On Listening
Author(s): Deborah Burnett Strother
Source: The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 68, No. 8 (Apr., 1987), pp. 625-628
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International
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DEBORAH
BURNETT
STROTHER
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
OF RESEARCH
On
G
O
OOD LISTENING skills
are especially important in
a society that grants free
dom of speech to all peo
ple, whatever
their views
or causes. As Thomas Devine
has
noted,
"The professional
persuaders,
whether politicians,
advertisers, plead
ers of causes, teachers and professors,
or barkers at county fairs, have learned,
with Hitler, that 'it is in their listening
that people are most vulnerable.'
"1Al
though many speakers have developed
the skills of persuasion, Devine charges
that most listeners have not learned to
listen critically.
Few schools teach listening because
that skill seems so simple; yet many
researchers have rejected listening as
too complex to become the subject of
study. Meanwhile,
as the printed word
loses ground to other forms of commu
nication, such as videotapes and closed
circuit television, the amount of listen
ing that students engage in may be in
creasing.
To address concerns related to listen
ing, the International Listening Asso
ciation (ILA) was created in 1980. Its
- primarily professors who
members
in speech and communica
specialize
tion, education, or reading, although the
list also includes a small
membership
group representing business and indus
try - promote the study, development,
and teaching of effective
listening in
all settings. They share teaching objec
tives, learning activities,
promotional
methods and materials,
and other pro
fessional experiences with one another.
The ILA encourages its members
to fo
cus on management
strategies that pro
DEBORAH BURNETT STROTHER is edi
tor in the Phi Delta Kappa Center on Evalu
ation, Development, and Research, Bloom
ington, Ind.
Listening
mote effective listening in government
and business.
In March 1987 the first issue of the
Journal of the International Listening
Association
appeared.
ILA members
hope that this new journal will provide
an outlet for articles on listening, a topic
generally ignored by journals that focus
on speech and communication or on the
language arts. The ILA and its journal
are important steps toward the develop
ment of research on listening.
WHAT IS LISTENING?
is more than merely hear
Listening
ing. According
to Sara Lundsteen,
lis
tening is "the process by which spoken
language is converted to meaning in the
mind."2
is related to the other lan
Listening
guage arts: speaking, reading, and writ
ing. We learn to listen before we learn
to read; indeed, some researchers think
that the ability to listen may influence
the ability to read. Lundsteen mentions
four features that reading and listening
have in common: 1) the act of receiv
ing, 2) analogous features, 3) vocabu
lary, and 4) certain skills of thinking
and understanding.3
Reaching consensus on a definition of
listening is difficult because listening is
a complex and highly variable process,
depending on what we listen to and
why we listen to it. Andrew Wolvin and
Carolyn Coakley decribe five different
kinds of listening:4
* appreciative listening (which is car
ried on for enjoyment or to gain a senso
ry impression);
* discriminative listening (which helps
a listener to develop sensitivity to argu
ments and language and to distinguish
fact from opinion);
* comprehensive
listening (which en
RESOURCE PANEL
The
individuals
listed below
provided the ideas and information
from which this column was devel
oped. For further information, read
ers may contact panel members
directly.
Larry L. Barker
Department of Speech
Communication
Auburn University
6030 Haley Center
Auburn, AL 36849
Carolyn G. Coakley
Prince George's County School
District
Upper Marlboro, MD 20870
Thomas G. Devine
College of Education
Lowell University
One University Ave.
Lowell, MA 01854
Ella Erway
School of Education
Southern Connecticut State
University
501 Crescent St.
New Haven, CT 06515
Sara W. Lundsteen
College of Education
North Texas State University
P.O. Box 13857
Denton, TX 76203
Lyman K. Steil, President
Communication Development
25 Robb Farm Rd.
St. Paul, MN 55110
Inc.
Andrew D. Wolvin
Speech Communication
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
APRIL 1987
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625
PAR
ables
a listener
to understand
a mes
These two studies suggest that chil
dren need to be able to discern where
communication
has broken down. As
listeners, they also need to take respon
sage);
* therapeuticlistening (which allows
a listener to serve as a sounding board,
without evaluating or judging themes
sage); and
* critical listening (which enables a
listener to evaluate and then to accept or
reject a message).
Clearly, a listeneruses different skills
when
listening to a teacher's lecture than
when listening to a friend'sproblems or
to a bird's
song. Wolvin
and Coakley
maintain that listening will be more
meaningful if the listener sets definite
sibility for requestingclarificationwhen
Listenersmust
be bothdocile
and critical.A
good listener
listenswith a
questioningmind.
goals and decides what kind of listening
skills to use.
Research
has shown
that 45% of the
total time devoted to communication is
spent in listening, whereas speaking
takes 30%,
reading
takes
16%,
and
writing takes 9%.5 Furthermore, ele
mentary students spend almost 60% of
their classroom time in listening.6
Some researchersare concerned that
recognize ambiguities and puzzlements
in communication
about that situation
and will seek to clear them up.'2 The
conclusion to be drawn from these stud
ies and others like them is that interac
tive listening can be improved if teach
ers model desirable behavior by telling
children when their messages
are un
clear.
have been conducted
since the mid
Fifties, and reviews of the research on
listening through the late Seventies all
seem to agree that listening
is both
teachable and testable. The research on
listening suggests that: 1) listening is
central to all learning; 2) listening is not
the same as "paying attention"; 3) listen
ing-is related to, but not the same as, in
telligence; and 4) listening is probably
related to thinking.9 The last-mentioned
idea is currently engaging the interest of
MEASURING LISTENING
cognitive
have stimulated
psychology
research on reading comprehension.
Those individuals who had been study
ing reading comprehension
have since
been joined by researchers whose pri
THE RESEARCH
mary interest in the Fifties and Sixties
would have been listening but today has
have been studying lis
Researchers
tening for about 60 years. Many of the become the broader area of comprehen
sion.
early studies were conducted by reading
For example, separate studies by John
specialists who recognized the close re
and by Elizabeth Robinson
Flavell'0
lationship between reading and listen
and Peter Robinson"'
investigated chil
ing. In 1955, for example, Sister Mary
dren's awareness of the adequacy of
Hollow
taught 30 lessons on listening
In both studies, the research
skills, each 20 minutes in length, to 300 messages.
ers exposed children to messages
that
fifth-graders, while a control group of
were ambiguous or inadequate in some
302 students followed
the usual lan
way. Flavell found that older children
guage arts program.8 Pre- and posttests
were better at recognizing
inadequacy
measured
the students' ability to sum
than younger children,
marize, draw inferences, recall facts in in a message
who tended to blame themselves for lis
sequence, and remember facts accurate
ly. The posttests showed statistically tening incorrectly. The Robinsons found
in favor of the that children who requested further in
significant differences
to formation about ambiguous messages of
experimental group, leading Hollow
conclude that listeningabilities improve ten had mothers who said to them, when
the circumstances warranted it, "I don't
with direct instruction.
The testing of listening grew out of
research that focused on the reading ca
pacity of children and on the relation
ship of reading to listening. Initially,
researchers tested children's ability to un
derstand spoken language and to compre
hend what they heard. Not surprisingly,
the testing of listening in the 1-950s was
conducted primarily by reading special
ists. The tests assessed a child's ability
to recall, to follow directions,
to recog
nize transitions and word meanings,
and
to comprehend meaning. However,
re
searchers whose specialty was listening
criticized these tests because they meas
ured both reading and listening and be
cause many of the items could be an
swered by reading alone.
Since the 1950s the definition of lis
to include
tening has been broadened
more than just the comprehension of lec
tures or other public statements. Newer
tests of listening reflect that broader
definition by measuring
such things as
children's ability to identify a speaker's
to make
and to
attitudes,
inferences,
draw conclusions.
Although they are designed for adults,
the Kentucky Test of Listening Compre
hension and theWatson/Barker
Test are
good examples of these new instruments,
since both are based on a more compre
hensive model (and on a corresponding
ly broader definition) of listening. De
veloped by Robert Bostrom of the Uni
the Kentucky Test
versity of Kentucky,
of Listening
focuses
Comprehension
more heavily on recall, while the Wat
son/Barker Test measures,
among other
understandyou. What do you mean?"
things, the ability to listen for emotion
certain kinds of listening by the young
may hinder the development of impor
tant.skills. With regard to listening to
television, for example, Lundsteen has
noted:
Since the TV set cannot answer
back, children do not develop skill in
inquiry. Children may parrot letters
of the alphabet learned from a TV
program, but they will be unable to
put them to intelligent use. Children
can have no interaction with a TV set,
no experience in influencing behavior
and being influenced in return.7
Several studies similar to Hollow's
626
necessary. A third study, conducted by
Glenda Revelle and her colleagues,
in
dicates that, after taking part in a com
munication
situation that is meaningful
to them, children as young as 3 or 4 can
PHI
DELTA
many researchers.
Ideas generated by scholars in such
fields as artificial intelligence, psycho
linguistics, informationprocessing, and
KAPPAN
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al meaning
and the ability
to interpret
grams are shifting
their focus from as
sessment to thedevelopmentof curricu
interpersonalmessages.13
lum materials.
This
is the case because
no single definitionof listeninghaswon
THE STATUS OF INSTRUCTION
IN LISTENING
the support of all the states, and the out
come has been curriculumobjectives so
P.L. 95-561 amended theElementary diverse that no single instrumentwill
and Secondary Education Act in 1978 to meet the assessment needs of every
include speaking and listening among state. Insteadof developing their own
the basic skills (along with reading,
assessment instruments,many statesare
mathematics,
and writing). This was the
leaving theassessmentof listeningskills
first time that federal legislation had
to local school districts.
touched on the teaching of oral commu
Interestingly, the SCA cites adequate
nication skills. The states are not current
ly required to develop programs in oral
but each state is free
communication,
to develop
its own plans, set its own
priorities, and distribute funds from
federal grants as it chooses.
In 1985 the Speech Communication
Association (SCA) surveyed the states
to determine how many had elementary
or secondary programs designed to teach
speaking and listening skills.14Thirty
three states reported some move toward
the teaching of listening. Of these 33
states, three had plans for developing
curricula, one had identified listening
skills and had developed
cedures to assess them,
statewide pro
18 had identi
fied skills and developed curricula but
were not using assessment procedures,
and 11 (Alabama, Arizona, Connecti
cut, Hawaii, Massachusetts,
New York,
South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
andWest Virginia) had identifiedskills,
developed curricula, and put into place
some kind of assessment
procedure.
Only 17 states had no oral communica
tion curriculum and no plans for de
veloping one.
Many
of the states that have such pro
assessment
and evaluation
as one
of
three essential ingredientsfor an effec
tive program on listening skills. The
other two ingredients are: 1) a curricu
lum that is based on current theory and
research and that is related to other con
tent areas and 2) teachers with training
in oral communication.
Donald Rubin surveyed 150 Title II
Basic Skills projects - some in school,
some out of school - that listed oral
communicationamong theirobjectives.
The response rate was low, but only "a
bare handful" of the projects "had actu
ally developed coherent programs to pro
mote speaking and listening skills."'5
Rubin noted further that many states
and local districts have developed ad
mirable curricula in speaking and listen
ing, but these curricula are often poor
ly implementedin the classroom.'6
TEACHING STRATEGIES
Rubin identified two exemplary
models for teaching listening.The first,
self-contained communication courses,
includes that old standby, the secondary
school speech course. A speech class
can give high-achieving
students train
ing in leadership and in logical and
critical analysis. For other students,
a speech class can promote self-confi
dence and fluency.
Other self-contained courses or units
in oral communication
focus less on
public speaking and more on generic
skills, such as audience analysis; inter
5
He
"'7feelsorryforMr. Oldermnan.
was just getting thehang of theover
head projector, and now they throw
the VCRat him."
Educatorsneed
to help students
understandtheir
own listening
behaviorin all
its complexity.
proach more evident, according to
Rubin,
than in the process
approach
to
the teachingof writing.
Students learn a great deal about
small-group communication, for ex
ample, in peer response and editing
circles. Indeed, some composition
teachers are finding that introductory
work in small-group communication
improves the efficiency of these peer
work groups. In addition, many com
position teachers initiate their classes
with a series of oral communication
exercises. These exercises serve to
help construct a climate of trust,
which is prerequisite to students' cast
ing off defensive feelings about writ
ing and fostering their willingness to
participate in a writing community.17
Rubin advocates
that elementary
and
secondary students be exposed to both a
requiredcourse in speech communica
tion and to oral communication
instruc
tion infused throughout the other con
tent areas.
Ralph Nichols found that people listen
and think up to four times as fast as the
normal conversation
rate. 18 Students
can use the extra time to process mes
sages or to daydream. To help students
use the extra time wisely,
teachers can:
* point out the difference
between
personal communication skills, such as
small-groupdecision making; or basic hearing and listening (which requires
communication functions, such as im more active cognitive involvement);
agining, describing, andexpressing feel
* help students see that listening is a
ings. Such courses or units have been constant part of life;
implementedwith good results at all
* help studentsunderstandthatlisten
grade levels.
ing has a variety of purposes; and
A secondmodel for instructioninoral
* point out the qualities of a good
communication uses lessons in other listener, so that studentsdo not equate
subjectsas vehicles for promotingcom good listeningwith good (i.e., passive)
munication skills. Nowhere is this ap behavior or with intelligence.
APRIL
1987
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627
PAR
can also teach listening
must embark on a lifelong process of
Educators
that happens only
as a performance
strategies directly. Gail Tompkins and once.2' People can listen repeatedly, developing and fine-tuning his or her
her colleagues describe one such ap but each event is singular and unique.
skills.
proach,'9 which emphasizes such lis Unfortunately, listening is rarelywell
tening strategies as: 1) imagery (making
performed. To help listeners perform
1. Thomas G. Devine,
"Listening: What Do We
a picture in your mind), 2) categoriza
better, Adler suggests that they ask Know
After Fifty Years of Research
and Theoriz
tion (classifying information),3) seek themselves four questionswhile listen
vol. 21, 1978, p. 299.
ing?," Journal of Reading,
ingmore information(askingquestions), ing to a speech or lecture.
2. Sara W. Lundsteen,
111.:
(Urbana,
listening
on Reading
4) organization(discoveringthemessage
*What is the entire speech or lecture
ERIC Clearinghouse
and Communi
cation Skills,
1979).
plan), 5) jotting down important in about?
3. Ibid., p. 3.
formation (note-taking), and 6) direct
(or pivotal)
*What
are the main
4. Andrew D. Wolvin
and Carolyn Gwynn Coak
ing one's attention (getting clues from ideas, conclusions, and arguments?
111.: ERIC
Instruction
(Urbana,
ley, Listening
the speaker).
*Are the speaker'sconclusions sound Clearinghouse
on Reading
and Communication
One major U.S. corporation,Sperry, or mistaken? (Are theywell-supported Skills, 1979).
has actively worked to dispel the apathy
or inadequatelysupportedby the speak 5. Paul T. Rankin, "Listening Ability: Its Impor
and Development,"
tance, Measurement,
Chicago
and misunderstanding that surround er's arguments?)
Schools Journal,
January 1930, pp. 177-79.
listening.The corporationhas produced
*What of it? (What consequences
6. Miriam E. Wilt,
"A Study of Teacher Aware
two booklets to help people better follow from the conclusions the speaker ness of
as a Factor in Elementary
Edu
Listening
understand and assess their listening wishes me to adopt? And how signifi
cation," Journal
Research,
of Educational
April
skills.20These booklets list four stages cant are those consequences for me?)22
1950, pp. 626-36.
7. Lundsteen,
p. xiii.
of listening - sensing, interpreting, Adler warns listeners to guard against
evaluating, and responding - and sug
gest 10 keys to effective listening: 1) lis
ten for ideas, not facts; 2) judge con
tent, not delivery; 3) listenoptimistical
ly; 4) avoid jumping to conclusions; 5)
adjust your note-taking to the speaker;
6) concentrate; 7) use excess listening
time to summarize the speaker's ideas;
8) work at listening; 9) keep your mind
open and your emotions in check; and
10) exercise your mind. These keys can
help students avoid the bad habits of
listening, which include: paying more
than to sub
attention to mannerisms
stance, allowing one's mind to wander,
allowing distractions to divert one's at
tention, overreacting to certain words or
phrases that arouse emotions and en
and allowing an
courage prejudgments,
initial lack of interest to keep one from
hearing something important.
Mortimer Adler describes listening
the tricks of persuasion.
In his view,
listenersmust be both docile and criti
cal. They must be willing to learn, not
resistant or indifferent to what is being
they must be
said, but simultaneously
to accept every statement as
unwilling
a good listener
fact. In other words,
listenswith a questioningmind.
Adler lists four additional questions
that listeners should keep constantly in
mind: 1) What is the speaker trying to
sell, or to get me to do, or to get me to
feel? 2) Why does the speaker think that
I should be persuaded by this appeal?
What reasons are offered, or what facts
are presented, in support of this appeal?
3) What points that I think are relevant
has the speaker failed tomention? What
has the speaker failed to say that might
sway me one way or the other? 4) When
the speech ends, what questions of sig
nificance to me has the speaker failed to
answer or even to consider?23
is a complex process that
Listening
varies according to the purposes of the
listener and of the speaker, according to
setting, and accord
the communication
ing to a host of other factors, including
the listener's age, gender, cultural back
ground, self-concept, training, cogni
tive abilities, and physical and mental
educators need to
state. Consequently,
help students understand their own lis
in all its complexity.
tening behavior
They also need to teach students self
monitoring
techniques and other strate
in
gies for engaging more effectively
628
"Sad, isn't it? A happy, carefree ex
istence marred by having to go to
this complex process.
school."n
like an artist or a gymnast, the listener
There
can be no quick
fix. Rather,
8. Sr. Mary K. Hollow,
"An Experimental
Study
at the Intermediate
of Listening
Grade Level"
Fordham
dissertation,
(Doctoral
University,
1955).
9. Devine,
pp. 296-304.
in
10. John H. Flavell,
"Cognitive Monitoring,"
W. P. Dickson,
ed., Children's Oral Communica
tion Skills (New York: Academic
Press,
1981),
pp. 35-58.
11. Elizabeth
J. Robinson
and W. Peter Robin
You Don't Know:
Chil
son, "Knowing When
dren's Judgments About Ambiguous
Information,"
vol. 12, 1982, pp. 267-80.
Cognition,
and
12. Glenda L. Revelle,
Henry M. Wellman,
Julie D. Karabenick,
Monitoring
"Comprehension
in Preschool
vol.
Child Development,
Children,"
56, 1985, pp. 654-63.
"Lis
13. Larry L. Barker and Kittie W. Watson,
and Measurement,"
Definition,
tening Behavior,
in Robert Bostrum,
Year
ed., Communication
International
book VIII (Beverly Hills,
Calif.:
Communication
Association,
1986), pp. 178-97.
et al., "State Practices
14. Dwayne VanRheenen
A
of Speaking
Skill Assessment:
and Listening
at the
National
1985," paper presented
Survey,
of the Speech Communication
annual convention
1985.
Association,
Denver,
15. Donald
L. Rubin,
"Instruction
and Listening:
Battles and Options,"
1985, p. 32.
February
Leadership,
16. Ibid.
in Speaking
Educational
17.
Ibid., p. 34.
"Factors Accounting
for
18. Ralph G. Nichols,
in Comprehension
of Materials
Differences
Presented Orally in the Classroom"
(Doctoral dis
of Iowa, 1948).
sertation, University
19. Gail E. Tompkins,
Friend, and Pa
Marilyn
for More
Effective
tricia L. Smith,
"Strategies
in Carl R. Personke and Dale D. John
Listening,"
Arts and
the Beginning
son, eds., Language
Teacher
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall,
(Englewood
forthcoming).
20. How
(New York:
Important It Is to Listen
1983); and Your Personal
Sperry Corporation,
1985).
(New York: Sperry,
Listening Profile
to
to Speak, How
J. Adler, How
21. Mortimer
Listen (New York: Macmillan,
1983).
22. Ibid., p. 97.
23.
Ibid.,
pp.
KAPPAN
PHIDELTA
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109-10.
IB