Listening is an active process that involves paying close attention to and making sense of what we hear. It is the most basic skill and the first one learned as children acquire language. True listening requires discriminating sounds, recognizing words, identifying meanings, and recalling important information. The listening process involves both top-down processing, where listeners use background knowledge, and bottom-up processing, where they focus on individual words and sounds. To listen effectively, one must stop talking, show interest, ask questions, maintain eye contact, take notes, and avoid distractions. Developing strong listening skills is important for communication, understanding, and building relationships.

1. LISTENING SKILL: KEY TO EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Khushboo Shah

2. WHAT IS LISTENING?
 Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting and reacting to the
messages received from the communication sender.
 It is an active, purposeful process of making sense of what we hear.
 It is the first skill that learners develop while acquiring first language.
 This is the most basic skill which may be considered as indispensable for
learning all other skills.

3. FALLACIES ABOUT LISTENING
 Listening is not my problem!
 Listening and hearing are the same.
 Good readers are good listeners.
 Smarter people are better listeners.
 Listening improves with age.
 Listening skills are difficult to learn.

4. LISTENING VS HEARING
 Hearing involves the vibration of sound wave on our eardrums and the
firing of electrochemical impulses from the inner ear to the central auditory
system of the brain.
 Listening involves paying close attention to, and making sense of, what we
hear.
 Thus hearing is the first step of listening.

5. SKILLS OF COMMUNICATION: PROFILE
Communication Order Learnt Extent Used Extent Taught
Listening First First Fourth
Speaking Second Second Third
Reading Third Third Second
Writing Fourth Fourth First

6. PRE REQUISITES FOR LISTENING
 Discriminating between sounds.
 Recognizing words.
 Identifying stressed words and grouping of words.
 Identifying functions (such as apologizing) in conversations
 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
 Using background knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning.
 Recalling important words, topics and ideas.
 Giving appropriate feed back to the speaker.
 Reformulate what the speaker has said.

7. PROCESS OF LISTENING
Process of Listening

8. TYPES OF LISTENING
 Active listening
 Selective listening
 Empathetic listening
 Ignoring listening
 Casual listening

9. APPROACHES TO LISTENING
 Bottom up processing -With Bottom-up processing, listeners start with the
component parts: words, grammar and the like
 Top down processing - Top down process is the opposite of Bottom-up,
listeners start from their background knowledge
During listening process, a combination of the two processes is used to make
the text sensible for the listener. Thus, it is generally accepted that top-down
and bottom-up processes are utilized together during the listening process.

10. PURPOSE OF LISTENING
 Listening for gist: listening to get a general idea
 Listening for specific information: listening just to get a specific piece of
information
 Listening in detail: listening to every detail, and try to understand as much as
possible
 Listening to infer: listening to understand how listeners feel
 Listening to questions and responding: listening to answer questions
 Listening to descriptions: listening for a specific description

11. IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING
 God gives us two ears but only one mouth, because listening is twice as hard as
talking.
 Better understanding of assignments and what is expected of you.
 Build rapport with friends, co-workers, bosses, and clients.
 Show support.
 Work better in a team-based environment.
 Resolve problems with customers, co-workers, and bosses.
 Answer questions; and find underlying meanings in what others say.

12. BARRIERS TO LISTENING
 Environmental factors
 Personal factors
 Attention span
 Listener’s attitude
 Lack of background knowledge
 Content is too difficult
 Language
 Speaker

13. LISTENING AS SOFT SKILL
 Be attentive while listening
 Do not hurt the speaker’s feeling.
 Provide problem solving environment.
 Understand emotion and feeling of speaker.
 Use body language while listening
 Use words like “I understand you‟ or “I see‟
 Do not interrupt/interrogate/teach/give advice/rehearse in your own head.
 Use open ended question

14. STAGES OF LISTENING
 Pre listening stage
 While listening stage
 Post listening stage

15. PRE LISTENING STAGE
In this stage called" introductory or preparatory", listeners are
required to bring their attitudes, previous knowledge about the
topic etc., they are going to tackle. They should be given a reason
to listen, a chance to discuss and predict what they are going to
listen.

16. WHILE LISTENING STAGE
This phase refers to the duration of listening. While- listening
activities guide the listeners to collect or catch the necessary
information for an overall listening comprehension. Those
activities ensure the active nature of the process in the fact that
grasping every word while listening is not necessary. It consists of
getting the information and immediately performing something
with it.

17. POST LISTENING STAGE
This phase includes feedback to a listening activity. This, in
general, is very important. It is good for listeners to realize that
they have been doing something useful and interesting. For that
reason, post listening activities refer to all activities which can be
practiced after the while-listening phase. Those listening activities
are used as a springboard onto other language skills such as
reading, speaking and writing.

18. ACTIVE LISTENING
 It is the process of converting an idea or thought into message with complete
involvement.
 Listener encourages the speaker to express his ideas by showing interest in the speech.
 It is a two way process where listener plays an active role.
 Active listener never neglects the physical aspects of the speaker such as appearance,
expressions, and bodily movements
To encourage the speaker active listener responds verbally or non-verbally
 Active listening leads to effective and sound listener-speaker relationship.
 Active listener shows his thirst for knowledge by asking relevant questions frequently

19. VERBAL PROMPTS FOR ACTIVE LISTENING
 “Tell me more…”
 “Why do you say that?”
 “For example?”
 “How so?”
 “And?”
 “Then?”
 “Such as…”
 “So?”
 “Because?”

20. PASSIVE LISTENING
 It is the process of just absorbing the message without any involvement.
 The listener discourages the speaker by expressing boredom on his face.
 It is a one way process where the listener plays no role.
 Passive listener has nothing to do with these physical aspects as he wants to
bring out no meaning from the spoken words.
 Passive listener also responds non-verbally by yawning and showing boredom
on face and discourages the speaker.
 No scope for listener-speaker relationship and in fact the speaker wants to
avoid such listeners.

21. HOW TO LISTEN EFFECTIVELY
 Stop Talking –Be Silent
 Show Interest
 Empathize
 Ask Questions
 Maintain Eye Contact
 Take notes
 Listen Creatively
 Send feedback
 Avoid or eliminate distraction
 Try to gather information about the topic to develop interest and familiarity.

22. Thank You For Listening!