Page 158 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Check Your Understanding: Exercises and Activities
1. In a short paper or speech, describe an incident in which your message was
misunderstood or you misunderstood another person’s intended message.
Were there any tip-offs that the speech transaction was not effective? How
could the misunderstanding have been avoided?
2. Planning for upcoming listening situations is important. Consider one of
your classes in which the instructor regularly lectures. In what ways can
you prepare for listening to the next lecture? Are there any specifi c listen-
ing obstacles you need to overcome? After attending the lecture, see if your
understanding was enhanced by your preparation for the class.
3. In a short paper, describe a situation you have experienced in which bias
affected the listening process. Choose a situation in which you feel your
meaning was distorted due to bias or a situation in which you feel your own
biases handicapped you in the listening process.
4. Make a list of 10 words that have varying connotations to different people
or in different situations. Be prepared to share your list with classmates in
small groups or before the full class, depending on your instructor’s
directions.
5. Describe three times in a given day during which you engaged in critical
listening. Be prepared to share your list with classmates in small groups or
before the full class.

Notes

1. Andrew D. Wolvin and Carolyn Gwynn Coakley, Listening, 3rd ed.
(Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown, 1988), 12–13.
2. Lyman K. Steil, Larry Barker, and Kittie W. Watson, Effective Listening
(New York: Random House, 1993), 12–13.
3. Anthony P. Carnevale, Leila J. Gainer, and Ann S. Meltzer, Workplace
Basics: The Skills Employers Want (Washington, D.C.: American Society for
Training and Development and U.S. Department of Labor, 1988), 12.
4. International Listening Association, Home Page, (n.d.), [Retrieved from
http://www.listen.org/Templates/home.htm, 29 December 2006.]
5. Melvin L. DeFleur, Patricia Kearney, and Timothy G. Plax, Fundamentals
of Human Communication (Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfi eld, 1993), 112–13.
6. DeFleur, Kearney, and Plax, Fundamentals of Human Communication, 113–17.
The remaining obstacles to listening are taken from this source.

7. Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall, Hidden Differences: Doing Business
With the Japanese (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1987), 7.
8. Hall and Hall, Hidden Differences, 10–11.

9. Tamar Lewin, “Sikh Owner of Gas Station Is Fatally Shot in Rampage”
[Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis, 24 September 2001] (New York Times, 17 Sep-
tember 2001, B16).
10. Ralph G. Nichols, “Do We Know How to Listen? Practical Helps in a Mod-
ern Age,” Speech Teacher, 10 (1961), 118–24. 125