Listening exercise
Has anybody got any suggestions for a listening exercise that would last about 30-45 minutes and would give an indication to people the level of their listening skills.
Many thanks
Jarlath Duffy
jarlath duffy
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3 Responses
Listening Exercises
Hi
I use a variety of puzzles which test listening linked to assumptions,eg
A man entered a field carrying a heavy package.A few minutes later he is found dead.What killed him?
Your audience will assume ENTERED is walking but in fact it is FROM ABOVE,ie his parachute did not open.Ask audience to ask you closed questions.
ANOTHER LONGER METHOD…
Seek a volunteer.Send them out .In their absence decide with audience what two things you want to know about person,eg fav sport etc
Person returns and makes an opening statement – anything -.Each member in turn then asks an open question based AND ONLY BASED on the last words to come out of the volunteers mouth.They really have to listen and avoid closed YES or NO questions
Good luck
William
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Jarlath Duffy
Hi Jarlath
If you want to e-mail me directly, I can send you a couple of bits that you might find useful.
Jo
Listen to colleague’s story
Ask partner A to recount something in which they feel personally invoved. Could be a personal or professional story. If you get them to talk about a problem or something that has annoyed them they will uusually keep talling for about five minutes. Partner B MUST NOT dive in with comment, say that they have experienced a similar situation or give advice of any sort. They can ask clarification questions or prompts for more information. At the end Partner B is given time to recount the story using as far as possible the original speaker’s own words and not paraphrasing and subtly changing the story eg if a person says that they were bloody furious, don’t say they were annoyed or angry, they were bloody furious which is quite different.
Afterwards change roles. After both people have spoken and listened and recounted only then there should be discussion of how it felt to be listened to, body language, the role of encouragers such as REALLY? UHA< RIGHT etc. What we usually do when we listen (eg think of what WE are going to say next, think of our own stories etc) as opposed to what it is like when we give our full attention. The different experiences as blistener and speaker being listend to.
This will take between thirty and forty minutes and is usually a popular and enlightening activity