Today is the International Day of Listening (IDL). On behalf of Thomas Sticht:
September 19, 2019 is the International Day of Listening. A day in which attention is drawn to the sometime forgotten ability of listening for information and communication. In this note I trace some work on listening from my early days in the 1960s through the present time in which the International Listening Association calls attention to the special need for listening during times of distress in the world.
The Rise of the International Listening Association
In 1965, I started research on the listening skills of blind students. I worked with Dr. Emerson Foulke, a blind psychologist at the University of Louisville, on studies of how blind students could comprehend recorded audio texts when these texts were played at increasingly accelerated rates of speech. The idea was to give blind students who learned by listening the ability to listen to recorded texts at rates comparable to the reading rates of sighted students reading printed texts (Foulke & Sticht, 1969).
In 1967, I moved to Monterey, California to work with the Human Resources Research Office (HumRRO), a field office of the George Washington University in Washington, DC. There I continued research on listening as a substitute for or adjunct to reading with adults whose reading skills were in 2nd to 5th grade levels. As part of this research, in 1974 colleagues and I published a book in which we summarized a large body of research on the relationships of listening to reading (Sticht, et. al, 1974).
That same year of 1974, Dr. Sam Duker of Brooklyn College, edited a set of books on the production and use in education of recorded texts that used time-compression techniques to accelerate the rate of the spoken message while avoiding the “chipmunk” sound that occurs when a recording of spoken language is simply speeded up without the use of special compression methods. In two of the three volumes that Duker edited he included some of the work I did with Foulke and additional work colleagues and I did at HumRRO on the listening skills of low-literate adults (Duker, 1974a,b).
Just five years later, in 1979, a group of academics, teachers, business and industry people with an interest in listening as a communication activity met and formed the International Listening Association (ILA). The following year, 1980, Sam Duker was among those pioneers of listening research and development inducted into the ILA Hall of Fame.
The ILA Introduces the International Day of Listening
In 2006, I participated in a symposium in London, England and presented a paper reporting on 40 years of studies by colleagues and myself on the relationships of listening to language and literacy development and to various social (voting, political activity) and economic outcomes. I emphasized the importance of listening in parent-child relationships in relation to these literacy, social, and economic outcomes (Sticht, 2008).
On September 19, 2019, the world observes the International Day of Listening (IDL), established in 2016 by the International Listening Association. The theme for the International Day of Listening in 2019 is: “Be bold! Listen for common ground.” The International Listening Association goes on to discuss the theme for this year’s IDL celebration and states:
Quote: “This year's IDL theme is based on listening first for similarities - what we have in common. That's what we mean by ‘listen for common ground’. Once two people have found common ground and priorities (and are surprised by the number of them), it is far easier to discuss differences, points of disagreement or conflict, in a mature and respectful way. We'll help you to achieve this goal….
That's where "be bold" enters the scene! It takes courage to listen to completely different points of view. We may perceive the vision of others as illogical, stupid or even dangerous... this blocks our comprehension….
We may decide to be influenced in certain aspects by the others' discourse, but only after having listened carefully, and having made sure that what we understand is exactly what the other wants to say” (end quote), (online at: listen.org/IDL).
This IDL theme and commentary seem particularly appropriate for the present time in which there is much acrimony and divisiveness amongst the peoples of the world, including those living in the United States of America
Listening has never been more important both for its relationships to literacy and knowledge development, but, as indicated by this year’s theme for the International Day of Listening, for finding common grounds for respect and cooperation amongst peoples of diverse backgrounds all over the world.
“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” --- Dr. Ralph G. Nichols, a founder of the International Listening Association
Remember the importance of listening when celebrating Adult Education and Family Literacy Week (AEFLW) September 22-28, 2019.
References
Duker, S. (1974a). Time-compressed speech: Vol. 1. Metuchen, N.J., The Scarecrow Press,
Duker, S. (1974b). Time-compressed speech: Vol. 2. Metuchen, N.J., The Scarecrow Press,
Foulke, E. and Sticht, T.G. A review of research on the intelligibility and comprehension of accelerated speech. Psychological Bulletin, 1969, 72, 50-62.
Sticht, T.G., Beck, L.B., Hauke, R.N., Kleiman, G.M., and James, J.H. (1974).Auding and reading: A developmental model. Alexandria, VA.: Human Resources Research Organization.
(available online using a Google search)
Sticht, T. (2008). Listening, reading, and succeeding: A 40 year perspective. In: C. Hudson (Ed.). The sound and the silence: key perspectives on speaking and listening and Skills for Life. SEMINARPAPER 1, Nottingham, England: Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) Publications.