Types of Listening
focused on CRITICAL
(Analytical Listening)
Did you know?
Research shows that
45% (listening)
30% (speaking)
16% (reading)
9% (writing)
30% (non-communication)
(Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas, 2012)
4 Types of Listening
Appreciative
Empathic
Comprehensive
CRITICAL/ ANALYTICAL
Appreciative Listening
Listening for enjoyment
Example:
When you listen to your favorite music and you
enjoy singing along with it
Empathic Listening
to show mutual
Listening
concern
Example:
When your friend shares with you her problem, you
listen empathically by being present at the moment or by
being mindful about what she is sharing
Comprehensive Listening
Listening to understand
Example:
While your teacher lectures on a certain lesson, you
are also taking down notes and participating in the
discussion (Active Listening)
Critical/Analytical Listening
Listening to evaluate the
content of the message
Example:
When your friend tells you of being grounded because
of cellphone addiction, hence, his father captured his phone.
As a critical/analytical listener, you have to weigh both sides
by evaluating and analyzing what you heard, then process
the information you gathered whether valid or not.
Let us
review:
1. This type of listening is for the purpose of enjoyment.
2. This type of listening is also known as ACTIVE
listening.
3. This type of listening is to show mutual concern to the
speaker.
4. This type of listening is to take down notes during a
lecture.
5. This type of listening to evaluate the content of the
message.
7 Types of Listening
STYLES
DISCRIMINATIVE Listening
It is the first form of listening humans develop as
babies
This basic type of listening precedes the understanding
of words and relies on tone of voice and other
subtleties of sound to understand meaning
and intention.
DISCRIMINATIVE Listening
Babies don’t understand words, but they rely on
their discriminative listening to understand who is
speaking and what mood is being communicated.
As an adult, you may find yourself relying on
discriminative listening when people around you
are speaking a foreign language that you don’t
understand.
DISCRIMINATIVE Listening
Though you may lack the language skills to
understand the words being spoken, you
can rely on the tone of voice and
inflection to derive a vague meaning.
INFLECTION- articulation, accent, modulation
DISCRIMINATIVE Listening
VISUAL STIMULI
Mannerisms
Facial Expressions
Body Language
SPEAKER’S MESSAGE
COMPREHENSIVE Listening
It is the next level of critical listening skills that humans
usually develop in early childhood.
It requires basic language skills and
vocabulary to understand what is being
communicated.
Comprehensive listening is the overall category that
covers most other forms of listening that critical listeners
utilize.
COMPREHENSIVE Listening
People use comprehensive listening
paired with verbal cues
to
understand what messages are
being communicated to them.
Verbal cues-the use of words employed through spoken
language that elicit a response from the listener
INFORMATIONAL Listening
Otherwise called as informative listening, is the type
of listening people use when they are trying to learn
It is build upon basic comprehensive listening and requires a
high level of concentration and
engagement to understand new concepts and
comprehend technical jargon.
Technical jargon-refers to the words or expressions that belong
to a certain field of knowledge which can only be understood by the
specialized people who work on a specific field
INFORMATIONAL Listening
This has less to do with the
emotional content of what is being
communicated and more to do with
critical thinking and following a
logical sequence as it is
communicated.
CRITICAL Listening
It is the style of listening people use when they are
trying to analyze and judge complex
information that is being communicated to them.
CRITICAL Listening
When you are problem-solving on the job and trying to
decide if you agree with a proposal being floated by one
of your coworkers
The word “critical” has multiple meanings, but in this
case, it simply means that you are evaluating
information- not necessarily passing judgment.
BIASED Listening
It is otherwise called as selective listening
It is a type of listening behavior demonstrated when
someone is just listening for information that they want to
hear.
Biased listening is different from critical listening because
the listener is NOT honestly evaluating the validity of
to
the speaker’s opinions, but rather is looking
confirm previously-held biases.
BIASED Listening
People are often unaware that they are using a biased
listening process.
Biased listening can lead to a distortion of facts in
the mind of a listener who is not tuned in to what a
speaker intends to communicate.
SYMPATHETIC Listening
This is an emotionally-driven type of relationship listening,
processes the feelings
wherein a listener
and emotions of a speaker and tries to provide
support and understanding in return.
Example:
You might use sympathetic listening when a child tells
you about the trouble he had at school.
In this case you use a sympathetic listening style to make
the child feel heard and give him support and comfort.
SYMPATHETIC Listening
Sympathetic listening is an
important type of listening to use
when trying to establish a deep
connection with another person,
especially when that person is
experiencing adversity.
THERAPEUTIC/EMPATHETIC
Listening
Therapeutic or empathetic listening
is a listening process wherein a
listener tries to understand the
point of view of a speaker and
imagines themselves directly in the
speaker’s position.
THERAPEUTIC/EMPATHETIC
Listening
Empathetic listening (sometimes
referred to as empathic listening)
goes a step further than sympathetic
listening in that an empathic listener
will relate to the speaker’s
experience as if it were their own.
Information gathering is the act of getting varied kinds of
information for a particular reason or purpose. The type of
information you are trying to obtain, as well as the people or
other resources providing the information will determine which
techniques you should use.
The common methods in gathering information are the
following:
[Link] 5. questionnaires
[Link] 6. observation
[Link] 7. study of existing reports
[Link]
Tay (2020) identifies some of the effective
informational listening approaches which are:
Info listening. Make sure you receive the same
thoughts which speakers are trying to convey.
Don't judge or argue prematurely. Try to
understand the speaker's ideas before judging
them.
Look for key ideas. Listen carefully to the speaker
to find out the main ideas that he or she is trying to
convey.
Paraphrase. Restate in your own words the
message of the speaker. Repeating the speaker’s
words as he or she says them will strengthen his or
her message and help you to stay attentive.
Other skills that help with informational listening are
according to Gonzalez (2020):
Knowledge of Vocabulary. The more words we
know, the more we can understand. Therefore,
increasing mastery of vocabulary through techniques
like learning a new word a day or reading books can
contribute in being a good informational listener.
Concentration. We need to be motivated to focus,
stay disciplined in the face of distractions, actively
and mentally say no to distractions, and accept
responsibility in getting the task at hand
accomplished. Informational listening requires
immense concentration.
Memory. With good memory, we can recall
experiences and information from our lives to help
make sense of information in informational listening.
Refraining from Judgment. This skill requires an
open mind. If we begin judging and jumping to
conclusions when attempting to properly listen and
retain information, our mind will wander and possibly
miss valuable pieces of information.
Organization. This means identifying key concepts
from auditory information and mentally organizing them
into an outline so that you can better understand and
remember material.
Asking Questions. If listening to a panel discussion,
asking mental questions to further grasp the
information as the speakers are talking can mean that
the listener is truly comprehending the information
that is being said.
Taking Notes. This is a common skill that enhances
informational listening in school. One valuable tip in
taking notes is to only write down key concepts and
terms instead of trying to write down everything that
is being said.
Self-Check
Write the complete word YES if you have already acquired the listening skill,
the complete word NO if you haven’t and the complete word IMPROVING if
you are still developing the listening skill.
1. I make eye contact when I am being talked to.
2. I carefully study the gestures and facial expressions to fully understand
the person I am conversing with.
3. I listen with the goal of fully understanding the speaker’s point of view.
4. I refrain from interrupting.
5. I am not distracted by anything the speaker has my full attention.
6. I try to listen intently to remember the speaker’s important points.
7. I remain neutral and open minded while listening to the speaker.
8. I refrain from judging the message of others.
9. I give time to the person I am conversing with to express her thoughts
before I ask questions.
10. I listen to improve relationship with others