Task: Observe an interaction between two or more people, focusing on their use (or lack) of active listening and/or non-verbal skills. Describe the encounter in as much detail as possible. Briefly evaluate the interaction in terms of how their listening and/or nonverbal communication might have been influenced by culture, gender or age.
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| LISTEN Diagram |
< Revised Version >
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| Different Types of Non-verbal Communication |
Active listening is a communication technique which is used by anyone of us regardless if it is during group work or when solving conflicts. It requires the listener to fully concentrate, understand, respond and remember what was mentioned during the conversation. It is also a skill that can be acquired and developed through time with practice. Likewise, for non-verbal communication, it is defined as a communication skill without any spoken words. Non-verbal communication can be categorized into three more common categories: aesthetic, physical and symbols. These categories include the different form of arts such as music, or body movements and religious or personal status reasons respectively.
An example of using both active
listening and non-verbal communication that I came across is when parents are communicating
with their children. For instance, when the parents are doing housework
at home and suddenly the child started crying out of a sudden. When that
happens, the parents will tend to go forward to ask the child what
happened. While asking them, some non-verbal messages which include: making eye contact, putting down
everything on hand and lowering to the height of the child will be seen. With
these non-verbal messages, it enhances the message that is being brought across
to the child by showing that you care for them and wanting to help them in any
way possible. When active listening is used by parents, it also allows the
child to know that their parents are interested in what they are saying and
would want to hear more from them based on the non-verbal messages that are
being sent out. Subsequently, when the parent starts listening to their
children at a relatively young age, their parent-child relationship tightens. Another
way of strengthening the parent-child relationship is for parents to set aside time to
communicate with their children. This is important for the children during
their growing up journey as they will feel that their parents care for them. Therefore,
with a tighter bond between the two generations, it allows the children to be
more open up in their daily lives to
their parents while having conversations.
📖 Quotes of the Day 📖
"The art of conversation lies in listening."
"The art of conversation lies in listening."
~ Malcolm Forbes ~
"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said."
~ Peter F. Drunker ~
Different types of non-verbal communication & LISTEN image taken from:
https://communicationblog06.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/non-verbal-communciation-graphic.png?w=640
http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/appraisal/appraisal-04.gif
Hi Jing Guang
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing what you know of active listening and non-verbal communication. I can see you have spent time and effort in reading up on the two related topics. Well done on that!
I have a few suggestions for improving the post:
1. As the task comes with a word limit, trim the introduction to each topic to 1-2 lines. Best to summarize the key ideas. In doing so, you allow more space for describing the scenario and evaluating the interaction, i.e. answering the task.
2. Keep the description of the scenario between the parent and the crying child. The description is beautifully done! What needs re-looking is the reasoning at the end of the paragraph: "As the child grows older, the relationship between the parent and the child will become stronger than before. Thus, the child would most likely approach their parent for a chat about the problems that they may face in the future." This is a slippery slope argument. Avoid logical flaw. Make sure there is coherence in this paragraph when you re-think it.
3. Answer the second part of the task, i.e. evaluate the interaction in terms of the possible influencing factors of culture, gender and/or age. In other words, base your evaluation on what you know about how these factors play a part in perception and communication/behaviour.
Hope this helps you revise your post. Hope you can complete the revision by Thursday. Thank you.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Singapore culture make us children hardly heard by the parents and this will not end at our generation. Because the most important part of active listening is to be clearing out the mind before listening to the speaker. As what we are always thinking "we listen to what you said", this does not apply that you understanding them. Because you are thinking of your own issue like parents thinking about their work. Like wise, some time parents tried to talk to us, we are also not giving them our ears as we are busy with our school stuff. Therefore, to make different, one may not be heard to make a different, but active listening is something that can inspired other to adapt and by doing it towards people, it may continue the flow of more people actively listening to each other(i have say this during my active listening presentation). We can't fully change the country country within a day nor a year, but at least we are the starter of making a possible changes to the culture.
Hello Jing Guang, I agree with you that in Singapore context, it is utterly hard for parents to find time for their children due to the workload that they have daily. It is also important for parents to find time and bond with their children as this will affect their upbringing and the way they live their life knowing what it feels being loved by parents who cared for their children. By doing so, it might result to a better generations of people respecting and treating one another with much love and care.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think it is not needed to have a long introduction on explaining what is active listening and nonverbal communication as it was not stated in the task given to us. Other than that it is a good read.