This document discusses the components of active listening. It identifies four major components: attending, paraphrasing, reflecting feeling, and reflecting meaning. It also identifies five additional components: testing understanding, questioning, building, feedback, and summarizing. Each component is described in one to two sentences. For example, paraphrasing is defined as putting the other person's thoughts into your own words to verify understanding, and reflecting feeling expresses the emotions the other person may not have stated directly. The document provides examples to illustrate each component of active listening.

1. Skill of Listening
Components of listening
M.Vijayalakshmi
Assistant Professor

2. B4 EL CS –
COMMUNICATION SKILLS

3. Unit – 2 :
Skill of Listening
2.1 Listening as a receptive skill.
2.2 Rules for effective listening.
2.3 Components of listening.
2.4 Evaluation of listening - Immediate recall,
recognizing transitions, recognizing word
meaning and Listening comprehension.
2.5 Teacher's Role in the development of
Listening skill among the students.

4. Unit – 2 :
Skill of Listening
2.3 Components of listening.

6. • Active listeners concentrate, clarify,
and check the meaning, content,
context, and intent of what others
say.
• You have to try to understand what
the other person is saying, feeling,
or thinking, then put that
understanding into words, feeding it
back to them for verification.

7. Four major Components of
Active Listening
• Attending (The Use Of Body
Language)
• Paraphrasing
• Reflecting Feeling
• Reflecting Meaning

8. Attending
(The Use of Body Language)
• Sit or stand a comfortable distance from
the speaker.
• Face the person directly and lean
forward.
• Maintain eye contact
• Nod approval or agreement.

9. Paraphrasing
• Put other’s thought into your own
words to verify you understand
what they are trying to say.
• Example: “So let me see, you
mean...”

10. Reflecting Feeling
• Express emotions that the other
person may have not put into
words.
• Example: “That must make you feel
sad.”

11. Reflecting Meaning
• Restate the feeling/ emotion with
reason.
• Example: “You must feel sad
because...”

14. Active listening has five components
• Testing understanding
• Questioning
• Building
• Feedback
• Summarising

15. Testing understanding
• Testing your understanding by clarifying what
the speaker has said ensures you have the
correct facts and demonstrates that you have
understood.
• Eliciting facts is one of the basics of active
listening.
• A simple way of demonstrating this
component in conversations is to rephrase or
restate what has been said back to the
speaker.

16. Questioning
• There will be occasions when clarification of what has been
said is necessary to find out more as well as testing your
understanding.
• More background information or other facts and figures
may be necessary for decision-making purposes.
• Asking probing questions allows you to do this while also
demonstrating that you have been listening to all that the
speaker has said.
• Questioning by group members also prevents the speaker
going on too long without a break for information to be
absorbed.
• Some people tend to give messages full of fascinating facts
but much too detailed for a single sitting.
• Asking for clarification breaks this monotony and also
enables the speaker to arrange the information into
manageable chunks which people may find easier to digest.

19. Building
• Building on someone’s proposal or idea is
another component of active and effective
listening.
• Listening is not about sitting back and waiting for
the information to come to you, it is about adding
to the speaker’s point of view with ideas of your
own, whilst taking care not to hijack the original
idea.
• A simple way of building is to highlight those
aspects or points you like about the information
you have been given and to share any of your
own associated ideas or facts.

20. Feedback
• Active listening also involves giving feedback
to the speaker about how their message
affected you.
• Reflecting back feelings and emotions enables
you to check you have understood the
speaker’s sentiments and allows you to
empathise.
• It also gives the speaker a chance to correct
any misconceptions that may have
inadvertently been conveyed.

21. Feedback
• Feedback should follow the following five
rules. It should be:
• Non-judgemental
• Clear
• Honest
• Immediate
• Brief

22. Summarising
• Summarising is a critical skill for active listening.
• It clarifies and reinforces the message for both listener
and speaker.
• It finishes off one subject, creating the opportunity to
move onto another, and gives the speaker the chance
to correct the listener if they summarise inaccurately.
• It may be appropriate to do this after each defined
topic, especially when a decision has been taken.
• Alternatively, it is sometimes preferable to save the
summarising to the very end of the conversation and
then go over the notes to collate what has been said
and agreed.

23. Encouragement
• The purpose is to convey interest and to keep
the person talking.
• To do this don’t agree or disagree. Use
noncommittal words in a positive tone of
voice.
• “I see…” “uh-huh…” “That’s interesting”
“What did you say then?” “What did he say
when you said that?”
• Be aware of your body language!

24. Restating
• The purpose is to show that you are listening
and understanding.
• To do this, restate the other’s basic ideas using
your own words.
• “If I understand you, you are saying…” “In
other words, your decision is…”
• Be aware of your body language!

25. Reflecting
• The purpose is to show that you are listening
and understand what they are feeling.
• To do this restates the other’s basic feeling.
• “You feel that…” “You were pretty disturbed
by this…”
• Be aware of your body language!

26. Summarizing
• The purpose is to pull important ideas, facts,
etc. together, to establish a basis for further
discussion and to review progress.
• To do this restate, reflect and summarize
major ideas and feelings.
• “These seem to be the key ideas you have
expressed…” “If I understand you, you feel this
way about the situation…”
• Be aware of your body language!

27. Reflecting
• Purpose
– To show that you understand how the person
feels.
• Action
– Reflects the speaker’s basic feelings.
• Example:
“You seem very upset.”

28. Encouraging
• Purpose
– To convey interest.
– To encourage the other person to keep talking.
• Action
– Don’t agree or disagree.
– Use neutral words.
– Use varying voice intonations.
• Example
– “Can you tell me more…?”

29. Summarizing
• Purpose
– To review progress.
– To pull together important ideas and facts.
– To establish a basis for further discussion.
• Action
– Restate major ideas expressed, including feelings.
• Example
– “These seem to be the key ideas you’ve expressed…”

30. Clarifying
• Purpose
– To help you clarify what is said.
– To get more information.
– To help the speaker see other points of view.
• Action
– Ask questions.
– Restate wrong interpretation to force the speaker to explain further.
• Example
– “When did this happen?”
– “Do I have this right? You think he told you to give him the pencil
because he doesn’t like you?”

31. Restating
• Purpose
– To show you are listening and understanding what is being
said.
– To help the speaker see other points of view.
• Action
– Restate basic ideas and facts.
• Example
– “So you would like your friends to include you at recess, is
that right?”

32. Validating
• Purpose
– To acknowledge the worthiness of the other person.
• Action
– Acknowledge the value of their issues and feelings.
– Show appreciation for their efforts and actions.
• Example
– “I truly appreciate your willingness to resolve this matter.”

34. Sources are taken from
•Slidesharenet.com
•Web sources