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Interactive Activities · Activity 12 of 18
Developing Active Listening Skills
Techniques and exercises for applying active listening in the classroom.
Key takeaways
- The activity, “I really listen to you”, teaches students aged 13–16 that active listening is more than staying silent.
- Two scenarios are used: a friend sharing their troubles, and a student who is constantly interrupted while speaking.
- Students identify how the speaker feels: upset or worried in the first case, worthless or even angry in the second.
- Active listening means not interrupting, looking the person in the eye and giving short affirmations such as “I understand”.
- Useful phrases include “I am waiting for you to finish” and “I want to hear you out.”
What is the aim of this activity?
In everyday life, listeners are often distracted or unfocused while someone is speaking. This leads to misunderstandings, damages friendships and makes it difficult to empathise. The activity encourages students to focus on the other person rather than merely appearing to listen, and to practise active listening techniques.
How does the activity run in class?
In the first scenario a friend tells you about a problem. The teacher asks what kind of listener we should be. Students note that the friend may be upset or worried, which is why it matters to listen without interrupting, look them in the eye and give short affirmations like “I understand”.
In the second scenario a student keeps getting interrupted while talking. Students say this student may feel worthless, perhaps even angry.
What does active listening involve?
Giving the other person the opportunity to speak, listening carefully, and using phrases like “I am waiting for you to finish” and “I want to hear you out”. The teacher concludes that active listening is not just about remaining silent; it is also about showing interest and asking insightful questions.
Video transcript
Generated automatically from the video's audio or subtitles; it may contain small errors.
Activity 8, developing active listening skills. Our title is: I really listen to you. We have two scenarios. The first one is sharing one's friend's troubles. And the second one will be about a student who was constantly interrupted during the speech. If we summarize this activity, students learn to express themselves and the emotions of others by using active listening techniques.
This activity encourages students to focus on the other rather than merely appearing to listen. In everyday life, when people are speaking, the others are often distracted or unfocused. This can cause or lead to misunderstandings, damaging friendships, and it makes difficult to empathize.
Today we are going to talk about active listening, not just hearing, but truly listening to understand. Suppose that one of your friends is telling you about his or her trouble or problem. What kind of listener should we be in this situation? Yes. Okay, this is the scenario card that sharing our friend's troubles. This is the scenario card. For the students who have a trouble or problem, the question is this.
What kind of listener should we be in this situation? Yes. Oh, yes, our friend may be upset or worried. Let me write. Upset or worried. Worried. That's why it's so important to listen to the people without interrupting, by looking them in the eye, by giving them some short affirmations like, I understand. Now, here's another situation.
A student keeps getting interrupted while he is talking. The card that shows a student keeps getting interrupted while he is talking. The question is this. How do you think this student will feel? Yes. Yes. They may feel worthless, perhaps even angry. They may feel worthless, even angry.
This is where active listening comes in. We can show that we care by giving the other person the opportunity to speak. Listening carefully and using phrases like I am waiting for you to finish, I want to hear you out. As a conclusion, we can say that active listening isn't just about remaining silent. It is also about showing interest.
Asking insightful questions and letting the other person know they are heard.
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