active listening

Examples of active listening in the following topics:

• Rules to Follow When Listening

  • Develop a practice of active listening to be an effective listener.
  • Being an active listener not only makes you a more engaged audience member but, quite simply, it's polite.
  • There are a number of other courteous behaviors that an active listener should practice:
  • Intrinsic to active listening is the ability to feed back what has been said to the speaker, often in the form of paraphrasing.
  • The art of active listening is more than just hearing what the speaker has to say: it's about being an engaged, attentive listener able to paraphrase what has already been said.

• The Importance of Listening

  • Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
  • Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
  • The ability to actively listen demonstrates sincerity, and that nothing is being assumed or taken for granted.
  • This active listening chart shows three main degrees of listening: repeating, paraphrasing, and reflecting.
  • Define active listening and list the five stages of the listening process

• Learning to Listen

  • Using active and reflective listening skills can help improve the effectiveness of oral communication.
  • For the recipient, listening skills are paramount.
  • Listening is an interaction between speaker and listener.
  • The listener's use of active and reflective listening skills can help improve communication effectiveness.
  • Explain active and reflective listening as techniques for improving the effectiveness of oral communication

• Be a Serious Listener: Resist Distractions and Listen Actively

  • Resisting distractions and listening actively are two ways to become a more effective listener.
  • This activity confirms what the listener heard and, moreover, confirms that both parties understand each other.
  • If someone is actively listening, then he or she is typically not distracted.
  • The ability to listen actively demonstrates sincerity on the part of the listener and helps to make sure that no information is being assumed or taken for granted.
  • Explain how resisting distractions and listening actively can make you a more effective listener

• Reducing Barriers and Promoting Healthy Conversations

  • To use the active listening technique to improve interpersonal communication, one puts personal emotions aside during the conversation; asks questions of and paraphrases back to the speaker to clarify understanding; and, one also tries to overcome all types of distractions in the environment.
  • This hinders the ability to listen closely to what is being said.
  • Eye contact and appropriate body language are seen as important components of active listening.
  • Effective listening involves focusing on what the speaker is saying.
  • The stress and intonation may also keep the listener active and away from distractions.

• Listening and Critical Thinking

  • Critical thinking skills are essential and connected to the ability to listen effectively and process the information that one hears.
  • The first step in thinking critically about the contents of a lecture is to listen to the lecture thoughtfully and without distraction.
  • Using a technique such as active listening, wherein one is able to repeat or paraphrase what has been said, one will better be able to cognitively process the information to draw independent conclusions and think critically.
  • Expressed in most general terms, critical thinking is "a way of taking up the problems of life. " As such, reading, writing, speaking, and listening can all be done critically or uncritically insofar as core critical thinking skills can be applied to all of those activities.
  • Therefore, critical thinkers must engage in highly active listening to further their critical thinking skills.

• The Receiving Stage

  • As obvious as it may seem, in order to effectively gather information through listening, we must first be able to physically hear what we're listening to.
  • The clearer the sound, the easier the listening process becomes.
  • Listening is an active process that constructs meaning from both verbal and nonverbal messages.
  • In order to best listen to what she's saying, the listener needs to ignore the ambient street sounds.
  • Discerning speech segmentation can be a more difficult activity when the listener is faced with an unfamiliar language.

• Technology

  • Technology can assist the audience with listening, but can also be a distraction at the same time.
  • Everyone has experienced the benefits technology can provide to the listening experience.
  • An engaged audience member is more likely to pay attention to the material and therefore listen more actively to a presentation.
  • When not used properly, however, technology can become a barrier to effective listening.
  • Beyond technology being utilized by the presented, technology used by the listener can also hinder effective listening.

• Be an Open-Minded Listener: Suspend Judgment and Exercise Empathy

  • Open-minded listening requires empathy and a suspension of judgment on the part of the listener.
  • It does not mean that the listener should not have strong views of his or her own, but it does require the listener to be willing to consider the merit of what other people say.
  • Judgmental listening also occurs when the listener is only listening to the speaker in order to determine whether he or she is right or wrong, rather than listening to understand the speaker's ideas and where they come from.
  • Listeners may have overwhelmingly positive or negative associations with particular people or ideas, and those associations can affect how listeners interpret.
  • Empathetic listening helps promote effective listening because it allows the listener to take into account where the speaker is coming from, both emotionally and in terms of the content of his or her speech.

• Motivating Listeners

  • It is important to remember that only an unsatisfied need or desire can be used to motivate the listener.
  • According to Maslow, if you are trying to motivate your listeners to satisfy a particular need, you want to make sure the lower level needs are being met before you can motivate them to address an upper level need.
  • Now we can apply this knowledge to motivate our listeners.
  • Explain the steps that make up Alan Monroe's motivated sequence for organizing persuasive speeches, and how Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs serves as a method for motivating listeners