Table 2 Listening skills
Listening skills | Definitions |
|---|---|
Active listening | Listening with attention to the interviewee’s speech; participating actively with probes to enable going further. |
Attentive silences | Differentiating between heavy silence (after an intrusive question), silence allowing to take breath, silence to reflect upon the question, silence in the rhythm of the interview. |
Reflecting | Reflecting back the information may encourage further disclosure. |
Synthesizing | Helps to check understanding of the interviewee before addressing another topic; it gives the interviewee the opportunity to correct if there is misunderstanding; it also indicates that the interviewee’s narratives has been heard. |
Recognizing resistance | In face of avoidance, unauthentic testimony, reflect on what happens, underline that there is no right/wrong answer, rehearse aims of the research interview. |