Listening Responsively for
Position and Evidence

The two most important things to listen for are the speaker’s position and the evidence he or she gives to support that position. You can get a head start on this by considering what you already know about the speaker, topic, audience, and context of the presentation.

Use this chart as a guide for listening.

Speaker Who is the speaker? What do I know about this person? What can I predict the speaker will say?
Topic What is the topic?
What do I know about this topic? What can I predict the speaker will say about this topic?
Context Where and when is this presentation taking place? What do I know about this place and other events going on at the same time? What can I predict the speaker will say based on the context?
Audience Who is the audience? What do I know about the audience? What can I predict the speaker will tell this audience?

Let’s try using the chart with a short presentation. Before we begin, we’ll look at some background information about the presentation.

photo of Dr. Shereen El Feki, academic and writer.

Source: Shereen El Feki, TED Talks, www.ted.com

Dr. Shereen El Feki

This presentation was given at the July 2009 TEDGlobal conference in Oxford, England. TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading great ideas. According to the TED website, conference attendees are “opinion leaders, influencers, captains of industry, creatives, venture capitalists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.” This presentation, "Pop Culture in the Arab World," was one of a series of presentations with the theme "Media with Meaning."

The speaker, Dr. Shereen El Feki, lives in Cairo, Egypt, but she grew up in Canada. She is half-Egyptian and half-Welsh. She began her career in medical science, with a PhD in molecular immunology from the University of Cambridge, and now works on Arab social issues. Her projects promote dialogue between Arabs and non-Arabs. Dr. El Feki is a writer and academic but dedicates much of her time to issues facing youth in the Arab world.

Based on what you’ve learned about Dr. El Feki and the TEDGlobal conference, answer the prediction questions from the chart. Type your answer into the text field for each question, and then mouse over the question to see a possible response. These are only predictions, so don’t stress over your answers.


Now that you have some ideas in your head of what the speaker may say, play the presentation to see if you are right.


Source: “Pop Culture in the Arab World,” Shereen El Feki, TED Talks


Using your notes, answer these questions. When you’re finished, check your understanding to see some sample responses.

  1. Which of your predictions were correct? Which were not?
  2. What did you learn that you didn’t know before?
  3. What surprised you about the presentation?
Check Your Understanding

Sample Responses:

  1. I was right that Dr. El Feki would talk about young people and pop culture. I was right that it would have something to do with beliefs. I was wrong that the Arab world doesn’t already have its own pop culture.
  2. I didn’t know that superheroes never before existed in the Arab world.
  3. I was surprised that there are TV shows in the Arab world that seem R-rated.

Close

Listen to the presentation again. This time, listen for the speaker’s position, or main idea, and her supporting evidence.

Source: “Pop Culture in the Arab World,” Shereen El Feki, TED Talks


Using your notes, answer these questions. Check your understanding after each response.

  1. How does Dr. El Feki begin her presentation?

    2. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    She talks about Barbie and Fulla.

    Close

  2. How does she present her topic?

    3. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    She explains that her experience is that Arabs borrow from Western ideas but keep their own values and identity.

    Close

  3. What message does Shereen El Feki want her audience to understand?

    4. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    Arab pop culture has taken from and learned from Western pop culture, but it has retained its own identity.

    Close

  4. What evidence does she give to support that idea?

    5. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    She shows the similarities between Barbie and Fulla. She shows the equivalent of MTV for Arab youth, and she shows Arab comic books. We can see similarities with Western culture, but we also see that Arab pop culture is unique.

    Close

  5. How does she organize her ideas?

    6. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    She starts personally, gives examples, and looks at the big picture, moving from small to large. She talks about her own experiences and then shows several examples of Arab pop culture. She talks about how they blend ideas from other cultures and ends the presentation with a history of this culture-blending.

    Close     Close

  6. What sources does she cite?

    7. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    She names and talks about the goals of the people who developed the Arab youth MTV and the comic books.

    Close

  7. How does she end her presentation?

    8. Check Your Understanding

    Sample Responses:

    She returns to the dolls from the introduction and uses a slide to show how cultures learn from each other.

    Close

One way to show that you understand the message is to ask intelligent questions. Using your notes, write your answer to the question. When you’re finished, check your understanding.

If you were in El Feki’s audience, what questions would you ask?

Check Your Understanding

Sample Responses:

We’ve seen how the Arab world has adapted some Western culture. Have you seen Western culture learn from and adapt Arab culture? What would you suggest Western culture learn from Arab culture?

Close