Abstract
Noting that teachers wishing to increase students' listening skills must focus on modification of specific causes of ineffective communication behavior rather than theorizing about generic symptoms, this paper describes a competency oriented approach for improving listening skills. The paper first provides a rationale for improving listening skills, and then describes development of a personal Student Listening Profile (SLP). The four stages of the SLP journal described by the paper consist of (1) identifying ineffective listening habits, (2) developing goals for improving listening skills, (3) developing behavioral objectives for eliminating the specific barriers identified, and (4) developing strategies for monitoring and reinforcing goal/objective-directed behavior. The paper includes methods for integrating the SLP with course activities and examples of journal entries for each phase of the SLP. Finally, the paper discusses the potential effects of this behavior-oriented approach on the improvement of students' listening skills as well as its contributions to the total communication process. (HTH)