ABSTRACT
Communication takes place when a response is elicited (Gumperz, 1982). Therefore, human-human communication is not a one-way
phenomenon, and participants do not alternate their roles like in a volley match, just uttering sentences while speaking and freezing while listening. Communication is much more like a dance, in which people move together, sometime they lead and sometime they follow, waltzing toward a common goal: exchange information, coordinate actions, display emotional state, establish a relationship and fulfill their needs (Castelfranchi and Parisi, 1980; Poggi, 2007). So, like the speaker, listeners play an important role in the conversation, and they have to actively participate in the interaction in order to push it forward and make the speaker go on. In fact, whenever people listen to somebody, they do not assimilate passively all her/his words, but they actively participate in the interaction providing information about how they feel and what they think of the speaker’s speech. Listeners emit expressions like “a-ah”, “mmh” or “yes” to assure grounding1, nod their head in agreement, smile to show liking, frown if they do not understand and shake their head to make clear that they refuse the speaker’s words. In short, while listening, people assume an active role in the interaction showing above all that they are attending the exchange of communication. According to the listener’s behavior, the speaker can estimate how her/his interlocutor is reacting and can decide how to carry on the interaction: for example, by interrupting the conversation if the listener is not interested or rephrasing a sentence if the listener showed signs of incomprehension.
