»» »» »» »» Appropriate eye contact; Nodding the head, facial expressions, and gestures; The body orientated towards the speaker (head, arms, legs); and Tone of voice. 2. Encourage responses, e.g. by saying ‘Tell me more’ or ‘I’d like to hear about ... .’ 3. Summarise the basic viewpoints of the speaker as you have heard them. A summary is an extended restatement of the key points of the information offered by the speaker. Use summaries to focus the speaker in terms of issues and solvable problems, instead of personalities. 4. Make brief notes on your notepad to keep track, but do not bury yourself in them! 5. Paraphrase or restate in your own words. Restating what the speaker has said in your own words is a powerful tool for: »» Communicating understanding to others; »» Moving the conversation to deeper levels — a good paraphrase often elicits further, more reflective responses from others; »» Slowing down the conversation between the parties; and »» ‘Laundering’ vicious or insulting statements so that they are less inflammatory but retain the basic points that were made. Exercise • Organise participants into teams of three • Give them roles to play, i.e. one person talks, the second listens and the third observes, and, afterwards, they swap roles • The one who talks can relate anything exciting or any story from her or his experience. The listener’s task is to listen as attentively as possible. The observer should pay attention to the listening skills • Remind participants of the main points of active listening • Give them five to ten minutes before swapping roles • Then continue by asking participants to talk about any problem they recently faced • Give them time for feedback and to discuss the exercise in their teams before coming back to the whole group. For purposes of debriefing: • Was the exercise easy or difficult, and why? • What did you learn from it? • How do you want to apply what you have learnt, in everyday life? (Exercise adapted from: Peace together we can! Peace education training toolkit for children and youth) LEARNING POINT Through reflection and feedback from others, participants are able to evaluate their listening skills. 90 Community Healing: A training manual for Zimbabwe