This document defines listening as receiving, understanding, and responding to spoken or non-verbal messages. It outlines four types of listening: appreciative listening for pleasure, empathic listening to support the speaker emotionally, comprehensive listening to understand messages such as lectures, and critical listening to evaluate messages for acceptance or rejection. The document also provides steps for active listening and cites statistics on how college students spend their time communicating.

4. Listening
Topic

5. Types of
Listening

6. Listening
The process of receiving,
constructing meaning from, and
responding to a spoken and/ or non-
verbal message.
By (International Reading
Association).

7. Types of Listening
• Appreciative Listening.
• Emphatic Listening.
• Comprehensive/Active Listening.
• Critical/ Analytical Listening.

8. Appreciative Listening
→ Listening for pleasure and
enjoyment, as when we listen to
music, to a comedy routine, or to an
entertaining speech.

9. Emphatic Listening
→ Listening to provide emotional
support for the speaker, as when a
psychiatrist listens to a patient or
when we lend a sympathetic ear to a
friend.

10. Comprehensive/
Active Listening
→ Listening to understand the message of a
speaker, as when we attend a classroom
lecture or listen to directions for finding a
friend’s house.

11. Steps in Active Listening
1. Listening carefully by using all available
senses.
2. Paraphrasing what is heard both
mentally and verbally.
3. Checking your understanding to ensure
accuracy.
4. Providing feedback.

12. Critical/ Analytical Listening
→Listening to evaluate a message for purposes
of accepting or rejecting it, as when we listen
to the sales pitch of a used-car dealer or the
campaign speech of a political candidate.

13. Listening
53%
Reading
17%
Speaking
16%
Writing
14%
Proportions of item spent by college students in
communication activities

14. References
• www.Wikipedia.com
• Technical Communication
• Communication Skills
• Vibrant English (Orient BlackSwan)