Writer's Choice Grade 11Unit 29:
Listening and SpeakingOverviewYour abilities to listen and speak effectively affect your success in school, sports, jobs, and personal relationships. When you employ active listening, you are able to understand, interpret, and respond more effectively. In any particular situation, you will probably need to employ a combination of the following types of listening: empathetic listening allows you to understand and respond to another's feelings; you separate facts from opinions when you employ critical listening; when you exercise reflective listening, you identify main ideas and consider the implications of the ideas being spoken; and appreciative listening allows you to enjoy or interpret a performance.
No matter what type of listening you employ, use the strategies for active listening-prepare, listen, interpret, and respond. Active listening skills help you evaluate persuasive messages by considering the message's purpose, intended audience, facts, opinions, errors in reasoning, persuasive techniques, and values and biases. After considering these factors, decide whether the message is reasonable and worth acting on. When evaluating a literary performance, think about the performer's voice qualities and body language. Also consider the literary elements that the performance emphasizes before you rate it.
Speaking effectively, informally or formally, can influence your relationships with individuals and groups. Most speaking is informal, or unprepared. In-person or phone conversations, announcements, directions, and instructions are types of informal speaking. When speaking informally, let others speak without interruption, encourage questions, present your points in a series of logical steps, and speak slowly. Preparing a formal speech involves many of the same steps as writing a research paper or persuasive essay. Once you have a topic for your formal speech, carefully consider your purpose and audience. Use a library and the Internet to gather facts, examples, and expert opinions on your topic. Organize the information you gather into an outline. Use your outline to draft and revise your speech. When writing your introduction, consider using one of the following methods: telling a compelling story, asking an intriguing question, using an interesting quote, or stating an amazing fact or statistic. Practice your speech using an outline or note cards as cues. Keep in mind the various verbal and nonverbal techniques for delivering a speech. Take audience questions and comments once you've delivered your speech. Follow parliamentary procedure when participating in a formal meeting.
When you develop effective listening and speaking skills, you can positively contribute to a group. A group operates most effectively when members follow these guidelines: be prepared, focus on the issue, listen actively, show respect, state your ideas clearly and concisely, respond constructively to the ideas of others, and encourage everyone to participate. You can follow similar guidelines when interviewing for college or employment: be prepared; make a good initial impression; listen actively; answer questions honestly, thoughtfully, and positively; present a positive attitude and self-image; use positive body language; and thank the interviewer.
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