ABSTRACT
In preparing to be a teacher, a great deal of your energy goes into learning how to talk to groups. In your role, you will need to explain, direct and inform, and so there are whole courses on presentation skills, how to project your voice and so on. The complementary skill of listening is just as important as talking but is often overlooked. Teachers need to know how to listen. The ability to listen, to attend to others, is an integral component of emotional intelligence. It is a prerequisite for being effective in ‘social skills’, the fifth of Daniel Goleman’s emotional and social competencies (Goleman 1998: 318).
