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LISTENING SKILLS

Introduction to Listening skills

Listening skills are essential for effective communication and building strong
relationships. Good listeners actively focus on the speaker, avoid interrupting,
and provide feedback that shows understanding. These skills involve paying
attention to non-verbal cues, such as bodylanguage and tone, to fully grasp
themessage being conveyed. By demonstrating empathy and patience,good
listeners foster trust and respect, encouraging open and honest dialogue.
Additionally, effective listening helps in conflict resolution, enhances learning,
and improves problem-solving abilities.Overall, strong listening skills are
crucial for personal and professional success, promoting better understanding
and collaborations

Listening practices exercise :-

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Effective listening is a crucial skillfor personal and professional success,yet it is

often overlooked.
Improving listening skills requires practice and conscious effort. Here are
several listening exercises and practices that can help enhance your ability to
listen actively and empathetically.
Active Listening Exercise

1. Partner activity
Objective : To practice paying full attention and responding appropriately.
Procedure
1.Find a Partne
2.Set a Timer
3.Listen
4.Reflect andRespond
5.Switch Roles

2. Paraphrasing Practice
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Listening Differs From Hearing

1. Hearing implies just perceiving the sounds while listening means listening
with understanding whatever you are listening. Both the body as well as mind is
involved in listening process.
2. Listening is an active process while hearing is a passive activity.
3. Hearing is an effortless activity while listening is an act requiring conscious
efforts, concentration and interest. Listening involves both physical and
psychological efforts
. Effective Skills forListening.
1. Grasp and understand the matter/content.
2. Remain calm. Do not loose your temper. Anger hampers and inhibits
communication. Angry people jam their minds to the words of others.
3. Be open to accept new ideas and information.
4. Jot down and take a note of important points.
5. Work upon listening. Analyze and evaluate the speech in spare time.
6. Rephrase and summarize the speaker’s ideas.
7. Keep on asking questions. This demonstrates that how well you understand
the speaker’s ideas and also that you are listening.
8. Avoid distractions.
9. “Step into the shoes of others”, i.e., put yourself in the position of the
speaker and observe things from his view point. This will help creating an
atmosphere of mutual understanding and improve the exchange of ideas in
communication process.
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Characteristics of Good Listener

Good and effective listener tries to give maximum amount of thought to the
speaker’s ideas being communicated, leaving a minimum amount of time for
mental exercises to go off track. A good listener:
1. Attentive- Good listener must pay attention to the key points. He should
be alert. He should avoid any kind of distraction.
2. Assume- Good listener does not ignore the information he considers is
unnecessary. He should always summarize the speaker’s ideas so that
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there is no misunderstanding of thoughts of speakers. He avoids

premature judgments about the speakers message.
3. Listen for feelings and facts- Good listener deliberately listens for the
feelings of the speaker. He concentrates totally on the facts. He evaluates
the facts objectively. His listening is sympathetic, active and alert. He
keenly observes the gestures, facial expression and body language of the
speaker. In short, a good listener should be projective (i.e. one who tries
to understand the views of the speaker) and empathic (i.e. one who
concentrates not only on the surface meaning of the message but tries to
probe the feelings and emotions of the speaker).
4. Concentrate on the other speakers kindly and generously- A good
listener makes deliberate efforts to give a chance to other speakers also to
express their thoughts and views. He tries to learn from every speaker. He
evaluates the speaker’s ideas in spare time. He focuses on the content of
the speaker’s message and not on the speaker’s personality and looks.
5. Opportunisms- A good listener tries to take benefit from the
Opportunities arising. He asks “What’s in it for me?
To conclude, effective listening enhances the communication quality. It
makes all attentive. It encourages optimistic attitude, healthy relations and
more participation. It leads to better decision- making in an organization.
Effective listening is directly related to our ability to do team work. It must
be noted that “We listen at about an efficiency rate of 25 percent maximum,
and we remember only about 50 percent of what is delivered during a ten
minute speech/lecture/communication.”

1. Expression the speaker and continue eye contact

2. Be Helpful, But TranquilA ) be present b) give attention c)
direct yourself d) pay attention e) direct yourself
3. Keep An Open Mind
4. Listen And Try To Picture What The Narrator Is Saying.
5. Don't Disrupt And Don't Enforce Your Solution.
6. Pause and Ask for Clarifying Questions.
7. Ask questions
8. The Narrator Emotion.
9. Presenter Response.
10. Attention To What Isn't Said
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Listening Habits

Poor Listening Good Listening

People find the conversation boring and People who are really listening will not
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allow that to affect their concentration allow a subject matter to keep them
or lead them to tune the speaker out. from paying attention to the key points.
They also will make sure they continue
paying attention and avoid distractions.

A listener does not pay attention, A good listener would not fake paying
daydreams, or becomes distracted attention or engage in daydreaming.
rather than listening to the person She or he knows the importance of
speaking. making eye contact and showing
interest.

Those speakers who overreact to A good listener that disagrees with the
something they disagree with generally speaker or something the speaker has
tune the speaker out or just focus on said will remain calm and wait for an
what they want to say in rebuttal. appropriate time to inquire about the
point of disagreement.

Poor listening habits would include Good listening habits include not
finding fault with the speaker. evaluating speakers on the way they
Criticizing the speaker may mean that look or trying to find fault with them.
you find fault with the way he or she
looks, dresses, or speaks.

Poor listeners will try to zone in on just Good listeners will look more at the
the facts that the speaker may make, bigger picture and listen to everything,
rather than listening to everything and rather than just nitpicking particular
hearing the support for the facts. points.

Inappropriate listening includes A good listener approaches speakers

listening with a closed mind, bias, with an open mind and attitude,
and/or prejudice regarding the person showing respect to the speaker.
or topic.

A poor listener may engage in Good listeners will minimize or remove

doodling, checking text messages, distractions when they know they
making phone calls, snapping gum, or should be listening. By doing so, they
any number of other tasks, when have demonstrated to the speaker that
listening should be the focus. they are attentive and engaged in active
listening.
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Poor listeners pay no regard to body Good listeners realize that a good
language when it comes time to listen. portion of communication is done
They may keep their back to the through nonverbal means and that body
speaker, avoid eye contact, close their language often says much more than
arms as they listen, or even make faces words do. Good listeners make sure
in response to what they are hearing. their body language is open, relaxed,
and inviting.

A poor listener would interrupt the A good listener would wait for an
speaker to make his or her own point, appropriate time to bring up his or her
attack what is being said, etc. own points or ask questions about what
has been said. The listener also would
do it in a non-threatening or attacking
manner.

Overcoming the Poor Habits

As we all know, habits may be something that we are used to, but they are also
something that we have the ability to change. Most experts believe it takes
about three weeks to break a habit. In light of this, make it a conscious goal for
the next three to four weeks to try to address any poor listening habits you may
have. After you have followed good listening habits for several weeks in a row,
you will have overcome the poor habits and replaced them with good ones.
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Irritating Listening Habits

We all have habits, whether good or bad. We know that it takes about three
weeks or so to break a habit and create a new one, but how does one get started
in the first place? Just like Aristotle said, we are what we repeatedly do. When
you continuously do things over and over, they become a habit. That is why,
when you are trying to create a new habit, it is important that you perform the
desired behavior each day for at least three weeks. That will help get rid of an
old habit and replace it with a better one.

When it comes to listening skills, there are some habits that can be quite
irritating. Not just irritating to the speaker that you should be listening to, but
also to those around you. We all have probably been in a conference, class, or
even a movie when someone is not listening attentively, and it is irritating.
Whether the person is fidgeting, shaking a leg, or tapping a pen, it can distract
the speaker as well as everyone in the area.
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Identifying Irritating Habits

Here is an easy way to identify some irritating habits when it comes to listening
skills. Make a list of at least five things off the top of your head that you can
think of that would annoy or irritate you if someone were doing them while you
were speaking. A good rule of thumb is that if a behavior would irritate you,
then it will irritate others.

References

1 .^”Listen". oxforddictionaries.com. Oxford University. Retrieved 5

December 2018.
2 ^ Wrench, Jason. Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of
Public Speaking. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
3 ^ Halone, Kelby; Cunconan, Terry; Coakley, Carolyn; Wolvin, Andrew
(1998). "Toward the establishment of general dimensions underlying
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the listening process". International Journal of Listening. 12: 12–28.

doi:10.1080/10904018.1998.10499016.
4 ^ Barthes, Roland (1985). The Responsibility of Forms. New York Hill
and Wang.
5 ^ Barthes, Roland (1985). In the Responsibility of Forms. New York
Hill and Wang.
6 ^ Barthes, Roland (1985). The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays
on Music, Art, and Representation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
7 ^ "Active Listening". Search-credoreference-com.
8 ^ Hoppe, Michael. Active Listening: Improve Your Ability to Listen
and Lead. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
9 ^ Hoppe, Michael. Active Listening: Improve Your Ability to Listen
and Lead. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
10 ^ Jump up to:a b Rogers, Carl Ransom; Farson, Richard Evans (1957).
Active Listening. Industrial Relations Center, University of Chicago.
11 ^ Flowerdew, John; Miller, Lindsay (2005). Second Language
Listening: Theory and Practice. p. 4. ISBN 978-0521786478.
12 ^ Vásquez, Anete; Hansen, Angela L.; Smith, Philip C. (2013).
Teaching Language Arts to English Language Learners. p. 171. ISBN
978-0415641449.
13 ^ Flowerdew 2005,