Listening Skills

I used Bing to find information about listening skills and found two articles that provided good information about how it can help us.   One is Now Pay Attention:   Here’s Why You Need Good Listening Skills by Dawn Rosenberg McKay and the other is Active Listening:   Hear What People Are Really Saying.
Listening skills is an important part of our daily lives because at one time or another during the day we are engaged in a conversation.   “Good listening skills make workers more productive” (McKay, 2011, par. 3).   It can make workers more productive because when they use their listening skills, they will be able to understand the assignments and what is expected.   They will also be able to work better in teams and be able to resolve problems with their customers, co-workers, and bosses.  
“There are five key elements of active listening.  
1.   Pay attention.   Give the speaker your undivided attention and acknowledge the message.
2.   Show that you are listening.   Use your own body language and gestures to convey your attention.
3.   Provide feedback.   As a listener, your role is to understand what is being said. This may require you to reflect what is being said and ask questions.
4.   Defer judgment.   Allow the speaker to finish.
5.   Respond appropriately.   Assert your opinions respectfully.” (Unknown, 2011, par. 14).  
There are things that can prevent us from being good listeners, such as language differences or accents, and noises.   If we learn to block out the noises and make sure to ask questions, we can overcome these obstacles.   Also if we start with our children at an early age, we can teach them to be good listeners by reading to them and then ask questions about the story to make sure they understand what it is about.
References:
McKay, D.R. (2011). Now pay attention:   here’s why you need good listening skills.   Retrieved from    
      http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/miscskills/a/listening_skill.htm
Unknown. (2011). Active listening:   hear what...