Week 9 Listening Exercise

COMM 470 – Dr. Finn

WebCT Diary Entries for Week 9 ends on April 4 at 3:30 pm

There are two types of exercises this week.

Exercise A –

This week I’d like you to continue to focus on body language – with a special focus on “turn-taking cues.” As covered in detail in the Week 8 Listening Exercise, there is a lot to notice with body language. Re-read last week’s exercise for the details about:

  • Orientation of the Body.
  • Body Position.
  • Leaning.
  • Posture.
  • Gestures.
  • Head movements.

As you did last week, observe your own body language, as well as that of your communication partners, including your (other) professors.

In addition, this week look for cues that influence “turn-taking” in conversation. How do you and your communication partners manage to alternate between your speaking and listening roles so smoothly? It probably seems automatic at times (and awkward at times), but in fact there are very specific cues people use to exchange the speaking and listening roles. We’ve talked about some of them in class. What are the primary cues you use?

When in doubt, consider times when (or people with whom) turn-taking has been awkward? What is different? What cues are being ignored?

Apply this advice in as many conversations as you can. This assignment should be done considering face-to-face (FTF) AND telephone communication.

You should also continue applying the lessons from the earlier Listening Exercises whenever possible or appropriate.

Bonus Suggestion

Ask two or three close friends to evaluate your use of body language. Review the material above for specifics, but one question you can ask is whether or not they’ve noticed that you do one thing a lot. This could be overusing a certain gesture, posture, position, or head movement. Add to this whether they notice your “turn-taking” cues.

Eye Contact& Turn-Taking

Continue attending to eye contact as well. Pay attention to how eye contact is used to regulate turn-taking in conversations:

  • Notice precisely when (and how many times)you make eye contact as you listen
  • Notice precisely when (and how many times)you make eye contact as you speak
  • Notice precisely when (and how many times)a listener makes eye contact with you
  • Notice precisely when (and how many times)a speaker makes eye contact with you
  • Among other times, notice whether speakers make eye contact as they begin and as they finish their remarks.
Exercise B – Practice Sharing Something about Yourself

In the write-up for Listening Exercise 7, I provided a lot of information and ideas about sharing of one’s self. Here’s a bit of what I wrote last week:

As the final “S” in his “SUCCESS” model, Swets’ (1983) points out that sharing of oneself is much more than talking about oneself. Swets recommends sharing of oneself primarily because he believes that dialogue with others is a much surer path to understanding ourselves than simple introspection. I agree.

But there is another very good reason to share your inner thoughts and feeling with those closest to you. It signifies trust and acceptance and so people with return the favor and typically extend you a similar level of trust and acceptance. When the quality of the speaking improves, the quality of the listening improves.

I won’t repeat too much more of it here, except to say: continue to practice sharing of yourself over the next week.

Here’s the final paragraph from last’s weeks directions:

Still, I promise you that you will see some very interesting and positive results with people in your life if you make it a habit to share authentically about yourself, about how you are feeling, and about who you are as a person. People will listen to you differently after that and, most surprisingly, you will listen to them differently too.

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