Listening Skills

The average college student spends about 14 hours per week in class listening (or perhaps we should say "hearing" - there is a difference!) to lectures. 

Start by entering the classroom with a positive attitude. 

Going to class thinking, “This is the last place I want to be today” only sets the stage for inattentive listening. 

Approaching lectures with a positive attitude allows one to be open-minded and enables you to get the most out of the information presented.

See if you can improve your listening skills by following some of the strategies below:

• Eye contact. Of course you will need to look at your notebook to write your notes, but eye contact helps you keep focused on the job at hand and keeps you involved in the lecture. • Content, not delivery. Have you ever counted the number of times a teacher clears his/her throat in a fifteen-minute period? If so, you weren’t focusing on the content of the lecture. • Avoid emotional involvement. When you are too emotionally involved in listening, you tend to hear what you want to hear, not what is actually being said. Try to remain objective and open-minded. • Avoid distractions. Don’t let your mind wander or be distracted by the person shuffling papers near you. If the classroom is too hot or too cold, try to remedy that situation if you can. The solution may require that you dress more appropriately to the room temperature. • Challenging mental task. Listening to an academic lecture is not a passive act, at least it shouldn’t be. You need to concentrate on what is said so that you can process the information in your notes. • Stay active mentally. Active listening keeps you on your toes. Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you listen. What key point is the professor making? How does this fit with what I know from the previous lectures? How is this lecture organized? • Rate of speech and thought. You can think faster than the lecturer can talk. That’s one reason your mind may tend to wander. All the above suggestions will help you keep your mind occupied and focused on what is being said. You can actually begin to anticipate what the professor is going to say as a way to keep your mind from straying. Your mind does have the capacity to listen, think, write, and ponder at the same time, but it does take practice.

If you have problems paying attention in class or have an diagnosis like attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 

Contact Support Services to see what resources are available for you

 (304-534-7878 or email access@pierpont.edu)

This is a picture of where to click on the video to get close captioning (cc) and to make the picture larger (rectangle) or smaller (4 arrows in rectangle pointing to the center)

Verbal to Visual's How to Improve Your Listening Skills Video

Verbal to Visual's What To Listen For While Sketchnoting Video

MindToolsVideos's Improve Your Listening Skills with Active Listening Video