A Study of Effective and Ineffective Listening Dyads Using the Systems Theory Principle of Entropy

In this investigation, listening was conceptualized as the process of how individuals perceive, process, remember, and understand oral messages (Bostrom, 1990; Rhodes, 1989; Watson and Barker, 1984; Wolvin &; Coakley, 1992). Using the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1976; Bem, 1985) and the Listening Styles Profile (Watson, Barker, &; Weaver, 1995); four predominant listening styles were examined as a function of respondent sex and gender-role self-perception. Consistent with expectations, the data show that gender-role self-perception mediated reported listener styles. Independent of sex, the findings revealed that communal respondents prefer a people-oriented listening style; whereas agentic respondents prefer an action, time, and content-oriented listening style. Significant sex-differences were also evident in listening styles. Females reported a relational, people-oriented style of listening while males reported a more action, content, and time-oriented style of listening. Further, no sex by gender role self-perception interaction was evident. The implications of these findings for future research and application are discussed.     

Essay: An Insight into Current German Research on Listening,as Exemplified by the Educational Project “GanzOhrSein”

The article gives us an exemplary insight into research in Germany that deals directly or indirectly with aspects of listening. The reader is given a clear picture of the Munich university project GanzOhrSein aimed at promoting listening skills in schools. The educational value of listening is initially derived from research findings and the model course of action to promote listening skills is explained via the cultural potential. The findings of the accompanying research clearly show that the diverse ways of promoting listening ability that have been developed and tested, do broaden the hearing and listening habits of the children and teachers participating in the project, and do facilitate listening conditions in lessons. The article will also demonstrate what researchers and everyday school practice can gain from this project, and how the institutionalisation of the promotion of listening can benefit.     

Using face validity to recognize empirical community observations

There is a growing interest among international planning scholars to explore community participation in the plan making process from a qualitative research approach. In this paper the research assessment tool “face validity” is discussed as one way to help planners decipher when the community is sharing empirically grounded observations that can advance the applicability of the plan making process. Face validity provides a common sense assessment of research conclusions. It allows the assessor to look at an entire research project and ask: “on the face of things, does this research make sense?” With planners listening to citizen comments with an ear for face validity observations, holds open the opportunity for government to empirically learn from the community to see if they “got it right.” And if not, to chart out a course on how they can get it right.     

Co-Shaping Metacognitive Awareness and Developing Listening Comprehension through Process-Based Instruction

This study examined the effect of metacognitive process-based and product-based instruction on enhancing listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. Two classes of high-beginner English as a foreign language learners were randomly assigned to two groups: product-based (n = 30) process-based (n = 30). Both before and after eight instructional sessions, listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness were measured. Process-based group, then, followed a pedagogical sequence in each session (Vandergrift, 2004), providing opportunities for dialogue about the listening process and the strategies involved, whereas the product-based group was not engaged in dialogue nor did the group reflect upon listening strategies. Results indicated that the process-based group significantly outperformed the product-based one in terms of gains in listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. Moreover, the microgenetic analysis of the dialogic interactions of the process-based group presented some evidence showing how the students co-shaped metacognitive awareness. This article concludes with discussing the findings, presenting some pedagogical implications, and sketching out areas for further research.     

Reflective Listening in Heraclitus

To provide authentic language use situations for classroom activities, videotaped materials have been introduced in teaching and learning settings. In language testing, these materials raise our expectations about the potential usefulness to measure academic listening ability of non-native speakers of English. In spite of this apparent superior authenticity of a videotape formatted listening test (VFLT), much more theoretical justification and experimental research are needed to support the usefulness of VFLTs. The purpose of this study was to investigate validity evidence for the VFLT usefulness as a measure of academic lecture listening ability. Validity evidence was assessed with 83 ESL students enrolled at a midwestern university. Concurrent validity evidence, empirical item analysis, and experimental manipulation were tested. Analysis of the test results provided convincing support of the validity evidence of the VFLT. Moreover, the strong relationship between test performance and aspects of authentic and interactive tasks in the VFLT provides a justification for revision of test method facets in conventional ESL listening tests.     

Gratitude to an Unknown Mentor: Bostrom's Influence on Janusik

Many people influence us throughout our lives, and sometimes we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to reflect upon the influence. Often, this is more challenging than it sounds, as some people become a part of our DNA, inextricably linked to who we are, what we believe, and how we work. Such is the case of the influence of Robert (Bob) N. Bostrom on my work. Though I met Bostrom only once, his work became a part of what I believe about listening and how I choose to approach listening and listening research. Through the process of examining both my work and Bostrom's work, I was able to identify the two main influences he had on me. They are pursuing listening from a cognitive-based perspective and not struggling to define the construct of listening.     

The Influence of Perceived Supervisor Listening Behavior on Employee Commitment

This study seeks to examine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment in an organization. Research suggests that in today's organizations managers spend the largest percentage of their time listening, followed by speaking, reading, and writing. Although training addresses speaking and public presentations, interpreting technical reports, and instruction in technical writing, little has been done to either research or train listening skills.

Listening research has primarily focused on listening measurements and assessment (see Rhodes, Watson & Barker, 1990), and identification of specific behaviors associated with listening (see Lobdell & Gluc, 1990). Few studies have examined listening in the organizational setting (see Husband, Cooper, & Monsour, 1988; Husband, Schenck, & Cooper, 1988). A study by Husband, Cooper, and Monsour (1988), explored the initial question of supervisor's perceptions of their own listening behaviors in organizations. Further research by Husband, Schenck, and Cooper (1988) suggests that the subordinate's perception of supervisory listening may be different than the supervisor's actual listening behavior or the supervisor's perception of their own listening behavior. They found that subordinates did not feel at ease when communicating with their supervisors, and that the subordinates perceived that their supervisors were unwilling to listen to them.

As Husband, et al. (1988) suggests, there could be many starting points at which to address organizational listening. Based on some of the findings in their research, supervisor-subordinate listening seems to offer a logical beginning. The supervisor-subordinate relationship represents an essential link in the organizational structure (see Jablin, 1979). Given their argument, if subordinates differ in their perceptions of supervisory listening behavior, and perceive their supervisor's listening negatively, there may be a direct influence on their commitment to their jobs or the organization as a whole. This study attempts to determine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment to the organization.

The respondents were 225 occupational employees and 53 managerial employees in a large southwestern utility company. The survey was a 69 item organizational listening questionnaire developed by Arnold (1989). The questionnaire was broken down into four dimensions: (1) feelings about the organization, (2) perception of relationship with supervisor, (3) perception of own communication behavior, and (4) organizational listening behaviors.     

Mapping the Terrain of Selection for Social Work: A Critical Analysis of Policy,Theory and Research

This paper explores the implications of the changing UK policy and regulatory contexts for the often competing or contradictory interests and agendas operating within the arena of admission decisions in social work education, highlighted by the introduction of the new social work degrees in 2003–04 and the associated care councils. Other contextual factors that impact on admissions to higher education more generally will also be touched upon, including the widening participation agendas; increased requirements for transparency of decision making in the selection process; questioning of the predictive quality of A‐level scores; and, concern regarding recruitment and retention issues. A critical review of relevant research into social work admissions processes and outcomes is reported on. The validity of current selection tools is examined utilising research findings from within social work and allied disciplines. The authors argue that the increased spotlight upon admissions and the ‘front‐loading’ of gate‐keeping into social work education is both unrealistic and irresponsible as it omits the crucial ongoing role of assessment throughout the process of qualifying education.     

Listening and Referring to Voices: Students' Repertory in Educational Settings

When we construct our knowledge in educational settings we usually listen to many different voices, mediated through teachers, classmates, books, films, and so on. Eight students in teacher training were videotaped for 12 hours of group talks with a tutor over a six-month period. The overall purpose of the study was to describe the polyphonic nature of the discursive field of education and the interplay between various contexts and contextual resources in that social interaction.

The concept of intertextuality is adopted as a method to identify the polyphony of different voices. The explicit reported long-term listening is called the student's voice response, showing the repertory of contextual resources in use. Results from the study indicate that some of the students have a broad and some a narrow listening repertory when it comes to reported listening. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Towards the Measurement of EFL Listening Beliefs with Item Response Theory Methods

The present research aims to identify the underlying English listening belief structure of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, thereby informing methodologies for subsequent analysis of beliefs with respect to listening achievement. Development of a measurement model of English listening learning beliefs entailed the creation of an inventory of the beliefs on EFL listening abilities and determination of reliability of measurement and model fit. Results of multidimensional item response theory analysis utilizing responses from 505 subjects confirmed a two-dimensional structure and found that the dimensionality of listening learning beliefs can be classified as Axiomatic and Praxis. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

‘Miss mum’: mind and affective experience of Korean learners identified with autism spectrum and cognitive difficulties

Responding to the call for culturally informed research on autism spectrum (AS) to allow for the provision of appropriate services, this paper qualitatively explores the affective experience of five Korean learners identified with AS and cognitive difficulties by listening to their voices. The learners, supported by the use of visual aids and a choice of their preferred mode of communication, expressed the complexity of their inner experience that encompassed abilities as well as difficulties. The findings highlight the commonalities of experience between Korean and non-Korean individuals with AS, along with some aspects specific to the Korean cultural context.     

Investigating Norms of Listening in Classrooms

Previous research into listening has tended to focus on individual processing rather than on how sociocultural contexts mediate the nature and quality of listening. This article draws on a study involving observations of listening lessons conducted by ten English teachers regarded as skilled practitioners, interviews with these teachers and with 40 of their students. It focuses on presenting interview findings which point to the need to take account in any discussion of listening of the varied and complex demands of social transactions and of the norms governing these transactions in particular classroom settings.     

Bivariate and Multivariate Associations between Trait Listening Goals and Trait Communicator Preferences

This article provides validity evidence for a measure of listening goals by showing theoretically consistent relationships with an existing communication preference questionnaire. Participants (N = 257) were administered trait measures for listening goals and communicator preferences. The four listening goals—relational, task-oriented, analytical, and critical—are related to seven communicator preferences: interpersonal, intrapersonal, auditory, visual-spatial, kinesthetic, linguistic, and logical. These results are supportive of hypotheses, although there were some contradictory findings and some findings were not hypothesized. Results of multivariate correlation estimates portray a listening profile centered on relational goals and interpersonal communicator preferences. Although acknowledging several limitations, results offer theoretical and practical guidance for future work, specifically how this information may be of help to individuals, couples, and counselors in utilizing relational goals and making more careful communicative choices.     

Responsive Listening in Long-Married Couples: A Psycholinguistic Perspective

Positive and responsive listening behavior benefits marital satisfaction, but previous reports have examined emotionally positive behavior confounded with responsive behavior, and focused primarily on younger marriages. Psycholinguistic views of listening suggest that responsive listening is distinct from emotionally positive listening. The former may change with an aging relationship, while the latter is unlikely to do so. Long-married couples share extensive common ground about recurrent conflicts, reducing the need for some listening behaviors. We observed 79 younger and older married couples, happily and unhappily married, discussing conflicts. We coded listening behaviors indicative of attention and comprehension (responsiveness) as well as those expressing emotions. We expected that older married couples would display lower frequencies of responsive listening behaviors than middle-aged couples. Results provide conditional support for this hypothesis. Implications for research on marital communication and aging are discussed.     

Intercultural Listening: Measuring Listening Concepts with the LCI-R

Listening is an integral part of communication, yet more research is conducted on the speaker as opposed to the listener. Previous research established a general schema of listening as a concept-driven behavior with four factors (Imhof & Janusik, 2006). Further testing by Bodie (2010) confirmed the factor structure and reduced the number of items from 33 to 15 (LCI-R). What is not known is whether the constructs are consistent across cultures. This study investigates whether the LCI-R can fit independent data comprising samples from the United States, Europe, and Japan. Results show that the instrument can be used cross-culturally when listening concepts are of interest and need to be measured.     

Assessing the impact of a local housing intervention program

Little reported research exists on the assessment of net impact of the large variety of housing intervention programs which have proliferated in the last twenty years. This paper evaluates one such program, which constructs new housing in inner-city neighborhoods of a Midwestern city, using a quasi-experimental a-posteriori design. Data were collected by survey technique from four types of homeowners, three of which served as constructed control groups for the program treatment. Regression analyses indicate that the program had an effect upon neighborhood satisfaction and satisfaction with the home, but no effect upon desire to move or spending for remodelling. Since the design was weak on internal validity, a number of threats to the validity of the results are systematically tested and, for the most part, rejected. The results are also found to be comparable in direction to those of a national evaluation of the Urban Homestead Demonstration Program.     

Individual Listening Values Moderate the Impact of Verbal Person Centeredness on Helper Evaluations: A Test of the Dual-Process Theory of Supportive Message Outcomes

This study is part of a larger program of research concerned with how people evaluate supportive behavior. Past work conducted in our lab found that helper evaluations of supportive listening vary as a function of specific listener behaviors, but the effects of these behaviors were small in magnitude. In this article, we explore one explanation for these small effects, namely, that the impact of listening behaviors on helper evaluations varies as a function of individual communication values. We draw from the dual-process theory of supportive message outcomes to propose that communication values operate to influence individual processing of supportive behavior. Using data from 383 participants asked to watch and evaluate a five-minute recorded comforting conversation, results provide support for the theory. People who place more value on listening as well as theoretically connected communication skills appear more responsive to the presence (or absence) of person-centered behavior.     

The Impact of (In)effective Listening on Interpersonal Interactions

Most reviews of “listening research” are narrow in scope, focusing only on research published by listening and communication scholars. Given that unique contributions to listening have been provided by scholars from disciplines as varied as psychology, anthropology, management, and linguistics, this review explores connections and divergences that span the academic landscape. After briefly introducing and reviewing listening related research from three primary areas—information processing, competent behavior, and individual differences—we offer a heuristic framework that ties these lines of study together and provides a structure for assessing and generating new listening research. A concluding section suggests lines of future investigation.     

Differences in Life Satisfaction and School Satisfaction Among Adolescents From Three Nations: The Role of Perceived Autonomy Support

Past research shows that higher well‐being is reported by adolescents who live in individualistic rather than collectivistic nations. Such cross‐national differences may be due to the amount of autonomy support adolescents receive from authority figures. To examine this hypothesis, in the current study, 322 adolescents from Denmark, South Korea, and the United States completed self‐report surveys that assessed adolescents' school and life satisfaction and their experience of autonomy support from parents and teachers. Results showed that Danish adolescents reported highest school satisfaction, life satisfaction, and perceived autonomy support, followed by American and Korean adolescents, respectively. Furthermore, cross‐national differences in school and life satisfaction were partially mediated by adolescents' perceptions of autonomy support from authority figures. These findings support self‐determination theory ( Deci & Ryan, 1985 ) and the ecological model of child development ( Bronfenbrenner, 1986 ).