Burley-Allen: The Five Styles Of Listening

According to Burley-Allen (1995); “There are five styles of listening including, the faker, the dependent, the interrupter, the self-conscious listener, and the intellectual or logical listener” (p.60-64). The faker happens when a person pretends to pay attention when someone is speaking, when actually their mind is thinking about something else. This is something that I have been guilty of especially when the message is not something that interest me. When you fall into this category you will act like you are listening and paying attention to make the person speaking happy. When someone is trying to fake listening they will try to memorize specific fact in the message. When trying to memorize specific facts in a message, the message will

When a person is a dependent listener they will focus on how they are listening and reacting to the person speaking and then they miss what the meaning speaker is trying to get across. They focus on how they appear to the person speaking instead of the content of what the speaker is saying. When someone feels uncomfortable with the message or topic the speaker is discussing, they will interrupt by bringing information to the conversation that does not relate to what the speaker is talking about. This is called an interrupter listener. I have been in situations like this and it really aggravates me. I have seen this happen so many times. I do not believe that this is a weakness of mine, but if it is I am not aware of it. When someone is an interrupter listener they will try and bring up unrelated information to change the topic that the speaker is discussing. When you are considered an interrupter listener, you will make it hard on the speaker to stay focused on the message that they are trying to send and by getting off the topic the reason for the message is not completed or resolved. According to Burley-Allen (1995); “The self-conscious listener is a person that focuses more on themselves by thinking “Am I doing well or badly?”; “Do I look right?” or I wonder if the speaker thinks I am intelligent?”

This kind of focusing is called listening to the words you and the other person use that cause either strife or mutual cooperation” (p. 100). When you uses this style of listening to focus it increases your effectiveness when listening. When you succeed in dealing with others you will become more positive and confident. When you have a negative self-concept, you will usually feel that others are looking at you negatively. According to Burley-Allen (1995); “It is important to maintain positive self-concept by listening to yourself (p.100). Taking the time to really listen and learn how you are internal negative statements to interfere with your becoming an effective listener can be a step in the right directions to improve your listening” (p.101). It is important to look at how you judge themselves. When you find the negative aspects of your listening skills you can help yourself find out what internal thought process you will need to change to help you become a better listener. I hope that this will help me determine what areas I need to improve and how I can improve my listening skills. I believe everyone can find something in their listening skills that they need improve and make that they can make the necessary changes to successfully