Oral Communication Reflection

When we think about oral communication, it's common to think talking or presenting. The Ontario curriculum emphasizes that oral communication goes beyond that and includes active listening skills. There are many skills needed to be a good communicator. Students need to be able to speak clearly. use their critical thinking skills, and use strategies such as expression and pace to ensure their peers understand what they are talking about. That being said, I decided to focus on listening and found an excellent resource that truly encompasses what it means to be a good listener. 

The resource I chose is a TED Talk called 5 Ways To Listen Better by Julian Treasure. He talks about why we’re losing good listening skills in today's society. He highlights 5 key ways to improve your listening skills. This is important because the Ontario Curriculum says that students need to learn to listen in order to understand and respond appropriately and according to Treasure, we retain only 25% of what we actually hear. This talk breaks down why listening has become so difficult and some strategies to overcome those obstacles. 

©VAYP. 2015. Ear.

One great suggestion by Treasure is to find a quiet or silent place. He argues it can be very difficult to listen effectively with a lot of background noise and distractions. With so much information and multi media available to us at all times it can be very difficult to unplug and find a quiet space. If we expect students to practice good listening skills we have to create an environment for them to be successful. A good way to do this is to allot quiet time in the classroom for certain activities in order to create good listening. If you want students to watch a video or listen to a speaker you would have the room be absolutely silent and eliminate as much background noise as possible. Treasure also emphasizes the art of actually practicing good listening. Picking out details, acknowledging certain background noises and identifying them and focusing on one noise (such as a speaker) are all good things to actively practice.

©Free Management Books. 2015. Active Listening.

He used a really good acronym in his presentation which was R.A.S.A. This stands for receive, appreciate, summarize and ask. This would be an excellent anchor chart to put up in my classroom when defining how to be a good listener. Receive means to actually listen to the speaker, appreciate means to make small noises or head nods in order acknowledge the speaker and show you are invested, summarize what you’ve heard and ask questions. Treasure spoke about the importance of teaching these skills in the classroom so that students have the strong listening skills for the rest of their lives. I would certainly emphasize the steps in being an active listener and perhaps even give my students listening challenges to have them practice the 4 steps. Being a good listener is something I have to practice to this day and I believe the earlier we introduce and emphasize the skills to become a good listener, the better off our students will be in the future. Also, if we expect students to respond to what they are hearing, I as an instructor, have to make sure I give them the skills to listen and understand what they're hearing so they can make the best responses possible.