Types of Listening
Discriminative listening
Discriminative listening is the most basic type of listening, whereby the difference between
difference sounds is identified. If you cannot hear differences, then you cannot make sense of the
meaning that is expressed by such differences. We learn to discriminate between sounds within
our own language early, and later are unable to discriminate between the phonemes of other
languages. This is one reason why a person from one country finds it difficult to speak another
language perfectly, as they are unable distinguish the subtle sounds that are required in that
language.
Likewise, a person who cannot hear the subtleties of emotional variation in another person’s
voice will be less likely to be able to discern the emotions the other person is experiencing.
Listening is a visual as well as auditory act, as we communicate much through body language.
We thus also need to be able to discriminate between muscle and skeletal movements that signify
different meanings.
Comprehension listening
The next step beyond discriminating between different sound and sights is to make sense of
them. To comprehend the meaning requires first having a lexicon of words at our fingertips and
also all rules of grammar and syntax by which we can understand what others are saying.
The same is true, of course, for the visual components of communication, and an understanding
of body language helps us understand what the other person is really meaning.
In communication, some words are more important and some less so, and comprehension often
benefits from extraction of key facts and items from a long spiel.
Comprehension listening is also known as content listening, informative listening and full
listening.
Critical listening
Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and judge, forming opinion about what is being
said. Judgment includes assessing strengths and weaknesses, agreement and approval. This
form of listening requires significant real-time cognitive effort as the listener analyzes what is
being said, relating it to existing knowledge and rules, whilst simultaneously listening to the
ongoing words from the speaker.
Biased listening
