Effective Listening

Listening is a very neglected communication skill. Many students feel that because they can hear, they are listening. Allowing words to pour into your ear is not listening. Yet, listening is the most used method of learning.

To help you become a better listener, you should consider a set of rules called LISAN. The letters of this mnemonic devise stand for the key words in five rules for effective listening:

• Lead, don't follow--anticipate what's going to be said
• Ideas--find them
• Signals--watch for them
• Active, not passive involvement
• Notes--take them, organize them
  

The first letter in LISAN reminds you to lead rather than follow. Leading involves two steps:

1. Read outside assignments before you come to class. If you read before you hear the lecture you will be more alert to important words, names, or ideas. You will anticipate them.
2. Set up questions to keep yourself in the lead. These are not questions that you ask your instructor, but ones around which you plan your listening.

The I in LISAN tells you to look for the important ideas. Most lecturers will introduce a few new ideas and provide explanation, examples, or other support for them. Your job is to identify the main ideas. The instructor may come back to the same few ideas again and again. Be alert to them.

The S in LISAN reminds you to listen for the signal words. A good speaker uses signals to telegraph what he is going to say. common signals are:

• To introduce an example: "for example" "There are three reasons why...."
• To signal support material: "For instance...." "Similarly...." "In contrast...." "On the other hand..."
• To signal a conclusion or summary: "Therefore..." "In conclusion...." "Finally...." "As a result...."
• To signal importance: "Now this is very important...." "Remember that...."
  

The A in LISAN reminds you to be an active listener. Listening is not just soaking up sound. To be an effective listener, you must be active, not passive. This can be done in several ways:

1. Use the class situation for active listening. Sit close enough (front 1/3 of the room, near center) to see and hear the instructor and to be seen and heard by him. Remember, the further away you are from the instructor, the greater the chance of sound distortion. An empty room is easy to hear sounds in, but when that room is filled with bodies, sound tends to get "eaten up" and lost the further it travels from its source. Couple that with normal classroom noises, hall noises, overhead projector fans, heating blowers, etc., and the chances of hearing the entire lecture correctly diminishes.
2. Maintain eye contact. The eyes truly tell all. An instructor can tell whether you're "getting it" or not simply by looking at you, specifically, your eyes. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to fall asleep when looking someone directly in the eyes, so your ability to concentrate will improve!
3. Respond to the instructor. This can be anything from asking and answering questions to nodding in understanding or smiling appropriately at your instructor's attempts at humor.
4. Ask questions for active listening.
5. Resist distractions. Keep reminding yourself that you are listening to someone else. Keep your mind on what is being said and fill in what you think they mean.
6. Use thought speed. Your mind works many times faster than the speaker can talk; some studies report findings that the rate of the brain is almost 4 times that of normal speech, which often explains why daydreaming during a lecture occurs so frequently. Anticipate and summarize what has been said. Try to see where the instructor is going with the lecture.
7. Resist distractions. If necessary, sit apart from friends or other classmates that may disturb you. Do not sit at the back of the room or near the door; hallway noises and noises from other classrooms are more prevalent at these points.

The N is LISAN reminds you to take notes. In ordinary conversation we mentally interpret, classify, and summarize what is said. In classroom learning, we do this more effectively by keeping written notes. Note taking helps us to listen by providing a logical organization to what we hear. It is very difficult to listen to and remember disorganized, unrelated bits of information.

1. If you heard someone spell out "nd, tckl, grd, cntr, hlf bk, fl bk, qrtr bk" you would find it difficult to listen and remember.
2. Organization is the key to effective listening and remembering. The above letters are the names of player positions on a football team, with the vowel omitted.
3. Note taking is the way you find the organization. Good note taking means finding the underlying structure of what is heard, discovering the skeleton of ideas on which the instructor has built his lecture.
4. Good note taking is 80% listening and 20% writing, so don't ever worry about writing getting in the way of listening.