What is the term for a listener asking for clarification to ensure understanding?

What is the term for a listener asking for clarification to ensure understanding?

• A. Clarification request
• B. Filled pause
• C. False start
• D. Incomplete utterance

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how listeners actively keep communication clear. When a listener asks for more information to be sure they understood, this move is a clarification request. It signals that something in the prior utterance wasn’t understood well enough and the listener is seeking explicit restatement or explanation to restore mutual understanding. For example, if someone says, “She went to the bank,” and the listener asks, “Do you mean the river bank or the financial institution?” that’s a clarification request helping reconstruct the intended meaning.

This is different from a filled pause (umm or uh), which are hesitations in speech, not an explicit request for clarification. A false start involves beginning a thought, stopping, and re-starting, not a listener's clarification action. An incomplete utterance is a truncated idea from the speaker, again not the listener’s move to check meaning. So the term that best captures the listener’s action to ensure understanding is a clarification request.