Effect of Active Listening Techniques in Conversation Analysis

This homework assignment examines the effect of active listening techniques on conversation. It begins by defining active listening and its five stages: receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding. The paper emphasizes the importance of active listening skills in enhancing communication and building better relationships. It discusses various techniques, including establishing rapport, providing non-verbal cues like nodding and eye contact, and maintaining an open mind to avoid biases. The student shares a personal experience, highlighting how implementing these techniques significantly improved a conversation, making the speaker feel heard and valued. The assignment concludes that active listening can effectively improve communication skills, foster better relationships, and create a healthier environment. The assignment uses references to support its findings.

Running head: EFFECT OF ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES IN CONVERSATION
EFFECT OF ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES IN CONVERSATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1EFFECT OF ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES IN CONVERSATION
A good conversation depends upon how well the listener uses his listening skills to
understand the conversation. A good listener is one who uses his comprehension skills to
understand, focus on the information provided in the conversation and learn from it. The
effectiveness of the task at hand depends upon good listening skills. The present paper focuses
on the effect of active listening techniques in conversations and how such techniques can be used
to enhance the communication skills in the future.
Implementing active listening techniques can improve conversation between individuals.
A lot of factors interfere with the way people apply their listening skills in order to manage a
number of mental task and be a good successful listener. There are five stages of listening
(DeVito, 2019). The first stage is receiving where the main focus is given on the message of the
speaker. The person isolates and filters the message from his surroundings. The second stage is
understanding. Here the listener attempts to comprehend the meaning of the message. This can
be a difficult task as understanding the meaning of message depends upon the experiences and
the background of an individual. Therefore, the way a message is perceived is completely
subjective. The third stage is remembering where an individual tries to remember what was told
to him. People often forget messages because they fail to learn and understand the meaning in
the first place (DeVito, 2019). If understanding is inaccurate then the recollection will be
inaccurate too. The fourth stage is evaluating where an individual judges the value of the
message. This depends on the biases and the perspectives of the individual too. A person will
evaluate a message in a positive manner if the speakers presents his point of view in a clear and
logical manner. The last stage is responding where is also known as feedback. Here the listener
provides the speaker with his opinion on the message. It is not necessary that all the feedbacks
would be provided when the message ends (Frunză, 2014). It could be formative where the

2EFFECT OF ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES IN CONVERSATION
listeners speaks in between the ongoing transaction. It could be by nodding of head or note
taking. Another kind of feedback is summative feedback where the opinion is provided at the end
of the message. Therefore, the above processes define the complexity in the process of hearing.
Active listening skills are important to understand and evaluate the meaning of the
conversation that enhances the communication skills and builds better behaviours with others.
Various listening techniques can be used to improve the communication skills. Such techniques
include establishing rapport with the individual and consequently building trust with them
(Weger Jr, 2014). Giving non-verbal cues such as nodding, leaning forward and having direct
eye contact that sends the message that the listener is interested in what the speaker is saying. It
is important to keep an open mind and not give into the biases and prejudices that can create
misunderstandings and completely make out a different message. Listening to the words
carefully and evaluating its meaning is extremely important (Shrivastava, 2014). Using these
techniques improved the conversation with the person in a greater way. The person was invested
in speaking and giving out the message clearly. These active listening techniques were extremely
helpful in creating a meaningful conversation.
This conversation was different than the others in the manner that earlier I used to listen
to people however, the cues that I gave, sent out the wrong message as a result of which the
people would not give full information and thought that I was not interested. However, this time
when I applied these active listening techniques, I could feel the difference in a major way. The
person completely flooded me with the information and asked my opinion on. After providing
with the feedback, the person was impressed with my skills and seemed to be happy that I had
heard whatever he wanted to speak b investing my time. It made him feel that his words were
important and worthy of being heard. Applying these techniques in the future can help in a

3EFFECT OF ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES IN CONVERSATION
greater way. This would establish better relationships with friends and family and an improved
communication behaviour will thus create a healthy environment.
Thus, it can be concluded that applying active listening techniques can improve the
communication skills in an effective manner. Listening is an important part of maintaining
relationships and improving communication behaviour with others. It greatly affects the way one
perceives things and the accuracy of the message is communicated in a better way.

4EFFECT OF ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES IN CONVERSATION
References
DeVito, J. A. (2019). The interpersonal communication book. Instructor, 1, 18.
Frunză, V. (2014). The Listening Behavior in the Didactic Activity. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 127, 347-352.
Shrivastava, A. (2014). Active empathic listening as a tool for better
communication. International Journal of Marketing and Business Communication, 3(3-
4), 13-18.
Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). The relative effectiveness
of active listening in initial interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28(1), 13-31.