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Skills for Listening

Listening is very important when you work in groups. People can work together only if they listen to one another. Imagine a group of firefighters at a huge fire. If they didn’t listen closely to one another, they could never cooperate well enough to put out the fire and remain safe in the process.

Just listen. 🟪 Listening means thinking about what is being said. So you can’t truly listen and do something else at the same time. Don’t doodle, write notes to your friends, or check your messages while you’re listening.

Listen actively. 🟪 Try hard to keep your mind on what’s being said. It’s natural for your mind to wander from time to time. Because people can’t talk as fast as you can think, your mind can race ahead and get off the track. To stay on track, do the following:

Look at the person who is speaking. This helps you listen because your mind usually thinks about what your eyes see.