Active Listening in English Improve English Communication Skills
Hi, I’m Marie.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn about active
listening.
What’s ‘active listening’?
You’ll find out in detail in the rest of
this lesson.
You’ll see why listening is not just a passive
skill, and how developing active listening
skills will improve not only your English
listening, but also your English communication
skills more generally.
Before we start, you should take a look at
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including vocabulary notes and quizzes to
practise.
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with your English.
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Now, let’s get back to our topic.
What is ‘active listening?’
Oh yeah, I meant to tell you: I got a message
from that woman.
You know, the one who told me she had met
me before, but in Peru?
It’s unbelievable, but it turns out I have
an identical twin sister, and we were separated
at birth.
And that’s…
I mean…
That’s big news, right?
Yes.
That’s why you need active listening.
Listening is often described as a passive
skill.
However, when you’re talking to someone,
especially face-to-face, you can’t be completely
passive.
The listener in a conversation has to take
part.
If you’re listening to someone, you need
to give feedback.
You need to show that you’re interested,
or not.
You need to show that you understood, or you
didn’t.
If you don’t, it’s difficult for the other
person to continue, and the conversation will
become awkward.
Sometimes, we meet English learners who have
the problem you saw in the dialogue.
They don’t give any feedback.
It’s difficult to communicate like that.
We understand; it’s because you’re focusing
so much on hearing the words and understanding
the meaning.
You don’t have spare energy for anything
else.
Anyway, what is active listening?
Active listening means that you take part
in the conversation even when you’re not
speaking.
You give feedback, either verbally or non-verbally.
Active listening is essential, and it will
help your English in many ways.
We’ll give you one important example.
Often, English learners don’t want to show
that they haven’t understood something.
Often, it’s because they feel embarrassed,
or they don’t want people to judge them
for their English.
If this is your situation, you might stay
silent when people are speaking, and you won’t
ask the other person to speak more slowly,
or repeat points, or explain things again.
This makes communication difficult.
The other person doesn’t know what you have
or haven’t understood.
They won’t know what to do to help you understand.
But, if you give the right feedback, communication
will become easier.
You’ll be able to show what you don’t
hear or don’t understand, and the person
you’re talking to will have a chance to
adjust.
That’s just one example.
There are many more; active listening is essential
for clear, comfortable communication.
So, what do you need to do to be an active
listener?
Oh hey, I wanted to tell you something about
the cottage for our Wales trip.
Oh yeah?
It turns out that they got the prices wrong,
and the actual cost is much more expensive.
Mm-hmm.
So, we’re going to look for something else.
It’s short notice, but hopefully we can
find something.
OK.
If we find something, we’ll have to book
it fast, so check the WhatsApp group.
Uh-huh.
I mean, do you want to check out whatever
we find before we book?
No, if you find something, just go for it.
Right.
One of the most important forms of active
listening is simple.
When you’re listening to someone, you use
simple words and sounds to show that you’re
listening and that you understand.
Common words and sounds you can use are ‘yeah’,
‘oh yeah’, ‘OK’, ‘mm-hmm’, ‘mmm’,
or ‘uh-huh’.
When you use these in active listening, they’re
pronounced quickly and quietly, without emphasis
or much intonation.
You could also show understanding and interest
with basic body language, for example nodding,
making eye contact, and so on.
It’s simple, but it’s important.
When you’re speaking your first language,
you probably do it without thinking.
What about in English?
Think about it: do you listen actively in
this way, or not?
If not, try to focus on it when you’re listening
to someone.
If you don’t give this feedback to the other
person, it will look like either you don’t
understand, or you’re not interested.
This is the most basic point.
What else can you do with active listening?
I got a promotion.
I’m the new head of the regional division.
Wow!
Actually, it’s a crazy story.
You know our manager,
the one that we all hated?
It turns out she’d been stealing from the company for
years.
No way!
We found out when police officers came in
and arrested her right in her office!
Are you serious?
Yeah, and that’s not all.
She went crazy as the police officers were taking her out.
She was screaming, kicking,
trying to bite them…
You’re kidding!
Anyway, the next day, the head office people
turned up, asked to speak to me and offered
me the position.
Really?
That’s great news!
Congratulations!
Thanks!
To be an active listener, you’ll sometimes
need to react emotionally to what you’re
hearing.
If someone gives you some bad news, you probably
shouldn’t just react with ‘mm-hmm’ or
‘uh-huh’.
It could make you sound cold.
To listen actively and show emotion, you can
use words and phrases like ‘really?’ or
‘wow!’
Look at four different situations.
Can you think of words or phrases that you
could use for each situation?
And, how could you pronounce them?
Pause the video if you want to think about
it by yourself.
To react to good news, you might say ‘that’s
great!’, ‘wow!’ or ‘amazing!’
To react to bad news, you might say ‘oh
no!’, ‘that’s too bad’ or ‘what
a shame.’
To show surprise, you might say ‘really?’,
‘no way!’ or ‘are you serious?’
To show frustration, you might say ‘oh come
on’, ‘you can’t be serious’ or ‘no
way!’
Of course, there are other possible answers.
Here, you need to think about pronunciation,
too, specifically intonation.
You saw that you could use the phrase ‘no
way!’ to express surprise or frustration.
But, the intonation is different.
To show surprise, you’d say it like this:
‘no way!’
To show frustration, you’d say it like this:
‘no way!’
This is true for many words and phrases.
For example, you could say ‘really?’
‘really?’
‘really?’
Again, think about whether you do this in
English already.
Do you use words and phrases like these to
react when you’re listening to someone?
Think about it!
Another question: do people do something similar
when they’re speaking in your language?
This is important.
Some cultures and languages do this differently.
It might be normal in your language to show
little reaction or emotion when listening.
But, in English, you might appear cold or
uninterested to the person you’re speaking
to.
If you don’t do this in your language, you’ll
need to focus on it more when you’re having
a conversation in English.
Next, let’s look at one more important part
of active listening.
Hey, Dave!
Happy birthday!
Are we going for tacos later?
Wha…?
I heard we were going out for tacos, right…?
Uh…
I don’t…
I’m not Dave.
Huh?
But…
Who are you, then?
I’m Oli!
Aah…
I thought you were Dave.
That’s embarrassing.
Dave’s over there
What?
What? He’s Dave?
I’ve been calling him Gareth for months.
Gareth?
Who’s Gareth?
If you don’t understand something in a conversation,
it’s generally better to show this immediately.
If you show the other person that something
isn’t clear, you can deal with the problem
right away.
If you don’t, it’s more difficult—and
more uncomfortable—to go back to something
which was said one minute, or two minutes,
or ten minutes ago.
To show that you don’t understand, use a
word or sound like ‘what?’
‘wha?’, ‘uh?’ or ‘huh?’
As before, intonation is important.
A sound like ‘huh’ can also be used to
show understanding or surprise.
To show that you don’t understand, it should
have a high, rising intonation: huh?
Often, showing that you don’t understand
is enough.
The person you’re talking to will see that
something is not clear, and try to help, by
explaining or repeating what they said.
However, you might need to do more.
The question is: why didn’t you understand
something?
Did you not hear?
Did you not understand the words?
Did you not understand the situation?
Was it something else?
You can give the other person more feedback
by explaining or asking a question.
For example, you could say ‘I didn’t catch
what you said.’
‘I don’t get what you mean.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Of course, this depends heavily on the situation.
But, if the other person doesn’t know what
you do or don’t understand, it’s difficult
to communicate.
If you make it clear where the problem is,
you have a chance to solve it.
There’s one more point about active listening:
non-verbal communication is also important.
Facial expressions can show that you’re
interested, or bored, or confused, or surprised,
and so on.
Also, gestures, like shrugging
or holding out a hand with the palm facing
up—or down
—can be part of active listening.
Again, think about how this is in your language
and your culture.
You might use facial expressions and gestures
more, or less, or differently than English
speakers.
When speaking English, you might want to adjust
your non-verbal communication as well.
Let us know in the comments: are these ideas
similar in your language, or not?
How are they different?
Tell us, because we’re curious!
Also, try to use the ideas in this video when
you’re speaking and listening.
You can even practise when watching a YouTube
video, or listening to a podcast, or things
like that.
Active listening is a useful habit, but like
all habits, you need to practise it if you
want to use it naturally and comfortably.
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!