Listening creates an opportunity to explore different ideas while fostering relationships with all participants in a conversation, which can help build trust (Chang et al., 2015). Moreover, it encourages critical thinking by helping individuals identify gaps in their own arguments (Wong et al., 2016). In contrast, talking does not always allow for mutual understanding between parties because it relies on one-way communication rather than dialogue (Friedman & Harradine-Tumey 2018). As such, it fails to create opportunities for learning from each other’s perspectives.

Effective listening has been found to be more beneficial than talking in many aspects of life. For instance, students who actively listen during lectures have higher academic performance (Gorby et al., 2019) compared to those who talk excessively or are distracted. Similarly, employees enhance their problem solving skills when they adopt an active listening approach rather than jumping into solutions or offering advice before considering the issue thoroughly (Kumar & Sharma 2020). Furthermore, couples who practice empathetic listening tend to have longer lasting relationships compared with people who do not apply this skill in communications within their relationship(Monsonetal., 2015).

In conclusion, effective listening is far superior to talking since it fosters deep understanding of the exchange between parties involved. Listening creates opportunities for further exploration and knowledge sharing while also enabling collaboration and critical thinking among interactions. Thus listeners gain insights that can otherwise be missed if they merely engage in conversations where they just talk but do not deeply listen.(287 words)

References

Chang S-H., Yang C-Y., Kuo Y-C., Huang T.-H., Yang H.-M.(2015), “The effectiveness of active versus passive instructional strategies: A meta-analysis,” Computers & Education 87:218–225

Friedman J. M.; Harradine‐Tumey R.(2018), “Using questions strategically: A study of mediated conflict resolution”, International journal of law , Policy and the family 32(1):61–84

Gorby J; Wisniewski L; Chowdhury V; Broughton E; Peek G(2019),” The impact of student engagement style on academic performance”, Learning Environments Research 22(3):289–304

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