Today we talked about the importance of the role of the listener in communication. The speaker's role is important, of course! But the listener's role is just as important. We cannot have communication without a speaker AND a listener. The listener's job is really important, isn't it?
Around the world, listeners show that they are listening in different ways. Since I lived in Japan for a year, I was able to show you how Japanese people indicate that they are paying attention to the speaker.
What do English speakers say and do to show that they are listening? We came up with the following phrases, to name just a few:
Oh, I see.
Really?
Uh huh.
Wow.
That's great / wonderful / awesome / good.
That's terrible / awful / too bad.
I'm sorry to hear that.
You must be so happy / disappointed.
We also said that if you want to show you are really listening, you should ask questions. Of course you should ask questions when you don't understand, but you can also ask questions to encourage the speaker to tell you more. This shows that you are enjoying the conversation and are interested.
What about body language? We talked about leaning back versus leaning slightly forward. We talked about nodding and eye contact.
Next I put some conversation prompts on the board and we divided into four conversation groups. You could choose any topic or topics on the board, or just talk about anything your group chose to discuss. Some ideas on the board were:
My most embarrassing moment.
An event that changed my life.
Snow
If I could invite any famous person to dinner (dead or alive), who would I invite and why?
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