“We have several employees who perform exceptionally well but they seem to struggle with listening comprehension. What can we do to support them?”
Even someone who speaks a language well can struggle with listening comprehension. Local accents, casual speech, expressions and jargon all differ from place to place and assume familiarity with the local language and culture. And while you might assume that it is the person struggling who needs to do all the work, there is a lot that native speakers can do to help a non-native speaker understand more easily.
Here are five things to begin doing. The first four involve the native speakers making an effort to develop awareness and pay attention to how they are communicating. The fifth requires some effort on behalf of the individual with the listening comprehension difficulties.
Native speakers can:
- Watch for signs of confusion; verify and clarify regularly.
- Speak slowly and evenly; summarize and repeat as needed.
- Become aware of phrasal verbs; find other ways to express the meanings.
- Use less jargon and expressions; explain what is used.
Non-native speakers can:
- Be immersed in English daily; listen to a variety of English media.
Communication is a two-way exchange. If someone is having difficulty understanding, it is largely up to the person speaking to find ways to communicate the intention. An important way to do this is to develop awareness about the language we use. This is not always easy but the more we do it, the easier it becomes. Native speakers can:
- Watch for signs of confusion; verify and clarify regularly.
Pay attention to the listener’s facial expression. If they show signs of confusion, find out if they have any questions or if there was something they didn’t understand. Clarify any vocabulary, terms, information, facts, figures, actions, steps, etc. It may be relevant to clarify the context or the background if it is important for understanding what is meant. Some people, especially in a work situation, don’t like to share the fact they haven’t understood, so a bit of tactful probing may be in order. For work conversations, it is usually a good idea to follow up with an email if the conversation has been important.
- Speak slowly and evenly; summarize and repeat as needed.
Learn not to rush. Pace your speech and avoid speeding up or trailing off at the end of a sentence. Speaking more slowly takes getting used to. If you are feeling stressed and pressured, it is important to breathe and decide to speak more slowly than usual. If what you are saying is lengthy or has many details, summarize and repeat important information.
- Become aware of phrasal verbs; find other ways to express the meanings.
Phrasal verbs are verb phrases which include a simple verb followed by a preposition (technically called a particle). A phrasal verb has a different meaning than the main verb; for example, “turn” differs from “turn up” or “turn down”. And often phrasal verbs have several meanings; for example, “turn around” can mean (1) to physically turn the body, (2) to make an unsuccessful venture successful, (3) to supply or complete something within a particular timeframe, etc. Native speakers use phrasal verbs so unconsciously that there is a definite learning curve involved in developing awareness of when we use them. It is important that non-native speakers learn phrasal verbs, but native speakers can help them by acknowledging their use and explaining the meaning. Often there are simple verbs which mean the same thing or ways to explain the meaning clearly in more words.
- Use less jargon and expressions; explain what is used.
Jargon is “specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity…normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context” (Wikipedia). Each profession has its own jargon which could include shortforms, acronyms, unusual ways to use vocabulary, expressions, etc. I often hear students complaining about the length of time it takes to simply learn the acronyms (NATO, NASA, ROM) and initialisms (UFO, FBI, RCMP) used at their workplace. Many expressions – low hanging fruit, trim the fat, drill down, etc. – if taken literally are incomprehensible. As with phrasal verbs, non-native speakers should learn common jargon but may need to have the meanings explained to them.
Non-native speakers having difficulty understanding people around them can also take initiative:
- Be immersed in English daily; listen to a variety of English media.
Often non-native speakers spend the majority of their time outside of work hours living in their own language – at home, watching TV, listening to the radio, socializing, etc. While I highly recommend speaking your native language at home with the children, there are many ways to expand exposure to English. Listen to interesting radio programs (CBC radio for example in Canada), watch movies in English without subtitles, get English audiobooks from your local library, join a community group – meetup.com, The Running Room, a local outdoors club, etc., socialize in English, and include native speakers.
Finally, if the problem is largely listening comprehension based on accent and sounds rather than vocabulary, taking a pronunciation course may be useful. In my experience, everyone who has studied pronunciation with me felt their listening improved. Learning how native speakers reduce and blend sounds, how they use stress to indicate important words, how they differentiate similar sounds – understanding all these aspects of pronunciation supports listening as well as clear speech.