Quantitative Reasoning in Evaluative Listening

Mary Ann Messano-Ciesla

Department of Speech Communication Arts and Sciences

I began my discussion of quantitative reasoning by letting the seminar participants listen to a part of a speech by Todd Fry entitled, "And Speaking of Apples,” to introduce them to the subject of listening and how listening can be used in teaching of quantitative reasoning. From Fry's speech we are able to see that listening is our way of making sense out of the words that make up language and the need we have as listeners to interpret those words (symbols) in a manner that will allow us to successfully communicate with one another. To a large extent, this is what the application of quantitative reasoning strategies hopes to achieve, namely to allow students to listen long enough and carefully enough to be able to see the usefulness of quantitative reasoning in their lives.

The key goal of school, according to Iddo Gal, is to prepare students for life as adults. The key goal of listening is to be able to make sense out of the messages we receive in life.

The topic of discussion is: How do we utilize the skill of listening in conjunction with the concept of quantitative reasoning? How do we create a single lens through which we can see the different associations and assumptions about quantitative reasoning and listening and remain focused upon the larger goal - the broader application of quantitative reasoning across the curriculum? Clearly, combining the role of listening with quantitative reasoning may prove both challenging and interesting to the field of numeracy.

I am going to head up my discussion with an examination of three points. The first point is that you must first know what listening is before you can assign a context to its role in quantitative reasoning.

To be proficient at listening you must first possess FOUR CENTRAL LISTENING ABILITIES. First, you must be able to overcome distractions that always seem to surround us. Distractions can be within us or can be external to our beings. Regardless of their derivation, overcoming distractions requires that you be able to concentrate, and one way to improve your concentration is to remain curious, open-minded, and interested in wanting to learn more.

This brings me to the second listening ability, detecting central ideas in a message. There are normally four typical patterns of organization found in most messages: problem/solution, enumeration, time sequence, and spatial order. Once we discover the major patterns, we can attach to them a larger portion of the supporting factual material. The key to idea identification lies in the structure or organizational pattern of the message heard. Sometimes, however, the ideas in the message are not always well received by the listener.

Which brings me to the third listening ability, maintaining control over our own emotions. We must not become angry listeners. Angry listeners distort the words of the speaker and exaggerate the point the speaker is trying to make in order to more easily ridicule or refute it. To achieve emotional detachment and mental objectivity requires that we suppress our own emotional eruptions in order to comprehend and analyze the thought of the communicator.

This brings me to the fourth and most important listening ability, the ability that can connect listening to quantitative reasoning, the ability to evaluate the message after you have received it. To arrive at a level of abstract thinking requires that listeners utilize the kind of intellectual curiosity that scientists and mathematicians utilize to direct their mental powers toward the solving of problems in the universe. The introduction of logic to listening constructs aids in providing a firm foundation for idea examination.

Truly, effective listening fosters curiosity, teaches us to concentrate on concrete problems, directs our critical thinking skills, and requires extremely careful message evaluation. These end results are also found in quantitative reasoning.

Let me move on now to point two of my discussion: what methods does the listener employ to arrive at accurate message evaluation? This, ladies and gentlemen, is the point where I begin to integrate quantitative reasoning into my class in evaluative listening. As a result of attending this seminar, I have revised my course syllabus for evaluative listening. In doing so, I answered three main questions our math text, Using And Understanding Mathematics, developed to help us create a sample course outline.

The first question was: “What is the prerequisite background of the students?” Students taking Evaluative Listening need only to have completed the course assigned to them at the speech screening interview, which means they could very well have not taken any of the courses in the faculty development seminar on quantitative reasoning.

Question two asked, “What is the length of the course?” Speech 9, Evaluative Listening, is a one semester course which, aside from its public speaking component, is not related in content to any course offered by the Department of Speech communication Arts and Sciences. This makes information covered in the class context driven, where applications of the contexts are stressed. This teaching approach is similar to the context driven approach used in teaching mathematics.

Finally, question three wanted to know, “What special areas do you intend to emphasize?” After reading the text, it became clear to me that I would need to select one of the four content areas related to quantitative reasoning discussed in the text. I chose Area I-Logic, Critical Thinking, and Problem Solving. I reasoned that if I was ever to get my students to make the necessary connection between quantitative reasoning and evaluative listening, I would need to demonstrate the similarities between the disciplines and use as my point of departure the hypothesis that both disciplines engage in the processes of interpreting and reasoning.

My goal is to illustrate how quantitative reasoning methods can be applied to listening skill development by using principles of reasoning, and how, by applying these principles to listening, students would be able to execute a variety of quantitative reasoning functions - computations, percentages, and measurements to name a few. To execute my plan I would need to examine five ingredient skills of reasoning: (1) The ability to separate fact from opinion; (2) The ability to test accurately each item of evidence advanced; (3) The ability to identify various kinds of point-support material; (4) To detect fallacies in reasoning; and (5) The ability to weigh with care our own inferences as we draw them. In this paper, I will only discuss one of the five skills of reasoning - the detection of fallacies - and apply this skill to both listening and quantitative reasoning.

A fallacy is an error in reasoning. It tries to persuade in a way that does not really make sense when analyzed carefully. If students can gain experience analyzing fallacies, it will provide a foundation upon which to build additional critical thinking skills.

In my presentation to the seminar participants, I listed the ten most common fallacies of reasoning (see attached). The list and the definitions for each fallacy were distributed. I then played a tape where the participants had an opportunity to listen to a series of statements and were asked to select the fallacy presented in each statement.

FALLACIES OF REASONING

Presented on Tape

1. Appeal to Ignorance

Uses ignorance (lack of knowledge) about the truth of a proposition to conclude the opposite, or when something has not been proved non-existent this fallacy would conclude wrongly that it does exist.

2. Appeal to Popularity

The fact that large numbers of people believe or act some way is used inappropriately as evidence that the belief or action is correct.

3. False Cause

When one thing happens before another and no connection between them is proved.

4. Hasty Generalization

A conclusion is drawn from an inadequate number of cases or cases that have not been sufficiently analyzed.

5. Circular Reasoning

When the premise and the conclusion say the same thing.

6. Personal Attack (adhominem "to the person")

Attacks the person presenting the argument personally rather than argue logically. This fallacy can also apply to groups.

7. Appeal to Emotion/Appeal to Force

Makes no appeal to logic, but hopes that the positive or negative emotions you feel will persuade you to act.

8. Straw Man

Based on the distortions of someone's ideas or belief, the speaker uses a poor representation of a person's beliefs.

9. Diversion (red herring)

Attempts to divert attention from the real issue by focusing on another issue. The issue to which attention is diverted is called a red herring.

10. Limited Choice

Artificially precludes choices that ought to be considered.

Training students to detect such fallacies can only heighten their reasoning skills and improve their critical thinking.

The third and last point in my discussion is: What practical applications of an audio or visual nature can be created to test the quantitative reasoning abilities of these students? To execute this aspect of the students' exposure to quantitative reasoning, I plan to do the following: First, I will discuss the steps needed to conduct a prototype or provisional in-class experiment, which will attempt to answer the question: How well do students listen to oral discourse? Second, the students will receive instruction in the four listening abilities.

After their training, the students will listen to a series of four sets of tapes, with four tapes in eac set. Each set of tapes will contain material specifically related to the comprehension of each of the four listening abilities discussed in class - overcoming distractions, detecting central ideas in a message, maintaining emotional control, and evaluating the message.

After the students have listened to all four sets of tapes, they will be required to listen to another tape containing oral passages filled with examples of all four listening abilities combined with a series of questions aimed at testing the ability of the students to recognize the different types of listening abilities under investigation.

After the questions have been answered, the raw data will be collected and the results analyzed. Conclusions will be drawn from the data regarding the efficacy of learning the four listening abilities and its effect on listening skill improvement. Students will be introduced to systems of quantification and measurement to determine their growth and development in listening. Scales of measurement focusing on the non-verbal as well as the verbal components in messages will also be introduced.

Quantitative reasoning and the skill of listening both provide a means of communication which is powerful, concise, and unambiguous. Quantitative reasoning as Lynn Arthur Steen has said, "Is clearly an artifact of our culture. . .it evolves with technology; and it both shapes and is shaped by society."

Listening is the cornerstone of all communication. It too, is a skill of fundamental importance that can be quantified and improved by tangible methods, and quantitative reasoning can be the means to that end.