UNIVERSIDADE PÚNGUE

Faculdade De Letras, Ciências Sociais e Humanidades

LISTENING SKILLS

Curso De Licenciatura Em Inglês

Alberto Itai Florindo

Listening Skills

Listening skills are skills that contribute to your ability to accurately receive information when
communicating with others. These skills are an important part of effective communication in the
workplace. Developing good listening habits can help to ensure you understand the information
correctly, interpret messages accurately and optimise your conversations and communications
for efficiency.

Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a message from the speaker, no
communication process is complete without listening.

Listening requires our focus and attention to understand the things which we hear. No effort is
put by an individual to hear as it is an involuntary process but it requires effort to listen as this is
a voluntary process done by the individual. The brain deciphers and understands the received
sound waves and an appropriate decision is taken.

Types of listening

Active listening: is called as attentive listening. Active listening involves attention, careful
consideration, concentration of the speaker’s ideas. The listener Participates in communication
process actively and attentively.

Passive Listening: Unlike active listening, passive listening does not require any special effort
other than hearing what is being said. A passive listener usually does not interrupt the speaker or
perform any other action whatsoever at the same time in which the speaker is delivering his or
her speech

Examples: include, communicating on the phone to your mother while checking Facebook,
Instagram or texting your friend during a lecture.

Critical listening: Critical listening can also be called as ‘evaluating listening’. This type of
listening involves critical evaluation of the speaker’s thoughts and ideas.

Empathetic listening: This Type of listening exercises emotional influence on the listener not
only understands the literal message but also understand the feeling, emotions, and the world
view of the speaker.

Deep listening: Deep listening occurs when you're truly committed to understanding the
speaker's perspective and message. Deep listening includes paying attention to verbal
Examples of Listening Skills

Open-ended questions: Asking open-ended questions shows the speaker that you as a listener
are interested in what they are saying and curious to know more. If you told me, “I’ve got so
much to do before I leave for the holidays at my parents’ house,” I might ask, “How are you
feeling about going home?” or “How’s it going getting through that to-do list?”

Silence (Buffington et al., 2016): At certain times, sitting in attentive silence shows that you are
actively listening. Especially when somebody is upset, it may be more effective to simply wait
for them to say more, while showing that you are paying attention by keeping your nonverbals
focused on them (e.g., watching them, staying turned towards them).

Reflecting feelings back (Ivey et al., 2015): When feelings are running high, people often find
it very helpful to have those feelings acknowledged by listeners. For example, if a housemate
comes home and spends several minutes telling me about how demanding their workday was, I
might simply reflect to them, “Sounds like a frustrating and exhausting day.”

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE LISTENING

Space Distance: Distance between the speaker and the listener from long distance may
affectthe listening process. If the speaker is speaking from long distance, the listener may
struggle to grasp what the speaker is speaking. Some of the words may be misunderstood by the
listener.

Infrastructure: Poor Infrastructure may affect listening process. Lack of proper ventilation,
light, acoustics can act as a barrier to listening.

Speed of the speaker: Speed of the speaker can act as a barrier to listening. If the speaker is
speaking too speedily, the listeners have no other alternative left than watching speaker. The
Human brain receives sounds at a specific speed. If this speed is not maintained properly, the
listener’s may get distracted.

Voice and tone of the speaker: The listener will feel bored and fade up to listen to monotones
speech. If the speaker’s voice is not audible, the listener may not listen to it attentively.On the
contrary, many speakers maintain a monotonous tone which irritates the listener.

Span of the Speech: The process of listening can take place for a limited period of time. If the
speaker is speaking for hours to gather, the listener turns into passive listener.
Emotional barriers:Emotional barriers are emotional factors that get in the way of effective
listening. These include both positive and negative emotions, such as being excited, angry,
upset, or distracted. It’s difficult to focus on something else when emotions come in the way of
concentration.

TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS

Motivate yourself to listen: Listeners should motivate their mind to listen to the speaker
carefully. They should prepare themselves to listen to others willingly.Listening cannot be
forced or imposed on the person. Individual should know the value and importance of listening.

Respect the speaker: Listeners should have respect for the speaker. They should not
underestimate the speaker’s ideas and thoughts.Even if, the listener disagrees with some of the
ideas of the speaker, they should show their disagreement positively.

Remove Horn effect: Do not underestimate a person because he has couple of flaws in his
behaviour. Many people are like rough diamonds. They need to be understood carefully.

Do not interrupt: Listeners should not interrupt the speaker unnecessarily. Many listeners have
tendency to make remarks or comments during speech.

Voice modulation: The speaker should modulate his voice and use different tones while
speaking. It creates interesting atmosphere in the audience and they pay more attention to the
speaker. It creates an environment for effective listening.

Speaker’s use of appropriate body language: Speaker should use positive body language
Otherwise Listeners will be observing these body movements and thereby neglect ideas and
expressions of the speaker.

Positive body language: Listener should maintain positive body language like nod of head,
leaning forward, maintain erect postures, during communic
BENEFITS OF LISTENING

Simply put, improving your listening skills will make it easier to develop and maintain close
relationships with other people. People with strong listening skills score higher on measures of
social skills (Gearhart & Bodie, 2011), so it stands to reason that improving your listening skills
might improve your overall social life.

If you are in a romantic relationship, or would like to be, you should know that many, if not
most, relationships that end do so because the people involved felt that they could not be heard
by their partners (Amato & Previti, 2003; Gottman & Levenson, 2002; Hawkins et al., 2012).
Another benefit of improving your listening skills is that you may become more able to
understand your own emotions and empathize with yourself (Barrett-Lennard, 1997). These are
some beneficts of listening skills:

 Better understand assignments and what is expected of you.

 Build rapport with co-workers, bosses, and clients.
 Show support.
 Work better in a team-based environment.
 Resolve problems with customers, co-workers, and bosses.
 Answer questions; and find underlying meanings in what others say.
 Effective listening helps in controlling rumours which helps in preventing damage to
the reputation of the organization.

IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is considered a critical prosocial behavior (Drollinger et al., 2006), meaning that it
promotes connections with other people and increases satisfaction in relationships (Floyd, 2014;
Gearhart & Bodie, 2011). Research tells us that people experience empathic listening as a form
of affection from another person (Floyd, 2014).

Listening skills are especially important if you want to be a supportive presence in somebody
else’s life. Clients report feeling more comfortable with and able to self-disclose to their
therapists when their therapists are clearly using the listening skills described above (Myers,
2000; Rogers, 1957).

Listening is one of the most important communication skills, yet it's often overlooked or
undervalued. Effective listening means hearing what someone is saying, understanding their
perspective, and providing a thoughtful and appropriate response. In this blog, we will delve
deeper into listening skills, why they are important, and how you can improve them. Listening
skills importante are Important For:
1.Builds relationships: Effective listening is a key to building strong and meaningful
relationships that are built on mutual respect and understanding.

2.Solving Problems: Good listeners take time to actively listen to the situation and gain a
deeper understanding of the problem, leading to effective solutions.

3.Improves productivity: Listening empowers employees to assess situations, identify and

solve problems quickly, leading to improved productivity and better performance.

4.Increases confidence: Feeling heard and understood empowers people to feel more confident,
share their thoughts and ideas, and be more productive.

5.Avoids miscommunication: Effective listening helps to avoid misunderstandings, which can

lead to time and cost wastage.

Listening skills are especially important if you want to be a supportive presence in somebody
else’s life. Clients report feeling more comfortable with and able to self-disclose to their
therapists when their therapists are clearly using the listening skills described above (Myers,
2000; Rogers, 1957).

There are many reasons why listening skills are important. Enlisted here below are some of the
benefits of effective listening.

Listening Skills Improve Language: One of the benefits of listening skills is that it improves
language. As you listen, so shall you learn. Listening to lectures and talk shows introduces you
to new vocabulary.

You may say that reading has the same effect. Yes, you are right, but when you read books you
tend to read books in the language script you are comfortable with, giving you less exposure
than when you listen to someone speak.

Listening Skills Gets You Prepared: The importance of listening in communication is that it
prepares you for a conversation. While you listen, you are already formulating replies for the
discussion. Listening involves understanding and interpretation and finally prepares you with
related content.

Listening Skills Makes You Empathetic: When you listen to another you portray the beautiful
virtue of empathy. Empathy is the ability to show concern towards the feelings of another.A
good listener will never suggest or give advice before hearing the speaker completely.

In conclusion, listening skills are essential in personal and professional life. Effective listening
helps to build strong relationships, improves problem-solving capabilities, increases
productivity, boosts confidence, and avoids miscommunications. By avoiding distractions,
asking questions, practicing empathy, using positive body language, and providing feedback,
you can improve your listening skills and become a better listener.
Conclusion

In conclusion we just find out that Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting
to a message from the speaker, Listening is one of the most important communication skills, yet
it's often overlooked or undervalued. Effective listening means hearing what someone is saying,
understanding their perspective, and providing a thoughtful and appropriate response and we
also mentioned some types of listening and there’s benneficts for the human being.

There are many types but the most frequently are Active (active listening involves attention,
careful consideration, concentration of the speaker’s ideas. The listener Participates in
communication process actively and attentively.) And Passive(passive listening does not require
any special effort other than hearing what is being said.)
REFERENCES

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Retrieved 5 December 2018.

2. (Myers, 2000; Rogers, 1957). The Importance of listening skills

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Krista (eds.). Silence and listening as rhetorical arts. Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 250–263. ISBN 978-0-
8093-3017-1.

4.(Floyd, 2014).beneficts of listening skills

5.Schmitt, Norbert, ed. (2010). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (Second ed.). Routledge. pp. 180–187.
doi:10.4324/9780203783733. ISBN 9781444127829.

6. Rivera-Mueller, Jessica (2020-10-18). "Enacting Rhetorical Listening: A Process to Support Students'

Engagement with Challenging Course Readings". Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence. 4 (2).
doi:10.26077/0845-bae3. ISSN 2644-2132.

7. Rodgers, Meagan (2012). "The Intent/Effect Tactic: A Practice of Rhetorical Listening". CEA Forum. 41 (1): 60–
77.