which I had to adjust my behavior to avoid prejudging the speaker based on culture or gender was when I began to meet and converse with my husband’s family before we were married. I had an opportunity to stay with one of my husband’s cousins in another state while we were on vacation. In my husband’s culture, the women were still encouraged to stay at home to raise children, cook, clean, and be submissive to their husbands. I chose not to prejudge the women in this culture as dependent or second to their husbands as American culture might suggest. I used active listening and set a goal instead to learn about their relationships and the importance of their role with the understanding that my husband is also engrained in that culture. I witnessed their children as being well-educated, the house well-kept, and their relationships kindled with love and respect. While the woman of the household explained her roles and interests, I used self-reinforcement to acknowledge how impressed I was with their family and how that would help me be a better wife and mother once we were married. Meeting the women within the culture gave me invaluable insight as to the traditions and expectations my husband brought to a relationship. I could not have truly gained this insight if I had entered the conversation with a pre-judgement on the person, nor could I had gleaned the information from my husband.

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