Sunday, August 8, 2021

Learning to listen actively

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Active listening is a skill that any good speaker should learn. On the web you can find several succinct descriptions of how to listen actively.

 

The briefest one is a single-page .pdf file titled Tips for Active Listening. It has two notecard-size pages from NHS University Hospitals Dorset in an A5 format (148 x 210 mm or 5.83 x 8.27 in.).

 

A second is an excellent two-page .pdf about Active Listening from the Office of the Ombuds at Boston University. The first page is a table about the processes of paraphrasing, clarifying, reflecting, and summarizing. It has four columns describing: what it’s called, how to do it, why do it, and examples of active listening responses. The second page has another table with a cheat sheet of ‘feeling’ words.

 

A third is a web page at MindTools on Active Listening which also can be downloaded as a single-page .pdf. It is accompanied both by an infographic and a three-minute YouTube video titled Improve your listening skills with active listening.

   

If you want more detail, then at the WholeBeingInstitute you can download a five-page article from 1987 by Carl R. Rogers and Richard E. Farson titled Active Listening.

 

There also is an eight-page .pdf white paper from Mosaic titled Active Listening & Effective Questioning (or here from McGill University).

 

Toastmasters International has a project on Active Listening in its new Pathways educational program. It is an elective at level three in the Engaging Humor, Motivational Strategies, and Presentation Mastery paths. It is required at level two in the other eight paths. But the material there is not as well organized as the sources I already described.

 

The July 2020 Toastmaster magazine has an article by Peggy Beach titled Are You Listening? I blogged about how it opens in a August 5, 2020 post titled When doing research, your attention span should be more than 10 seconds.  

 

The image was adapted from a painting (Grandma Tells Tales) at Wikimedia Commons.

 


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