Listening Skills

Listening Skills Trisha Cummings

How to Listen Well • The following tips will help you listen well. • maintain eye contact; • don't interrupt the speaker; • sit still; • nod your head; • lean toward the speaker; • repeat instructions and ask appropriate questions when the speaker has finished.

Doing these things will also demonstrate to the speaker that you are paying attention. While you may in fact be able to listen while looking down at the floor, doing so may imply that you are not. A good listener knows that being attentive to what the speaker doesn't say is as important as being attentive to what he does say. Look for non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and posture to get the full gist of what the speaker is telling you

Barriers to Listening • Beware of the following things that may get in the way of listening. • bias or prejudice; • language differences or accents; • noise; • worry, fear, or anger; and • lack of attention span.

Experts say that about two-thirds of everything you learn, you learn through listening. • Yet, very few people are good listeners. "The average person remembers only about 25 percent of what he or she hears, and some people remember as little as 10 percent. • The problem is that while hearing is incredibly easy, listening takes a real effort." • (Amberg, Jay. The Study Skills Handbook. "Learning to Listen," p. 59.)

Listening Skills