Critical Listening

Critical Listening is the process of paying close attention to what is being heard so that at the end of the utterance, the listener will be able to re-iterate, when necessary, the contents of the utterance.

The condition for critical listening including:

  1. High level of attention.
  2. Ensuring that the ears perceive the incoming utterances.
  3. Readiness to make some sound judgement based on what is heard.
  4. Ability to filter out what amounts to irrelevance or repetition. 

Critical Listening could take so many forms including:

  1. Listening to an advertisement.
  2. Listening to a story, an anecdotes or a report.
  3. Listening to a poem.
  4. Listening to a debate or argument.
  5. Listening to some instruction, lecture or lesson.
  6. Listening to a news analysis.