Active Listening means being deeply engaged in and attentive to what the speaker is saying.

It
requires more listening than talking. Active listening involves listening with all senses. As well
as giving full attention to the speaker, it is important that the ‘active listener’ is also ‘seen’ to be
listening - otherwise the speaker may conclude that what they are talking about is uninteresting
to the listener. Interest can be conveyed to the speaker by using both verbal and non-verbal
messages such as maintaining eye contact, nodding your head and smiling, agreeing by saying
‘Yes’ or simply ‘Mmm hmm’ to encourage them to continue. By providing this 'feedback' the
person speaking will usually feel more at ease and therefore communicate more easily, openly
and honestly.
Signs of Active Listening

1. Smile
Small smiles can be used to show that the listener is paying attention to what is being said or as a
way of agreeing or being happy about the messages being received. Combined with nods of the
head, smiles can be powerful in affirming that messages are being listened to and understood.
2. Eye Contact
It is normal and usually encouraging for the listener to look at the speaker. Eye contact can
however be intimidating, especially for more shy speakers – gauge how much eye contact is
appropriate for any given situation. Combine eye contact with smiles and other non-verbal
messages to encourage the speaker.

3. Posture
Posture can tell a lot about the sender and receiver in interpersonal interactions. The attentive
listener tends to lean slightly forward or sideways whilst sitting. Other signs of active listening
may include a slight slant of the head or resting the head on one hand.

4. Mirroring
Automatic reflection/mirroring of any facial expressions used by the speaker can be a sign of
attentive listening. These reflective expressions can help to show sympathy and empathy in more
emotional situations. Attempting to consciously mimic facial expressions (i.e. not automatic
reflection of expressions) can be a sign of inattention.

5. Distraction
The active listener will not be distracted and therefore will refrain from fidgeting, looking at a
clock or watch, doodling, playing with their hair or picking their fingernails.
Passive Listening
What is Passive Listening
Passive listening is basically hearing something without responding to it. When you are listening
passively, you’ll sit quietly without giving any response or reaction. For example, listening to
music, watching the news, listening to a lecture, etc. In passive listening, there is a tendency of
our mind moving to other topics from time to time; although you think that you are listening to
something, you are not actually understanding what is being said. Therefore, passive listening is
one-way communication. Since there is no feedback or questions in passive listening, the speaker
also has no way of knowing whether to listener understood the message or not. However, passive
listeners also may sit quietly without any interruptions, just like in active listening. In such cases,
you can identify an active listener from his or her non-verbal cues.
Active Passive

Involves full concentration in the Involves listening without proper focus or giving
listening process and giving full attention full attention to the speaker
to the speaker Listener demotivates the speaker by showing
Listener stimulates the speaker to speak boredom and disinterest, on his face.
up his reacts
Listener ideas or
willingly, by displaying
respond while listening Listening without reacting

One-way Communication
Two-way Communication
Feedback and Questions are Present No feedback no questions

Change in body language facial No change in body language and facial expression s
expression etc
Involves eye contact No eye contact

Empathy is present as the listeners tries Empathy is not present

to relate with the speakers

Types of Listening

1. Informational listening

When we want to learn something, we use informational listening to understand and retain
information. This type of listening is not evaluative and is common in teaching and learning
contexts. This helps us to learn new concepts and ideas. We listen to learn not to judge. It is used
in day to day life . People following this listening are curious and keen learners.
It usually takes a high level of concentration to perform this type of listening. That’s
because we need to be highly engaged to understand a new concept.

Some examples of informational listening include:

 Work training
 Self-paced learning at home or at work
 Listening to an educational ebook
 Coaching

Informational listening, helps to become a better learner. By actively learning and

improving yourself, we can improve our knowledge .

2. Discriminative listening is a focused and usually instrumental type of listening that is

primarily physiological and occurs mostly at the receiving stage of the listening process. Here we
engage in listening to scan and monitor our surroundings in order to isolate particular auditory or
visual stimuli. For example, we may focus our listening on a dark part of the yard while walking
the dog at night to determine if the noise we just heard presents us with any danger. Or we may
look for a particular nonverbal cue to let us know our conversational partner received our
message.[8] In the absence of a hearing impairment, we have an innate and physiological ability
to engage in discriminative listening. Although this is the most basic form of listening, it
provides the foundation on which more intentional listening skills are built. This type of listening
can be refined and honed.
3. Critical Listening: Critical listening is when the objective is to evaluate or judge. We try to
judge what is being said. Critical listening is usually involves some sort of problem solving or
decision making. It is used when we have to take some decisions and we try to listen whether to
do something or not. It helps us in finding the solutions to the problems. Either we shall agree or
disagree. It helps us in forming an opinion. We try to find our interest and then accordingly pay
attention. Critical listening is also content oriented listening.
4. Sympathetic Listening: Sympathetic listening is managed by emotion. Instead of
focusing on the message spoken through words, the listener focuses on the feelings and
emotions of the speaker. By using sympathetic listening, you can provide the support the
speaker needs. You can understand how they’re really feeling, not what they say they are
feeling. Sympathetic listening is crucial if you want to build a deeper relationship with
someone in your life. For example, let’s say you run into a work colleague at the grocery
store. They seem upset, so you decide to listen to what they have to say.

5. Empathetic listening is useful to help you see from other people’s perspectives. Using this
type of listening, you can try to understand someone else’s point of view as they’re
speaking. You can also try to imagine yourself in the other person’s shoes. Instead of just
focusing on their message, you can use empathetic listening to relate to someone else’s
experiences as if they were your own. This is different from sympathetic listening.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your superior just announced that this week’s company outing is canceled due to
budget cuts.

By using empathetic listening, you can tell how much pressure your superior is feeling. You
can imagine yourself having to break the bad news.

6. Selective Listening: Biased listening is also known as selective listening. Someone who
uses biased listening will only listen for information that they specifically want to hear.
This listening process can lead to a distortion of facts. That’s because the person
listening isn’t fully in tune with what the speaker wishes to communicate. t involves
consciously or unconsciously choosing to listen to what is relevant to you and ignore what
isn't. We filter the information depending on our likes and dislikes.

Here’s an example: you pay more attention to chemistry lectures because it is your favorite
subject but not physics because you don’t like it