Public Speaking Ch. 3

Malinda is listening to a representative of a political action group who is trying to encourage him to make a donation. What type of listening is Malinda primarily doing in this case?

Critical

Daniel watched the 95-year-old actor Kirk Douglas present the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2011. Daniel became frustrated and stopped listening to the presentation because of Mr. Douglas's inability to form his words accurately. The live audience, however, appeared to understand and enjoy Mr. Douglas's remarks. How could Daniel have been a better listener?

Daniel should have focused on the message and not on the way it was delivered.

Listening for technique involves which of the following?

Evaluating the speaker's strengths and weaknesses Studying the speaker's language Analyzing the introduction

The four main causes of poor listening include

Failing to concentrate Jumping to conclusions Listening too hard Focusing on delivery and personal appearance

The four main causes of poor listening include

Failing to concentrate Listening too hard Focusing on delivery and personal appearance Jumping to conclusions

In order to avoid listening too hard, a listener should

Focus on the main points and evidence

Juwan goes to a jiu-jitsu seminar and is shocked to see that the instructor is only five feet tall. Even though the instructor is known as a prodigy, Juwan doubts her techniques because he cannot picture someone who is so small possibly knowing anything about winning a fight. Juwan has exhibited poor listening by

Focusing on appearance rather than content

Charley saw a commercial with a muscular, well-dressed man using technical terminology to explain why a certain type of annuity is a great investment. Slender and without much of a clothing style, Charley felt compelled by the man on the commercial. He attended one of the man's seminars, was impressed by the man's fitness and style, invested in the annuity, and lost everything. What distracted Charley and caused him to make a bad investment?

He put too much credit in the speaker's appearance.

One component of active listening is

Ignoring external distractions

Unfortunately, focusing on a person's unique accent or manner of speaking can cause a listener to do which of the following?

Judge the speaker's message unfairly Lose the point of the message Judge the speaker's intellect

Useful tips for focusing your listening are to listen for which of the following?

Main points Technique Evidence

What are the two main problems for note takers?

Not knowing what to listen for Not knowing how to record information

Which of the following is the least likely reason our thoughts wander when we are listening to speeches?

Our brains process words slowly.

Good Listening skills come from

Practice and self discipline

Darius is giving a speech on the way vegetables can help fight disease. During the speech, most of his facts, which are derived from a variety of respected sources, deal mainly with how much farmland has been lost to development and how small farmers struggle to earn a living. What does his evidence lack?

Relevancy

A speaker's evidence should always be

Relevant

The concept of active listening is demonstrated by

Shawna, who waits until the speaker is finished to pass judgment.

Which of the following are recommended ways of resisting distractions while listening?

Summarizing and making sense of what you just heard Comparing the speaker's message to what you anticipated the message would be

Analyzing the speaker's attention-getters and language are both methods of listening for

Technique

Ricardo is listening to Janelle's speech. As Janelle talks, Ricardo evaluates her use of language, gestures, and visual aids. Ricardo is listening for

Technique

Listening is made more difficult because

The brain can process words faster than people can talk.

Which of the following are true about listening for technique?

The delivery technique should not take your focus away from the message Analyzing and improving technique is necessary to become an effective speaker. Technique allows you to identify strategies that may work for you

In any speech, it is most important to listen for

The main points

What are characteristics of focused, effective listeners?

They can detect a speaker's main points They can identify a speaker's supporting evidence

Which of the following are part of suspending judgment when listening?

Trying to understand the speaker's ideas Examining the speaker's evidence Assessing the speaker's reasoning

Overwhelmingly, people who have great listening ability

Worked to acquire it

Samuel turns on the radio to listen to a modern reading of an old radio drama that he used to listen to when he was a child. Samuel is engaging in ______ listening.

appreciative

Identifying and improving your weaknesses as a listener demonstrates that you

are serious about listening.

If you listen too hard to a speaker, you are likely to

confuse the facts.

Suspending judgement while listening involves

considering the worth of an idea you do not agree with

In recent years, listening has become more difficult because of

distractions from digital devices.

Allison is a loader in a warehouse. When one of her fellow employees explains that she will be missing work for a few weeks because her mother is terminally ill, what is the primary type of listening that Allison is using?

empathic

Detecting a speaker's main points

is relatively easy

The most useful way to take notes for most students is

key-word outline

When business managers are asked to rank the communication skills that are most crucial to their jobs, which do they usually rank as number one?

listening

One recommended way to stay engaged in a speech is to

mentally review what has been said.

Flora finds that she can process words much more quickly than her classmates can speak. This leads Flora to have poor listening caused by

not concentrating

For their public speaking class, John and Mia are required to attend a speech given by a visiting lecturer on campus. The lecture topic is "Improving Your Study Habits." Since John and Mia are both seniors about to graduate, they roll their eyes and grudgingly attend the presentation. As potential listeners, John and Mia are guilty of

prematurely rejecting the topic as lacking value.

Reggie was going to tell his employee, Maddie, that he wants her to apply for a higher-paying job. He tells her that he wants to discuss her performance, and she says, "I know I've been slacking and I am willing to work for less to make up for it." Maddie has jumped to a conclusion by

putting words into Reggie's mouth.

The best way to improve your listening ability is to

take listening seriously

Which factor in Avery's life would likely be the most important for him to become a good listener?

that he identifies his poor listening habits and works to change them

Resisting distractions while listening is difficult because

we think much faster than a speaker can talk