Types of Listening

• Informative Listening

• Extensive listening

• Intensive listening

• Appreciative listening

• Emphatic listening

• Comprehensive listening

• Critical listening
Informative Listening
• Listening to gather information, such as facts, directions, news, or
instructions.
• It is considered a passive form of listening because the listener is not
judging, critiquing, or evaluating the message; they are just listening to
understand it.
• Examples:
• taking notes in class business meetings
• listening to the news eavesdropping
• getting directions listening to the advertisements
• Lane sits in her high school biology class and tunes into what her
teacher is saying. She is only interested in understanding the message
that the teacher is conveying about that day's topic. Lane is engaging
in informational listening.

• Now, Lane (from the opening scenario) is listening to a lesson about

evolution in her biology class. In order to successfully engage in
informational listening, Lane must keep her Catholic religious beliefs
at bay in order to abstain from judgment and critique of the message
the teacher is trying to convey.
Skills in Informational Listening
• Informational listening helps us learn, become smarter, and become better
at what we do in life. Therefore, it is clear that polishing skills that
improve our informational listening abilities is advantageous to our lives.

• Knowledge of vocabulary
• Concentration
• Memory
• Refraining from judgement
• Organization
• Taking notes
Advantages of Informative Listening

• Provides additional information or knowledge of a certain topic of issue

• Resolves conflicts

• Facilitates good listening skills hence, listeners develop the ability to

focus more during discussions

• Clarifies incorrect messages or information received

 Extensive/ Discriminative listening
• It occurs in a situation where the teacher encourages students to choose for
themselves what they listen to, using their own materials for the purpose of
pleasure and language improvement (Harmer, 1998). It usually takes place
outside the classroom and done for its own sake.

• Listening to distinguish between all the sounds in your environment.

• This technique is all about general listening and getting the general meaning of
audios.

• This in the language learning field is known as listening for gist.

Intensive listening

• This is all about analysing the language.

• Refers to the process of listening for precise sounds words, phrases,

grammatical units, and pragmatic units.

• Listening to single out one particular sound with exactness and clarity.
Appreciative Listening
• Listening for pleasure and enjoyment, as when we listen to music, or
to a comedy routine, or to an entertaining speech.
• The American Society for Training and Development recommends
that, to truly embark in appreciative listening, you should avoid
engaging in other communications and focus solely on the sounds or
words.
• So, when someone is speaking to you, put your phone down!
Emphatic Listening

• Listening to another person’s feelings or thoughts, with the ability to put

yourself in their shoes.

• When a psychiatrist listens to a patient or when we lend a sympathetic ear

to a friend.

• Focus on understanding and identifying with a person’s situation, feelings,

or motives.
 Comprehensive 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.

• Focusses on accurately understanding the meaning of the speaker’s words

while simultaneously interpreting non-verbal cues, such as facial
expressions, gestures, posture, and vocal quality.
Critical/ Analytical Listening

• Listening to examine and evaluate the message for logic, truth, and value.

• Listening to evaluate a message for purposes of accepting or rejecting it.

• Example, when we listen to the sales pitch of a used-car dealer, or the

campaign speech of a political candidate

• Focus on whether message is logical and reasonable

Steps in Active Listening

• Listen carefully by using all available senses

• Paraphrasing what is heard both mentally and verbally

• Providing feedback (verbal and non-verbal)

• Non-verbal: eye contact, head nods, facial expressions

• Checking your understanding to ensure accuracy