ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the important role listening plays in public speaking. It highlights current listening research that aids in understanding the art of meaningful public speaking. Wolvin (2017) encouraged speakers to carefully choose both the words they use and the visuals they create to ease the cognitive burden of their listeners, thus being more listenable. As a result, when speakers provide key verbal and visual cues, listeners can more easily follow along. More important, when public speakers focus on being listenable, this moves the focus of the speaking engagement to the intended goal whether that be informative, persuasive, or entertainment. On the whole, this chapter examines current research contributions on the role of listening in public speaking and also identifies directions for future research.
