Development and Training Effects for Reflective Listening

Reflective Listening

Reflective listening is another name for active listening. It is a strategy that is used to make sure the listener absorbs as much information as possible in training, counseling, and dispute resolution, among other situations. It is assumed that the listener will repeat what was said back to the speaker to ensure that everyone understood. The listener need not respond exactly in the same words as the speaker. As a result, it may be a paraphrased sentence. An active listening scale can be used to assess the effectiveness of active listening, which has a number of advantages. The active, empathetic listening is a form of traditional listening, whereby the traditional active listening is combined with empathy to achieve a higher form of listening. The Active Empathetic Listening (EAL) scale has three dimensions: sensing, processing and responding, (Drollinger et al., 2006).

This enables the respondent to evaluate how well he or she got the message. The item of study should be suitable for differentiating between effective and ineffective listeners. It also ensures that the set item is suitable for use by self-report, hence conforming to the three dimensions as mentioned earlier.

Benefits of Reflective Listening

This type of verbal communication has got many pros. Firstly, it gives the speaker a chance to hear what he or she have said and gets the chance for clarification. The act of the respondent departing what he or she have heard, give the speaker a better chance to evaluate how well he or she have passed the information. This gives room for correction and clarifications where required, hence delivering the information in a more accurate manner, (Bodie, 2011).

Secondly, it gives the speaker a sense of validation. The fact that the respondent can repeat back what they have understood makes the speaker have a feeling of importance. It ensures them that their efforts are not going into waste. This encourages the speaker to keep delivering the information in a better manner.

Thirdly, active communication gives the speaker a chance to evaluate the impact of the information on the respondent. The way in which the respondent puts the statement back to the speaker and their facial expressions play a major role in helping the speaker understand the effect of the information on the respondent. It, therefore, gives room for the correction of misunderstandings hence strengthening relationships, (Weger et al., 2010).

Fourthly, it gives the speaker a chance to continue the conversation. When the listener accurately reflects back what the speaker had said, the speaker tends to be more apt to give more information. For example, if a teacher is complaining about a student who is not behaving well to the parent, the parent has the chance to ask, “Can you tell more about his behaviour in class?” Such open-ended questions give the speaker a platform to give more information.

The fifth benefit is that it leads to more understanding. Active listening is one of the beat listening skills that listeners must develop. This is due to its efficacy in information delivery. The more the listener understands that they will have the task of repeating what the speaker said, the more attentive they tend to be so that they won’t have to give the wrong information back to the source. This yields the beat understanding by the listener. For instance, in a class where the trainer uses reflective listening, the students repeat what the teacher has said, hence gaining more information, (Kubota, 2004).

Conclusion

Reflective listening is a skill that should be developed in all settings due to its benefits which ensures that the listener gains as much information as possible. This is because it gives the listener the chance to remember what was said actively.

References

Bodie, G. D. (2011). The Active-Empathic Listening Scale (AELS): Conceptualization and

evidence of validity within the interpersonal domain. Communication Quarterly, 59(3), 277-295.

Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the

active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23(2), 161-180.

Kubota, S., Mishima, N., & Nagata, S. (2004). A study of the effects of active listening on

listening attitudes of middle managers. Journal of Occupational Health, 46(1), 60-67.

Weger Jr, H., Castle, G. R., & Emmett, M. C. (2010). Active listening in peer interviews: The

influence of message paraphrasing on perceptions of listening skill. The Intl. Journal of Listening, 24(1), 34-49.