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Signposting
State what the main theme of the presentation is going to be.
Indicate how long the presentation will last.
Say what your main points will be.
Say when you will take questions – any time or at the end.
If you imagine a presentation as a journey, the signposting stage will give 
the audience a route map, so they will know what is going to happen and 
how long the journey will last.
Signalling
Indicate to the audience when you begin your first point.
Summarize when you have completed it.
Signal when you are about to begin the next point.
Summarizing
When you reach the end of your last point, briefly summarize all the 
key points again. This allows your audience to remind themselves of the 
journey they have just undertaken and helps them identify any points 
they may have missed or of which they may not have fully appreciated 
the importance.
At the end, reiterate the importance of the main theme.
Finally, invite questions and remember to conclude by thanking 
the audience for its attention, thus indicating that the presentation 
has ended.
Chapter 15 provides further advice on preparing students to give effective 
presentations across cultural borders.
Listening skills
In this section we examine the importance of both passive and active listen-
ing skills. We look at the barriers to effective listening and how these can 
be overcome as part of our attempt to develop improved
cross- cultural 
communication.
Listening has been described as a process of self- denial. It is a vital skill in 
assisting us to decode the messages we receive. When we listen, we are usu-
ally paying attention to the message and we attempt to make sense of what 
we hear. Research indicates that most of us listen in short 30-second spurts 
before our attention tends to wander. Listening tests have also indicated 
that, on average, people really remember only some 50 per cent of what 
they have heard immediately afterwards. As we saw in Chapter 1, unless we 
listen carefully to the message and understand its meaning, there is really 
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Developing Cross- Cultural Communication Skills 85
little actual communication, only ‘noise’. The listening process involves five 
related activities:
Receiving: what we hear is often blocked out by external noise, distraction, 
our lack of concentration or lack of interest in the subject matter.
Interpreting: the use of a different, unfamiliar frame of reference, values, 
concepts, attitudes and bias may also impede our understanding.
Remembering: the process of storing for future reference, taking notes and 
summarizing.
Evaluating: making a judgment regarding accuracy of facts, opinions, the 
quality of evidence and reliability of data.
Responding: this involves various types of feedback as a result of what is 
heard, which may include verbal response, laughter, silence, applause 
and non- verbal responses such as nodding or shaking the head, frowning 
and smiling.
Passive listening is as important as active listening. It can show how we 
feel about what we are listening to, displaying such emotions ranging from 
pleasure and agreement to boredom or even hostility. We can reassure the 
speaker in subtle ways by showing empathy and appearing to concentrate 
closely, or we can show disagreement by looking angry or indignant.
Barriers to effective listening can include the following:
Pre- judgment, which involves jumping to conclusions and allowing 
prejudice and preconceived ideas to dominate.
Trying to take control of the conversation by ‘jumping in’ with interrup-
tions. We believe that we should be the centre of attention and attempt to 
monopolize the situation. We are always trying to move the conversation 
round to a point where we can express our own point of view. We are, 
in effect, a ‘shift responder’; the other speaker’s conversation is simply a 
hook to allow us to interrupt and continue with our own train of thought: 
‘Funny you should say that. It reminds me of my own experience in …!’ 
This type of listener is sometimes called a ‘marginal listener’.
Listening selectively, concentrating only on what we want to hear and 
agree with.
Competitive listening occurs when we are listening for what we do not 
agree with and we interrupt to correct, modify or criticize what the 
speaker is saying. Often described as ‘judgmental listening’, competitive 
listening is probably the most common type for professional people 
from all walks of life, but it can at times be seen as too aggressive and 
attempting to dominate.
Reaction to emotive words, such as ‘race’ and ‘stereotypes’.
Interrupting – a tendency to ‘over-talk’ caused by our desire to put across 
our views.
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86 Cross-Cultural Communication
Attempting to take detailed notes and trying to establish what are the key 
points, a common mistake made by students.
Day- dreaming – letting our attention wander to other more important or 
more interesting concerns.
Judging the actual delivery rather than the content by concentrating on 
mannerisms, dress and accent.
The delivery of the speaker – too fast, too complex, too long- winded, 
patronizing tone, poor preparation and unclear diction.
Physical discomfort caused by the location – conditions which are too 
hot, too cold, too stuffy or subject to too much external noise. Below is a 
simple example encountered by one of the authors.
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Example
Radoslaw, a Polish banker attending a top- level conference on the finan-
cial crisis in Europe, was fidgeting in his seat, clearly distracted and not 
concentrating on what was being discussed. Eventually, the presenter 
noticed him and wondered why he wasn’t getting through to him. 
‘Perhaps’, he thought, ‘he disagrees with my argument or maybe I have 
offended him in some way.’ When the presenter managed to enquire 
whether Radoslaw was feeling well, he was somewhat relieved at the 
answer. ‘No’, he replied, ‘I am feeling too cold to concentrate.’ Radoslaw 
was right. He was sitting right in front of the air- conditioning vent. Once 
it was turned off, he relaxed and paid full attention to the presentation.
Active listening is a training technique devised in 1977 by Thomas Gordon. 
It describes a way of focusing on the speaker so that the listener absorbs 
not only the meaning that the speaker wants to communicate, but also the 
meaning behind the meaning, that is, emotions and feelings. As a listening 
technique, it comprises three stages:
Repeating: in the repeating stage, we listen and show interest. We may 
nod or make verbal signals to show we are listening. We pay attention 
and establish eye contact and we may show we are listening by giving 
feedback, using exactly the same words used by the speaker. Above all, we 
try not to interrupt the speaker’s train of thought.
Paraphrasing: when it comes to responding, we enter the paraphrase stage. 
This involves the same processes as repeating, but it is also important to 
give feedback by using similar phrases to the speaker. This shows that we 
have listened, have taken time to reflect and have reformulated what the 
speaker has said in a way that he or she can agree with.
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Developing Cross- Cultural Communication Skills 87
Reflecting: the final stage occurs when we give feedback to the speaker 
using our own words and approach.
Active listeners often complain about the strain of remaining silent while 
someone else talks. The speakers themselves often talk of the tension of 
speaking when the listener just concentrates and gives no response. There is 
therefore a need in networking to demonstrate active empathy. The way to 
do this is to use FACE, which stands for: