Obtain and Convey Workplace Information

OBTAIN AND CONVEY WORKPLACE INFORMATION

3. OBTAINING INFORMATION THROUGH LISTENING, NOTE TAKING AND

QUESTIONING
The Difference Between Listening and Hearing

People are not often aware that there is a difference between hearing and listening. It is
commonly assumed that because people can hear they can also listen. Unless people have
a physical diability they are able to hear. At any one something which just happens.
Processing Sound
Listening requires effort and attention. If someone is explaining to you how to complete a
task and you are distracted you may hear what is said but you may not have listened. In
order to listen, you need to focus on the person, try to understand what is said; check if you
have understood and ask question – it actually takes effort.
How do we go about making our listening more effective? Here are some suggestions:
 Listen not for the words alone but for meanings.

 Avoid unconcious projection.
 Suspend as much as possible your own prejudgements.
 Control you emotional responses to language.
 Focus on the message.
 Focus on the structure of the message.
 Be concious of your own metacommunication (all the nonverbal cues –tone of voice,
body language, gestures, facial expression, etc.) that carry meaning that either
enhance or disallow what we say in words.
 Do not interrupt.
In the workplace, effective listening helps you to:
 understand instruction clearly

 learn from others
 convey clear message
 promote good listening in others (if you are prepared to listen to others, they will be
prepared to listen to you)
 offer ideas and take part in discussion
 co-operate with others and work well in a team
 understand the ideas and suggestions of others
 respond in an appropriate manner
Many things can interfere with effective listening. They include:
Noise - It is very hard to listen in a noisy environment.
Temperature - If you are feeling uncomfortably hot it is hard to concentrate and listen.
Distance - when a speaker is too close to you, your mind may be on the
intervention of your space rather than what is being said.
Furniture - the way in which furniture is arranged in a room may block good
listening for example; if you cannot see a speaker it is much harder to pay attention.
Time - when people are tired or in a hurry they are less able to fully concentrate
on what is being said.
Impatience - if you are feeling impatient and want to get away to do other thing your
mind will not concentrate on the speaker.
Distractions - any type of distraction whether it be something going on outside work or

personal worries tends to stop you from paying full attention to what a speker says.
Attitude - if you do not like the speaker or do not like what they are saying you may
quickly tune out.
Lack of interest - when you are not interested in a topic it is difficult to pay attention.
Thinking you - often people think that they already know what is about already know
be said and so they don’t bother to listen
Recording Information while Listening

Effective note-taking is important to record information/instructions based on what we
read and listened.
Systematic note-taking means, reading through a passage or listening to a discussion and

determining its subject and then writing them down. They should be brief and easy to
remember.
The following tips will help you in taking notes from your sources:
1. Don’t write too many words.

2. Be sure that you have enough facts and details.
3. Don’t get off the track. That is, stick to the topic
When you take notes from listening your degree of success can only be to the extent that
you listened well and understood what you heard.
Effective Questioning
Questions should be asked by the listener to clarify the meaning and by the speaker to
ensure that the information has been fully understood. There are three types of questions:
1. Closed questions are used to obtain a particular piece of information. They are

usually answered with a yes or no or with a limited response. For example:
 Have you driven a four-wheel drive tractor before?
 Open questions encourage people to discuss a situation and share information. They

often require longer answers and begin with how, where, when, which, who, why or what.
For example:
 What types of tractors have you driven?
 Reflective questions, also called mirror questions, are used to show the speaker that you
have been actively listening to them. They are also helpful when encouraging a person to
express their opinions clearly. For example:
 So, you’ve driven this type of tractor before?

 You’ve found this type of tractor to run reliably, haven’t you?
Good speaking, listening and questioning skills are essential when communicating face to
face, or via telephone or two-way radios to ensure that the correct information has been
received.
Effective questioning can be a means of obtaining information. Whether you are speaking
or listening to others, asking questions forms an important part of the communication
process. By asking relevant questions you could extract a good deal of information. If a
question is raised, it will surely elicit a kind of response however, the kind of response may
depend on the type of question given.
TYPES OF QUESTIONS
There are four types of questions according to form:
1. yes/no questions
2. or-question
3. wh-question
4. tag question
All of these forms end with a question mark (?). The yes/no question is so called because it
requires a yes or no answer. The or-question asks the respondent to make a choice. Yes or
no can never be used to answer an or-question. It is necessary to repeat the appropriate
part of the question. The who-questions, on the other hand , are information-seeking
questions. Tag questions usually begin with the statement form, followed by the tag. These
question are often used when agreement to a question is being sought from respondents or
when no answer at all is required.
The following are examples of questions:
Yes /No Question
v Have you been to Baguio?
v Is Mr. Torres going to attend the seminar on Monday?
Or-question
v Do you like apples or bananas?

v Would you like to have tea or coffee?
Wh question
v Where do you live?
v When did you see your doctor?
Tag Question
v Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, didn’t he?
v You don’t like soda, do you?

Obtain and Convey Workplace Information

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Obtain and Convey Workplace Information

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Obtain and Convey Workplace Information

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

OBTAIN AND CONVEY WORKPLACE INFORMATION

3. OBTAINING INFORMATION THROUGH LISTENING, NOTE TAKING AND

The Difference Between Listening and Hearing

 Listen not for the words alone but for meanings.

In the workplace, effective listening helps you to:

 understand instruction clearly

Many things can interfere with effective listening. They include:

Noise - It is very hard to listen in a noisy environment.

Distractions - any type of distraction whether it be something going on outside work or

Recording Information while Listening

Systematic note-taking means, reading through a passage or listening to a discussion and

1. Don’t write too many words.

1. Closed questions are used to obtain a particular piece of information. They are

 Have you driven a four-wheel drive tractor before?

 Open questions encourage people to discuss a situation and share information. They

 What types of tractors have you driven?

 So, you’ve driven this type of tractor before?

There are four types of questions according to form:

The following are examples of questions:

Yes /No Question

v Have you been to Baguio?

v Is Mr. Torres going to attend the seminar on Monday?

v Do you like apples or bananas?

v Where do you live?

v When did you see your doctor?

v Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, didn’t he?

v You don’t like soda, do you?

You might also like