ESL learning: Active Listening Tips

I know everyone has to participate in situations where active listening skills are very important. Some situations may be job interviews, meetings, lectures, class discussions, group activities, work events and so on. Let’s look at some very useful active listening tips below.

Lean body forward

When we lean our body forward this shows we are interested in what the other people are saying. The body language shows this.

Tilt your head

Tilting your forward shows curiosity. Tilting your head to the side exposes your neck, meaning you are comfortable and not feeling threatened.

Gaze in their eyes

A person who is paying attention can look directly into another’s eyes and hold the look for some time. Eye contact says a lot.

Moving eye brows

When we move our eye brows it shows we are concentrating, processing or understanding language. Nonverbal communication is essential. You can see our teachers doing this a lot in their class demos & introduction videos

Nodding the head

By nodding your head you show agreement and this makes the other person want to keep talking.  It can be used to show understanding as well. Keep the nod slow and consistent.

You can really see Barak Obama use this technique in this video:

Make noises

Saying things like MMmmm, Ahhhh, Yeahhh and Uhhh Huuhhh are all ways to show your interest. This is very encouraging to the person doing the talking.

In Closing:

If this was interesting or useful to you, you may also be interested in our Business Course or our Conversational English Courses, which both focus on many communication techniques. We also invite you to try a free trial class with ETO today and start learning English now!

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By: Luke 

ETO American English teacher