Communications
Paragraph 1
Write the five tips for listening from the TED talk by sound engineering specialist Julian Treasure: Five Ways to Listen Better (7:35) https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better?language=en
Answer these questions about the above video in a short paragraph (4-5 college level sentences):
Do you think you are a good listener? Why or why not?
Which of these tips do you think will be most useful for you? Why?
Paragraph 2
Describe a specific time when you or someone you know engaged in poor listening. In describing the situation, identify what factor may have affected the ability to listen (Chapter 6, Section 6.3, pp. 133-134). NOTE: Your example must involve your PEERS/ADULTS only (not children).
Which faulty listening habit (Chapter 6, Section 6.4, pp. 135-136) do you think was at play? Use one of the terms from your book under the subsection heading “6.4 Faulty Listening Habits.” (They are numbered 1-7 and the terms are clickable and in BLUE in your eBook).
Finally, what strategies could you or the other person have used to be a more effective listener (Chapter 6, Section 6.5, pp. 137-143).
ANSWER
Communications
The five tips for listening include silence. Silence is vital as it resets the ears to hear the quiet. The one is the mixture where one tries to locate some sounds and helps locate the sounds. The next one is referred to as savouring as it involves listening to mundane sounds, which improves the quality of listening. The fourth tip is listening positions, ensuring you are in the right listening position improves listening the fifth is RASA which means receive, appreciate, summarize and ask.
I think I am a fairly good listener because I follow Julian’s steps listed above. I try to listen as much as I can and take some time to be quiet and listen to nature. At night I lay quiet and listen to every passing sound, and that way, I have learned to be a good listener. It also helps to test oneself, especially in this noisy world, and therefore, once in a while, I test my listening skills through listening without replying and trying to replay the things I have heard in my head. Some of the valuable tips in this ted talk include the mixture, savouring and silence. These three are essential because they improve the quality of listening as they involve listening to mundane sounds and trying to place them.
There is this one time I was talking to my friend as we carried out some tasks and I was talking, but I was not getting any response from him. I decided to go on to test whether he was hearing me, and at some point, I asked him a question about what we were talking about, and he could not answer because he was not paying attention. He had drifted off during our conversation when he saw some rabbit passing. He drifted to thinking about rabbits and how much he enjoyed having them as a child and forgot about our conversation.
The faulty listening habit that was involved here was allowing distraction to take his attention away from what we were discussing. We were discussing an important matter that needed both of our attention, and yielding to a distraction meant he was not taking it seriously, and the topic was boring him. It is also probable he thought of the topic as boring hence allowing distractions in between the conversation we were having. This can be not good for any relationship as conversation are an essential part of life.
There are things that I could have done to improve the quality of the conversation. As the person steering the conversation, I should have involved him more with questions and asking for responses. This way, he would not have been easily distracted. He should also have taken some responsibility in the conversation by receiving the information and acknowledging he has received it through nodding or making agreeing noises, or refuting my sentiments. He should also have summarized what I was talking about and then asked questions about the topic. If all these had been done, we would have had a fruitful conversation.
There are activities we can do together to improve his listening skills, and I will teach him. One is entertaining some quiet at least for three minutes daily. Listening to the silence always helps one to listen more and avoid distractions, especially when it matters. The next exercise is savouring the information given. This is not something one can be taught, but learning to savour information improves ones listening skills.
References
Treasure, J. (2011). 5 Ways to Listen Better. https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better?language=en
