Listening is a crucial aspect of effective communication to take place. Notably, for people to relate and understand each other, well good listening skills ought to be applied. It is important to note that a message is said to be listened when the information is received accurately, and the interpretation of the message is done in an intended way. For an individual to interact and have a positive relationship, listening skills must be employed. Listening skills can be defined as the ability to pay close attention and make an interpretation of what an individual is saying. Listening skills can either be good or bad, depending on the ability of the speaker to listen to others.
My recent encounter with a poor listening skill audience was in my first year in high school. Our literature teacher had assigned us with the research question whereby, we were to present our findings in the classroom. My group members had chosen me to be the one presenting our findings. During the presentation, I noticed that my classmates were not paying attention to the presentation fully. As a consequence, therein, there was a communication breakdown. Questions of whether my speech rate was different from the student’s processing rate kept cropping up in my mind. Is it that I am unable to employ the skills of a good orator or rather a public speaker or my classmate did not have any interest at all? Or was my voice too low for my audience to hear? Did I have an unfamiliar accent which was not understood or was my presentation was not fluent? My classmates kept interrupting me with several pardons, no eye contact was maintained, and my classmates showed no interest or enthusiasm in what I was presenting.
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I critically scrutinized my performance, and I concluded that a number of reasons contributed to poor listening skills. One of the reasons that contributed to poor listening of the students was high temperatures in the classroom that made the students be uncomfortable. As a fellow student, I noticed that a number of students were loosening up by removing their sweaters while others reached out on the window locks to open the windows to allow fresh air to get into the room. Also, there was interjection from our teacher who kept on pinpointing some of the key issues that the students needed to be keen on. Lastly, the teacher kept distracting my presentation by advising on how to handle a research-related question in an exam room.
Nonetheless, if the students had good listening skills, I would be able to deliver my presentation successfully. To better improve and make the presentation effective, the students could have maintained eye contact. In addition, students would have been attentive at the same time relaxed; this would have made them open-minded. Moreover, the creation of mental pictures by the students would have made my presentation more appealing and easier to understand. Also, understanding of my representation would be achieved by the students picking the keywords in the presentation. Besides, the success of my presentation would have been made better if the students asked questions something that would have affirmed that the students are attentive and are understanding the concept.
Last but not least, the presentation would have improved by pausing during a presentation after which the students would proceed to seek clarification. Pausing allows me to be in a better position to internalize and understand the question and give the intended feedback. Additionally, my presentation would have been better if I would have been given regular feedback that would have highlighted the crucial points that need to be addressed during the presentation. Notably, effective listening skills can be achieved through various ways, like looking at each other face to face. The face to face technique brings concentration to the listeners giving a speaker an easy time.
