Introduction to

Listening and Speaking Skills

Types of Listening
Types of Listening
• Informative

• Appreciative

• Critical

• Discriminative

• Emphatic
Informative Listening
• Informative listening refers to listening for information and for
the speaker's message.
• To understand the speaker's message, informative listeners will
listen for key words, will concentrate to remember important
concepts, and will log important information in their memories.
• Examples could include attending a lecture, watching an
instructional video, attending a workshop, listening to a news
broadcast, or listening to an instructional podcast.
Informative Listening – cont.
• The tips of informative listening
• not arguing or prejudging prematurely
• separating the message from the speaker, and searching for value
• looking for key ideas
• asking sincere questions not counterfeit questions
• paraphrasing
• taking notes.
Appreciative Listening
• Appreciative listening is a type of listening behavior where
the listener seeks certain information which they will
appreciate, and meet his/her needs and goals.
• One uses appreciative listening when listening to music, poetry
or the stirring words of a speech.
• Appreciative listening is listening for enjoyment.
• A good example is listening to music, especially as a way to
relax.
Appreciative Listening – cont.
• Three factors of appreciative listening
• Perception - guides your attitude, feelings, how you react to the world, and
what you hear - tend to be the compass
• Presentation - matters in how the listeners interpret the message (being
conscious of the communication, emotion, and setting - being wary of the
temperature, space, style, and personality of the speaker)
• Previous Experience - allows the listener to appreciate the message in
advance because they've already been exposed to it but open to hear new ideas
or concepts
Critical Listening
• Critical listening is a process for understanding what is said
and evaluating, judging, and forming an opinion on what
you hear.
• The listener assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the
content, agrees or disagrees with the information, and analyzes
and synthesizes material.
• For example, if there is an upcoming election and you need
to decide who to vote for, you probably use some form of
critical listening when you watch a televised debate. You
listen, AND you evaluate.
Critical Listening – cont.
• Six Ways to Improve Critical Listening
• Recognizing the Difference between Facts and Opinions
• Uncovering Assumptions - assumptions are gaps in a logical sequence
that listeners passively fill with their own ideas and opinions and may or
may not be accurate.
• Be Open to New Ideas
• Rely on Reason and Common Sense
• Relate New Ideas to Old Ones
• Take Notes
Discriminative Listening
• Discriminative listening means only interpreting the sound of
the message rather than understanding the meaning of the
message. It is also known as a fundamental type of listening.
• You use this type of listening before you even know how to
understand words. Instead of relying on words, discriminative
listening uses tone of voice, verbal cues, and other changes
in sound.
• In early childhood, for example, a distinction is made between
the sounds of the voices of the parents – the voice of the
father sounds different to that of the mother.
Emphatic Listening
• Empathic listening is the practice of being attentive and
responsive to others' input during conversation.
• Listening empathically entails making an emotional connection
with the other person and finding similarities between their
experience and your own so you can give a more heartfelt
response.
• Example : Lily's teammate suddenly tells her that she wants to
quit. Concerned, Lily asks her why and if there's something
she can do to help. Her teammate expresses her concerns
while Lily listens patiently—without giving her advice.
Emphatic Listening – cont.
• Tips for Empathic Listening
• Be nonjudgmental. ...
• Give the person your undivided attention. ...
• Listen carefully (to feelings and facts). ...
• Show that you are listening carefully. ...
• Don't be afraid of silence. ...
• Restate and paraphrase. ...
• Follow up.
"We have two ears and one tongue
so that we would listen more and talk less."

- Diogenes, Greek philosopher

Thank you