CPD PORTFOLIO

CPD Portfolio

CPD Portfolio

Week 4

Question 1

Which two/three listening behaviours do you need to improve most? Name as many as you wish? How will you benefit from improving these specific listening skills?

Ans.

The listening behaviours that I need to improve the most include

Listening for factual content and the emotion behind the literal words.

Try to understand the message from the speaker's point of view.

Withholding the judgment of what the speaker is saying till the end.

Now let us consider each area of improvement one by one.

As far as the first area is concerned, i.e. to listen for factual content and the emotion behind the literal words, it is a very crucial one. It is very necessary to evaluate and extract the factual content from the message that is delivered by the speaker. Also, one should be able to analyze the emotions that are present behind the literal words. I would try to improve my listening skills in these areas because these are of significant importance. The message that is delivered by the speaker may contain a lot of factors, and therefore the listener should be able to extract the bottom line from it (Megginson & Whitaker, 2007 pp. 56-80). Furthermore, emotions that are present behind the literal words play an important role in delivering the message to the listeners. Emotions describe the intensity of the message clearly. A single message if delivered with different emotions can convey a totally different thought.

I need to improve my listening skills when it comes to understanding the message from the speaker's point of view. Otherwise, I would face difficulties in extracting the real meaning of the message from what the speaker has delivered (Cameron, 2008, pp. 32-35). Thirdly, I need to enhance my capabilities in withholding the judgment of what the speaker is saying until it is over. This is because one cannot reach the exact conclusion from incomplete message delivered by the speaker. Reaching a conclusion from incomplete message can lead to totally different results.

Question 2

What specific things will you do? When will you do them? How and when will you measure your success?

Ans.

I shall take a number of initiatives to overcome these problems and improve my listening skills. Firstly, I would try to focus on the message that is delivered by the speaker keeping in mind the context of the message. This would be very supportive in analyzing the factual content from the message (Robbins & Hunsaker, 2006 pp. 68-72). Also, I would try to better analyze the emotions of the speaker during the delivery of the message. Understanding the message from the speaker's point of view is another important aspect and to improve in it, I will try to manipulate the message from the speaker's point of view. I would focus on the educational and professional background of the speaker and this would help in comprehending the message the way the speaker wants it to be.

Some of these steps would be taken during the speaker is delivering the message, ...