Listening is a skill that requires active rather than passive participation to advance shared understanding and minimize errors of interpretation. Lang, Floyd, and Beine (2000) describe active listening as a skill that "focuses on listening for the patient's cues, that is, statements and/or behaviors that are not explicit but may have particular meaning and suggest unshared ideas, concerns and expectations.” . This essay will discuss how active listening strategies such as analyzing and displaying non-verbal body language, clarifying meaning and accuracy, expressing understanding of the speaker's feelings through empathy and silence contribute to effective communication by encouraging the speaker to convey their thoughts, building trust and rapport, and minimizing misinterpretation between the sender and receiver. Active listening is as much a visual activity as an auditory one (Eunson 2008: 313). Non-verbal body language such as eye contact and body position allows the listener to fully understand the point the speaker is communicating while, for the listener, displaying positive messages through these channels allows them to the speaker to know that there is particular interest and attention. what is said. Simon Armson illustrated this point when he said: "If you listen to everything you hear, not just the words, but what's going on around them, you get a much richer picture" (quoted in Theobald & Cooper 2004: 103). Nonverbal cues such as making eye contact, mirroring the speaker's mannerisms, facing the speaker with an open posture, and nodding are gestures used unconsciously when a person is interested in what they are hears (Theobald & Cooper 2004: 105-106). . When used consciously, these gestures...... middle of paper ......, DT 2009, The Basics of Communication: A Relational Perspective, Sage Publications, Canada.Eunson, B 2008, Communicate at 21st Century, 2nd ed., Wiley, Milton. Rogers, CR & Farson, RE 1987, 'Active listening', Global Effectiveness Training, accessed March 25, 2011, < http://www.go-get.org/pdf/ Rogers_Farson.pdf>. Theobald, T & Cooper, CL 2004, Shut up and listen! : the truth about how to communicate at work, Kogan Page, London; Sterling, VA.West, R & Turner, L 2009, Understanding interpersonal communication: making choices in changing times, 2nd ed., Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston.Lang, F, Floyd, MR & Beine, KL 2000, “Clues for patients” explanations and concerns about their illness: a call for active listening”, Archives of Family Medicine, vol. March 9, 2000, pp. 222 – 227, accessed March 27 2011, .