Listening is an important yet undervalued part of communication that involves hearing, attending to, interpreting, and responding to messages. There are different types of listening like discriminative, comprehensive, critical, and empathetic listening suited to various situations. Effective listening techniques include making eye contact, keeping an open mind, not interrupting, and responding with body language. Barriers to listening can be environmental distractions, physical impairments, linguistic challenges, psychological factors, and uninteresting content.

1. Listening
PROCESS, TYPES, TECHNIQUES AND BARRIERS

2. “
”
We have but two ears and
mouth so that we may listen
twice as much as we speak
- THOMAS ALVA EDISON
Listening, despite being one of the most important part of communication is often the
most undervalued one.

3. Writing
10%
Reading
15%
Talking
30%
Listening
45%
Writing Reading Talking Listening
Of the total time we
spend in
communication, 10
percent is spent writing,
15 percent reading, 30
percent talking, and 45
percent listening

4. Hearing vs. Listening
 Hearing is an involuntary process that starts with
noise, vibrations, the movement of fluid in the ears
and sound sent to the brain.
 Listening is a voluntary act where we try to make
sense out of the noise our ear receives.

5. Process of Listening

6. Process of Listening
 Hearing, auditory perception, is
an involuntary process that starts
with noise, vibrations, the
movement of fluid in the ears and
sound sent to the brain.
Hearing

7. Process of Listening
 Here we are actually gathering the
words and sentences in our brain
to be used in the next stage.
 Think of the words and sentences
as if they are packages on a store
shelf. You just toss what you want
into your shopping cart.
Attending

8. Process of Listening
 In this stage, you begin to make
meaning of the words and
sentences
 Our understanding need not be
same as the speaker’s.
Interpreting

9. Process of Listening
 This is where you react to the
message by sending your own
message or a non-verbal gesture.
Responding

10. Types of Listening
…….FOR DIFFERENT
SITUATIONS

11. Discriminative Listening
• This is the most basic form of listening and does not involve the
understanding of the meaning of words or phrases but merely the
different sounds that are produced.
• If you cannot hear differences, you can’t understand it.
• Body languages and gestures play much role here.

12. Comprehensive listening
• Comprehensive listening involves understanding the
message or messages that are being communicated.
• To comprehend the meaning requires first having basic
knowledge of words and rules of grammar.
• Also known as Informative listening.

13. Critical Listening
• Critical listening is listening in
order to evaluate and judge,
forming opinion about what is
being said.
• Involve analysis of the information
being received with what we
already know.

14. Therapeutic or
Empathic Listening
• Empathic listening involves
attempting to understand the
feelings and emotions of the
speaker – to put yourself into the
speaker’s shoes and share their
thoughts.

15. Other types of listening……
 Appreciative listening -It is listening
for enjoyment. Usually music or other
forms of entertainment.
 Dialogic listening -When trying to
build rapport with others we can engage in
a type of listening that encourages the
other person to trust and like us.
 Selective listening -You hear only
what you want to. It is sign of failing
communication

16. Techniques of effective listening

17. Techniques of effective listening
Face the speaker
and make eye
contact.
But not too much.

18. Techniques of effective listening
Be attentive, but
relaxed.
Mentally screen out
distractions, like
background activity and
thoughts.

19. Techniques of effective listening
Keep an open
mind.
Listen without judging the
other person or jumping to
conclusions.

20. Techniques of effective listening
Don’t interrupt
Wait for the speaker to
pause before expressing
your opinion.

21. Techniques of effective listening
Respond with
body language.
Nodding and short verbal
comments are a huge
boost.

22. Techniques of effective listening
Ask questions only
to ensure
understanding.
Respond accordingly to
show interest.

23. Techniques of effective listening
Use appropriate
facial expressions.

24. Techniques of effective listening
Have an honest
response
When it's your turn to
speak, respond honestly
and openly - but always
politely.

25. Barriers to effective listening

26. Barriers to effective listening
Environmental barriers
Visual distractions.
Smoke, noise, temperature and
lighting.

27. Barriers to effective listening
Physical barriers
Physiological noise such as
pains, tiredness, hearing and
vision impairments.

28. Barriers to effective listening
Linguistic barriers
Jargon or sophisticated
language.
Monotonous voice.
Lack of clarity in speech.

29. Barriers to effective listening
Psychological Barriers
Anger, anxiety, frustration or
stress due to other factors.
Prejudice, racism, stereotypes
and other negative factors.

30. Barriers to effective listening
Perceptual Barriers
Seeing the same situation from
a different point of view.
Different backgrounds.
Different attitudes, beliefs.

31. Barriers to effective listening
Content Barrier
The content itself, is not
interesting or too difficult.
Too long.
Too repetitive.

32. Summary
 Process of Listening
 Hearing
 Attending
 Interpreting
 Responding
 Types of Listening
 Discriminative Listening
 Comprehensive Listening
 Critical Listening
 Empathetic Listening
 Appreciative, Dialogic and Selective Listening

33. Summary
 Techniques of effective listening
 Makin eye contact
 Keeping an open mind
 Not interrupting
 Responding using gestures and comments
 Barriers to effective listening
 Environmental Barriers
 Physical Barriers
 Linguistic & Perceptual Barriers
 Psychological Barriers
 Content Barriers