Tips for Effective Listening

 Concentrate on what others are saying. When listening to

someone, do you often find yourself thinking about
something else eg. an important family matter
 Send the non-verbal message that you are listening
(maintain eye contact; nod your head appropriately; avoid
playing with anything (keys); avoid looking at your watch.
 Avoid early evaluation (don’t make immediate judgement
about what is said; don’t assume what the speaker is going
to say next; simply, don’t interrupt the speaker)
 Avoid getting defensive. Do you ever take what another
person says personally when what her or she is saying is not
meant to be personal
 Practice paraphrasing – it is an art of putting into your own
words what you thought you heard and saying it back to
the sender “you mean…” “did you say…” (just for clarity)

-Why is it necessary not to make an early judgment when listening?

-Why is it necessary to paraphrase when you listen to somebody presenting?

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Tips Continued…
 Listen (and observe) for feeling – when listening, you
should also concentrate on the way the speaker’s standing,
tone of the voice, hands and any body language, not
excluding facial expressions.
 Ask questions effectively – these questions should be
aimed at clarifying points or obtaining additional
information. Open-ended questions are the best as
compared to closed-ended questions. (Open-ended: Tell
me about your relationship with your boss? Closed-ended:
Do you get on well with your boss?)
 Remain active throughout the speech (Be available from
the start to the end, don’t make any noise, talk if invited to,
take short notes)
 Pay close attention to cues (verbal and non verbal). These
cues help in:

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 Tips Concluded…
 Introductions – identifying main points. eg. To start with,
to begin with, introduce, etc
 Enumeration/Sequence - listing main points or presenting
events in steps eg. First, second; first, next, then etc
 Emphasis – displaying special importance or significance
to a concept: eg. furthermore, moreover etc...
 Compare/Contrasts – describing ways in which concepts
are alike or different: eg. however, on the contrary, similarly
 Cause/Effect – showing the result of actions: eg. Thus, as a
result, in turn, because etc...
 Conclusions – identifying main points : eg. to sum up, to
conclude etc...
 Subject shifts- showing subject change in communication
process: eg. pause on speech, change of tone etc…

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 Note -Taking
 Note-taking is one of the active listening process of writing
down short notes during class lectures
 It is an activity that help a listener improve listening
comprehension (understanding)
 Notes are always easier to take if you are familiar with the
topic of the lecture; therefore, before the lecture, interact
with the text to get the background knowledge through
previewing or reading the entire text (given in advance)
 During the lecture, you will face two formats of lecture
approach: the first one ‘lectures dependent on the text’ and
‘lectures independent of the text’
 When lectures are text-based, as your instructor speaks,
highlight or underline important points emphasized by the
instructor; add in vital information that is missing out.
 When lectures are not text-based, your responsibility for
note-taking increases.

-Do you read in advance?

-Why is it necessary to read in advance?
-In Malawi, most lectures are not text based, therefore it is necessary that one
should be taking down notes.

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 Note -Taking
 Because you don't have the backup text, you need to be an
especially active listener.
 After the lecture, you have to read your notes. This post-
lecture reading helps you focus on the information
emphasised in the lecture for you better understanding of
the content (if any problem, seek for clarification from
friends or the lecturer)
 After post-reading, you would have interacted with the
material for three times; very effective approach.
 According to Peper and Mayer (1978) the action in the
active listening involves three theories.
 The attention theory: which suggests that by taking
notes, you pay more attention and become more familiar
with the material
 The effort theory: which is based on an idea that note
taking requires more effort and thought than reading

-Post-lecture reading is quite vital and is supposed to be done in every subject.

-One familiarizes themselves with the materials when they have the post
lecture reading and they do not easily forget the learnt stuff if they do this.
The Attention theory
In many theories, attention is the link between perception and memory: the
amount of attention devoted to an event at the time it occurs (i.e., at encoding)
is a good predictor of the likelihood that it will be consciously remembered later
(i.e., at retrieval).

The effort theory

-Note-taking requires more effort and thought than reading (what can you say
on this, is it true?)

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 Note -Taking
 The generative theory: which states that as you take
notes, you paraphrase, organise, and understand
information
 The three theories regard note taking as an active process
that results in learning
 There are several reasons for taking lecture notes
a) It aids active listening in lectures
b)It saves time when studying
c) It forces one to listen carefully and test his/her
understanding of the material
d)Personal notes are usually easy to remember than texts
 Avoid the following passive note taking methods: using
tape recorder, borrowed notes, etc because they are not
effective; technical faults, notes wrongly taken by a friend

Paraphrasing as you take down notes is necessary as observed in the

generative theory.
Why is it necessary?

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 Personalizing your notes
 As a knowledgeable note taker, you need to
selectively record only important information
 What information is recorded is your choice.
 You make this decision based on what you know
about the lecture topic, what subject you are
studying, and what facts your lecturer stresses
 Taking notes is not for a grade, therefore, they
need not be grammatically correct; they don’t even
have complete words, sentences, etc (develop your
own style of shorthand to record your notes eg.
#(number) &(and) bkgd(background)

-Personalizing your notes is important because you understand them in your

own way and you write what is stressed in the lecture and what you believe
will assist you.
-when you focus so much on coming up with complete sentences you loose
out a lot as sometimes lecturers cruise through with information.
-Do not mind the grammar as well.

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 Tips on how best to do it
 Make your notes brief (don’t use a phrase where a word is
applicable, don’t use a sentence where a phrase is
applicable)
 Use abbreviation and symbols, but be consistent
 Put most notes in your own words (apart from formulas,
definitions, specific facts, names etc)
 Use outline form / numbering system – this helps to
distinguish major from minor points
 If you miss a statement, write key words, skip a few
spaces, and get the information later
 Leave spaces for amendments during your final study of
material

-Going through the tips on how best to take down notes, why is it necessary to
amend your notes when studying?
-Post-lecture studying is therefore quite vital as well as you amend your notes.

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 How to achieve note-taking
 These will be clues from the speaker
a) Important points are usually repeated and can also be
written on the board
b)Emphasis can be shown by: i) tone of voice and gesture
ii) amount of time or examples spent on a particular
point
c) Word signals, eg. there are two points, firstly, in
conclusion etc.
d)Summaries at the end of class
e) Reviews given at the beginning of the next lesson (class)