4.6: Listening Critically
Janie Harden Fritz
Learning Objectives
- Define and explain critical listening and its importance in the public speaking context.
- Understand five distinct ways to improve ability to listen critically to speeches.
- Evaluate what it means to be an ethical listener.
Students are exposed to many kinds of messages: messages conveying academic information, institutional rules, instructions, and warnings. Students also receive messages through political discourse, advertisements, gossip, jokes, song lyrics, text messages, invitations, web links, and all other manner of communication. It’s not all the same, but it isn’t always clear how to separate the truth from the messages that are misleading or even blatantly false. Nor is it always clear which messages are intended to help the listener and which ones are merely self-serving for the speaker. Part of being a good listener is to learn when to use caution in evaluating the messages we hear.
Wolvin and Athearn (2024) discuss the importance of critical listening, which involves attending to how accurate and consistent the message is. In other words, critical listening involves careful attention to the ideas and logical elements of a speech. Wolvin and Athearn discuss listening in public contexts, drawing on a pioneer of listening research, Ralph Nichols (1948), reminding us that listeners who are attending to public speeches can listen well by focusing on content, remaining objective, taking notes, asking questions, and concentrating with deliberation, recognizing that listening speed is much faster than speaking speed. Focusing on content may involve distinguishing between fact and opinion and identifying the speaker’s assumptions, being alert for potential bias. Consider relating new ideas that you are hearing to what you already know in order to challenge your own understanding and consider the reasonableness of the speaker’s message. Listening critically is hard work!
Ethical listening respects persons and ideas. Scholars Stephanie Coopman and James Lull (2008) emphasize the creation of a climate of caring and mutual understanding, observing that “respecting others’ perspectives is one hallmark of the effective listener” (p. 60). Respect, or unconditional positive regard for others, means that you treat others with consideration and decency whether we agree with them or not. Professors Sprague, Stuart, and Bodary (2010) also urge us to treat the speaker with respect even when we disagree, don’t understand the message, or find the speech boring. This approach to listening could be considered ethical listening because it protects and promotes the good of learning, the good of ideas in the public sphere, and the good of the other person (Fritz et al., 2023).
Doug Lippman (1998), a storytelling coach, wrote powerfully and sensitively about listening in his book:
Like so many of us, I used to take listening for granted, glossing over this step as I rushed into the more active, visible ways of being helpful. Now, I am convinced that listening is the single most important element of any helping relationship.
Listening has great power. It draws thoughts and feelings out of people as nothing else can. When someone listens to you well, you become aware of feelings you may not have realized that you felt. You have ideas you may have never thought before. You become more eloquent, more insightful.…
As a helpful listener, I do not interrupt you. I do not give advice. I do not do something else while listening to you. I do not convey distraction through nervous mannerisms. I do not finish your sentences for you. In spite of all my attempts to understand you, I do not assume I know what you mean.
I do not convey disapproval, impatience, or condescension. If I am confused, I show a desire for clarification, not dislike for your obtuseness. I do not act vindicated when you misspeak or correct yourself.
I do not sit impassively, withholding participation.
Instead, I project affection, approval, interest, and enthusiasm. I am your partner in communication. I am eager for your imminent success, fascinated by your struggles, forgiving of your mistakes, always expecting the best. I am your delighted listener. (Lippman, 1998)
AI Insight
AI fact-checkers can flag inaccuracies, but critical listening also requires judgment, context, and values. Machines can support—but not replace—this civic responsibility.
This excerpt expresses the decency with which people should treat each other. It doesn’t mean we must accept everything we hear, but ethically, we should refrain from trivializing each other’s concerns. We have all had the painful experience of being ignored or misunderstood. This is how we know that one of the greatest gifts one human can give to another is listening.
Try It: Critical Listening
Activity Introduction: In this activity, you’ll listen to a short AI-generated speech. As you listen, you’ll practice critical listening by asking:
- Is the message accurate?
- Is it supported with evidence?
- Does it contain bias or opinion disguised as fact?
Activity Instructions: Answer the questions that appear while you watch. Think carefully about how AI can create convincing but sometimes incomplete or misleading messages.
Wrap Up: Critical listening means going beyond simply hearing words — it’s about evaluating accuracy, evidence, and bias. By practicing with AI-generated content, you learned how to question what you hear and consider the ethics of sharing information.
This skill helps you become not only a stronger public communicator, but also a more responsible consumer of AI-created messages.
