Generally speaking, Generation N students are known to enjoy working in groups yet they often do not communicate effectively when measured by traditional expectations. This activity calls into question the impact that our daily nonvocal digital communicating has on our ability to empathetically listen.

This sequenced activity encourages active engagement with the idea that listening and speaking are not inherently separate or one-way activities. Listening involves both verbal, and nonverbal responses and perceptions of effective listening are tied to these patterns of response. These patterns of response impact both the immediate communication…

This classroom activity allows students to observe how a troubled friend reacts to seven listening responses that are unhelpful in therapeutic contexts (interrupting, unrelated comments, focusing on self, discounting, blaming, evaluating, and giving advice). Students also have the opportunity to experience how probing, feeling responses, and…

This article proposes the use of a one-page listening inventory sheet that helps students explore five dimensions of listening competency: cognitive, affective, behavioral, contextual, and ethical. After crafting their own responses, students will have the opportunity to engage in a class discussion about the impact of various dimensions of…

In ordinary life we are constantly imbued by listening, and we seem to interact in different contextual dimensions of culture and society (Adelmann, 2002; Linell, 1998), both verbally and nonverbally. "Life by its very nature is dialogic. To live means to participate in dialogue," according to the Russian scholar Mikhail M. Bakhtin (1984, p.…

This paper argues that the concept of E-Prime (E') holds practical benefits to effective listening for students of interpersonal communication. In advancing this argument, the paper includes a concise review of relevant literature on E-Prime, defensiveness, and conflict, with particular emphasis on verbal aggression. The literature demonstrates…