This document discusses active and passive listening. It defines active listening as paying close attention to the speaker through behaviors like making eye contact, nodding, and asking questions. Passive listening is described as just hearing what is said without fully engaging or learning. The key differences are that active listening involves interaction to convey understanding while passive listening is more unconscious without learning. It emphasizes that active listening is important to have effective communication and encourage discussion, while passive listening and distractions can prevent full comprehension. Methods to improve active listening include maintaining eye contact, asking questions, and repeating back what was said.

1. Government Engineering College ,
Bhavnagar.

2. Communication skills
Assignment
Active and Passive Listening
Name : Dhwani Bhadiyadra
Branch : I.T.
Semester : 1st
Year :2016-17
Enrollment No.: 160210116002
Guided By : Dr. Chetan Trivedi
Dr. Himanshu Shrivastav

3. Listening
• Listening is an important skill. It is a process of
recieving ,interpreting and reacting to the message
given by speaker.
• Listening activity is vital in process of one’s language
acquisition. However, not every listening activity can be
beneficial to listener as our response to the message
might be either passive or active.
• Active and passive listening are types of listening skills.
• So question arises in your mind –What is active
listening and Passive listening.
Source: Oxford Technical Communication by Meenakshi
Raman & Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

4. What is Active listening?
• Active listening is paying attention to the speaker , show
keenness in the speaker and speech by his expression and
by asking questions about the speech if required.
• Active listening can consist of both “verbal” and “non-
verbal “ clues.
• Verbal clues vary from repeating or summarizing parts of
what is being said to asking appropriate follow-up.
Whereas non-verbal clue includes nodding, eye contact etc.
For eg. student asking questions regarding a topic to the
teacher.
Source: Oxford Technical Communication by Meenakshi
Raman & Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

5. What is Passive listening?
• Passive listening is listening to various forms of communication in
an unconscious manner. It is not much different then “hearing”.
• Passive listener do not learn anything as quickly as active listener
because they tune out the meaning of the words being spoken and
allow themselves to think of other things while listening to the
speaker.
Source: Oxford Technical Communication by Meenakshi Raman &
Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

6. Difference
Active listening
• Paying attention to what
speaker is saying.
• Signs of behaviour:
Nodding, eye contact,
asking questions wherever
required
Passive listening
• Only hearing to what speaker is
saying.
• Signs of behaviour: Ungainly
postures like resting chin on
hand, bending forward too much
to show that he/she is paying
attention.
Source: Oxford Technical
Communication by Meenakshi
Raman & Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

7. Why is Active listening important?
• Active listening is important because it establishes a
connection between speaker and listener. This allows
for ease of interaction and ensures that messages are
being related completely and properly .It creates
positive working environment.
• Active listening will encourage the speaker to express
his ideas clearly and enthusiastically.
Source: Oxford Technical Communication by Meenakshi
Raman & Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

8. Distractions
• So now question arises in your mind even though
active listening is so muck important then why do
people do not listen actively?
• It is so because the person’s hearing capacity is much
more then its speaking ability. Therefore, person’s
mind tends to wander.
Also there are other distractions such as an attractive face
in the room, sometimes fragrance of perfume can also
be a distraction.
Source: Oxford Technical Communication by Meenakshi
Raman & Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

9. How to become an active listener ?
• To avoid being a passive listener practice active listening
techniques daily. Look at the person speaking and maintain
eye contact.
• Ask questions if what is being said is not understood and
repeat the information back if it helps to understand it
better.
Source: Oxford Technical Communication by Meenakshi
Raman & Sangeeta Sharma.
www.refernce.com

10. THANKYOU...