EFFECTIVE READING: 1.1

EFFECTIVE READING: 1.1
The Importance of Reading: Why is the Habit of Reading Important?

The Importance of Reading is difficult to express in words but can experienced by people from all walks of life. With the advent of modern technology, the Ipod and the X-box have probably overtaken the humble Hardy Boys or Tom Sawyer in managing to catch the attention of the young kids. Parents and others would however do well to inculcate the habit of reading in children from a very young age and that will prove to be in good stead for the years to come.

Although one can take to reading at any age, I have seen that it is much easier to begin at a young age and develop a love and passion for reading rather than forcing oneself to indulge in this at a later age in life. Reading has a host of benefits - tangible and intangible and should in fact become a habit as common as bathing or eating.

The Importance of Reading - Reason #1

Reading can make you Smarter

Yes. Reading is a very active state exercise for your mind as opposed to watching TV or listening to music. Reading forces your brain cells to engage in activity as you paint a vivid image in your mind about the story that you are reading. This is what is most fascinating for me and also why I am always scared of watching a movie about a book that I have read. As the imagination in my head could be totally different from that depicted in the movie.

Your Brain is also a muscle which must be worked on a regular basis as this will keep your mental faculties constantly engaged and thus keep you sharper and smarter.

The Importance of Reading - Reason #2

Reading can improve your Vocabulary and Language Skills

If you are a regular reader, you are bound to come across the works of various authors and will be exposed to several different literary styles. You will keep on learning new words, phrases, idioms and learn to use them in several different ways as well.

One handy tip for youngsters - Keep a dictionary handy. If you come across a new word you didn't know about, look it up immediately in the dictionary. From my own personal experience I can tell you that this has done wonders for my vocabulary and I loved interacting with new words every day and with each new book that I read.

Keep reading new books, new genres, fiction, non-fiction, etc. Give yourself some variety and I am sure that you will pick up some new words each day.

The Importance of Reading - Reason #3

Reading makes you Knowledgeable

Okay this one's a no brainer. Reading does make you knowledgeable. The more you read, the diverse books you read, each time you are adding valuable pieces of knowledge to your mental database.

Everyone knows how important it is to be knowledgeable to succeed in any area of life that you choose. It will perhaps be less surprising to learn that the most successful people in many walks of life would be the persons who are the most well read.

Noble Peace Prize winner and former President of Israel - Shimon Peres very wisely said ~

Your best friends are not only human beings, but books. To read books is like going to swim in a sea of wisdom, endlessly fascinating. And there are so many wise people all over the world, throughout history, and you can have it free, for nothing. And reading must become a daily habit. It's not that you can read once a week. I read day in and day out, and you make acquaintances with books. After a few pages, you know with whom you are dealing. Serious, unserious, far-sighted, repetitive.

The Importance of Reading - Reason#4

Reading boosts Creativity

What is Creativity - It's the ability to identify unusual or novel connections to a given set of facts. Creativity requires the individual to be knowledgeable in several areas to be able to make these connections.

Creative individuals are generally masters in their area of expertise and very good readers and thus knowledgeable about several different aspects. This constant reading and ability to think out of the box helps them to see patterns, novel connections or new solutions where others are not able to relate.

The author was once on his way to a presentation about Innovative Tax Planning Strategies and was struggling to find a good opening anecdote. While on his way he dug into his stack of magazines that he usually carried and began to flip through "The Economist" magazine. He read a story about an unusual hoarding along a highway in California. The hoarding just had a mathematical formula with the words ".com" at the end suggesting that the answer to the formula would probably lead to some website.

Persons who solved the formula got something like a 158302890.com (just an example) and when they landed on the website, they saw an even harder mathematical formula. A privileged few who managed to crack that were led to another website which just said.

"Google welcomes you to submit your resumes"

Fantastic. The point here was not only did he read something fantastic, it also gave a mind a great boost, he used the "Innovation" connection and used it as an opening anecdote for his presentation.

Thus It is not always necessary to know what you will do with your reading. The dots will connect at sometime in the future and will give you innovative and creative solutions. Keep reading. You will definitely be more creative in whatever area of life you choose to excel.

Other Benefits

Good readers can understand the individual sentences and the organizational structure of a piece of writing. They can comprehend ideas, follow arguments, and detect implications. They know most of the words in the text already, but they can also determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the context - failing this, they can use their dictionary effectively to do so. In summary, good readers can extract from the writing what is important for the particular task they are employed in. And they can do it quickly!

Educational researchers have also found a strong correlation between reading and vocabulary knowledge. In other words, students who have a large vocabulary are usually good readers. This is not very surprising, since the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read extensively, and if you read extensively you are likely to be or become a good reader!

The graphic below illustrates the interdependence of vocabulary, reading ability and academic success. 

*"Research findings in applied linguistics and reading research consistently show a strong correlation between reading proficiency and academic success at all ages, from the primary school right through to university level: students who read a lot and who understand what they read usually attain good grades."

~  Pretorius, E.

Start Reading Today. So these were the 5 major reasons to start reading today but it is sure you would find many more reasons to do so. Love reading and then the passion of reading will automatically take over. Once it becomes a habit and something that you love and you are crazy about, it will remain for a lifetime. Remembers, Readers are the Leaders !

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EFFECTIVE LISTENING 1.5

EFFECTIVE LISTENING 1.5 

Barriers to Effective Listening  

Shift Response: Shift response occurs when one competes for attention in a conversation by changing the subject in order to favour oneself. The opposite of this occurrence is support response, which is constructive to appropriate listening. Both genders use shift response in conversation, but men utilize shift response more often than women.

Impression Interrupting: Interrupting is something we all do. It's natural for listeners to evaluate a speaker, but our impressions should not interfere with our listening. The content (what the speaker is saying) should be judged on its own value to you and the speaker. Sometimes you may be tempted to tune out the speaker because of his or her appearance. If an instructor is sloppily dressed and careless about their appearance, you may conclude that what is being said isn't worth listening to. Avoid the temptation and do not let your personal feelings interfere with your learning.

Glazing: Glazing over occurs when the listener’s attention wanders, dozes off or daydreaming begins.

Pseudo Listening: This happens when someone pretends to listen during a conversation and attempts to disguise inattention. Typical responses include “Mm-Hmm”, “Really?”, and “Uh huh”. During this time of inattention, the pseudo listener is unfocused, therefore, it can be very frustrating for the speaker.

Ambushing: Ambushing is an example of negative listening in which the listener ignores the strength of the message, instead looking for weaknesses in order to attack what the speaker says. Although the listener is attentive, the problem stems from the fact that responses are rebuttals and refutations of the speaker’s message. 

Content only Response: This type of response occurs when one focuses on the content of the message, but ignores the emotional side. This type of response does not recognize feelings and comprehends only the literal meaning of messages.

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EFFECTIVE LISTENING 1.4

EFFECTIVE LISTENING 1.4

"Listening is a skill while hearing is natural process."

Skills relating to Active Listening

•       Note-taking,

•       Effective Questioning & Paraphrasing

•       Non-verbal Communication

•       Semantic Markers

Note-taking

•       Note making vs. note taking.

•       Keeping a record for yourself

•       A selection and organization of  words including the most important/ interesting parts of the lecture

•       Summarization and reflection on what they say.

•       Usage of a whole range of symbols, abbreviations, our own form of shorthand

•       Identifying for oneself a list of key points while revisiting the notes

Effective Questioning & Paraphrasing

•       One of the important skills within Active Listening

•       To focus or concentrate more on what the speaker is saying

•       Making a summary of what you heard

•       Closed questions vs. open-ended questions

•       Paraphrase to (i) Test your understanding of what has been said, (ii) Demonstrate your understanding.

Non-verbal Communication (NVC)

•       Speech contains paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style

•       Written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons

•       Posture & Gesture

•       Eye Contact is important.

 Semantic Markers

•       Noticing even the smallest aspects of communication such as semantic markers.

•       The main ideas are cued with a facial expression and /or gesture and/ or phrases 

note: Posture can be used to determine a participant’s degree of attention or involvement, the difference in status between communicators, and the level of fondness a person has for the other communicator. Posture is understood through such indicators as direction of lean, body orientation, arm position, and body openness. A gesture is a non-vocal bodily movement intended to express meaning. Gestures may be articulated with the hands, arms or body, and include movements of the head, face and eyes, such as winking, nodding, or rolling ones’ eyes.

In short, good posture, paying attention to speakers’ gestures and semantic markers and looking into the speaker’s eyes, facilitate and promote learning. Paying attention to what your lecturer and/or speaker is saying and doing is key to success in your studies and life.

to be continued...

EFFECTIVE LISTENING: 1.3

EFFECTIVE LISTENING: 1.3

Why do we listen?

• To gain information.

• To get feed back.

• To participate in another’s story.

• To hear of their experiences and insights.

• To be in control (information is power)

• To broaden our horizons (to learn)

• To create a relationship.

• To respect and value others.

FACTS about LISTENING

What is Listening ?

      First listening requires the ear. If one doesn't or isn't able to hear, then listening can’t take place. Your ears are primary to listening. In other words, you must give the other person communicating your full attention so that you actually hear the message. We also must listen with our eyes. Much of listening is observing and trying to understand not only what is being said but how it is being said. This is often called nonverbal communications. And listening also involves the heart. We need to understand the emotion that is being communicated in the words we hear (and see). Listening requires ears as primary, plus eye contact, and one heart…a full attention.

Listening is the process of,

i. receiving,

ii. constructing meaning from,

iii. and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages;

iv. to hear something with thoughtful attention 

      

Why is it important to be a good listener?

1. Listening builds stronger relationships.

2. Listening promotes being heard.

3. Listening creates acceptance & openness.

4. Listening leads to learning

5. Listening reduces stress and tension.

6. Listening is CRITICAL in conflict resolution.

7. Listening is helpful in accomplishing tasks & making wise decisions.

8. Listening is directly proportional to learning.

9. Listening can enhance your problem   solving abilities.

10. Listening is the most powerful form of acknowledgment that the other person is important.

Listening Bad Habits

...to be continued.