Which practice helps effective listening?

• A. Keep Eye Contact
• B. Speak loudly
• C. Multitask
• D. Ignore nonverbal cues

Answer: (A)

Maintaining eye contact signals that you’re paying attention, which is essential for effective listening. When you look at the speaker, you show engagement and respect, encouraging them to share more openly and helping you pick up important details in their facial expressions and tone. Eye contact also provides immediate feedback about your understanding—your gaze patterns can indicate confusion or agreement and help you decide when to ask a clarifying question. In contrast, speaking loudly can pull the focus to your own voice and disrupt the flow of listening; multitasking splits attention and makes you miss nuances; ignoring nonverbal cues means missing clues about emotion, emphasis, or doubt that words alone don’t convey. So, keeping eye contact best supports truly listening and understanding what the other person is communicating.