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. 2014 Feb 5;12:15. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-12-15

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.
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