Developing Listening Skills for the Real Business World

1. Developing Listening Skills for the Real Business World Ian Badger, BMES , Bristol UK www.bmes.co.uk ian@bmes.co.uk Business English UK Conference, 28.4.12

2. Current and recent projects English for Erasmus Medical students in the UK (from Austria, Spain and France) English for logistics process integration (Finland and Russia) English for users of new global IT production/maintenance systems (Finland, Germany, France and Austria) English for IT Helpdesk integration (Finland, Poland, China and India)

3. Content Listening challenges The value of using authentic recordings Making your own recordings Sample recordings Helping the listener/Helping the speaker Some references and resources

4. Today’s learners of English have to understand speakers from all over the world, many of whom do not speak with the pronunciation, grammar and clarity which have traditionally been taught in schools and colleges.

5. ….but discovering a ready supply of 'authentic' business/professional listening material is not easy. Most organisations — let alone individuals — would be reluctant to have their meetings, discussions, presentations, phone calls and social events recorded for classroom use by publishers, schools or teachers — and in any case most such recordings would be extremely difficult to use once devoid of context. Simon Sweeney

6. Features of authentic (non-scripted) recordings for listening practice Range of accents Fragmented sentences False starts Standard/non-standard grammar Mistakes

7. Understanding the speakerUnderstanding the informationA springboard for discussion • Electrical maintenance / union negotiations • Working with the Turkish sales office

8. Voicemails – Leaving a clear message? Who is clearer? The ‘native’ or the ‘non-native’? (from Collins English for Business: Listening) • Catrina voicemail • Jindee voicemail • Nick voicemail

9. Further examples of authentic recordings (from Collins English for Life: Listening) Adapting to local customs Tourist information Booking a hotel room Directions to the hotel New Zealand/Australia Tube announcements

10. Helping the listener Don’t speak too fast Give people time to think/respond Be aware of who you are talking to Avoid unnecessary idiom and complex grammatical structure Explain acronyms and abbreviations when necessary Check others have understood your points Don’t overwhelm the listener with information

11. ‘Active’ listening Ask the speaker to clarify when you do not understand Ask the speaker to slow down Ask the speaker to speak up Ask the speaker to be more specific  Be empathetic Rephrase what the speaker says

12. Developing Listening Skills for the Real Business World: References and resources – Business English UK, 28.4.12 Ian Badger, www.bmes.co.uk Badger, I ‘Listening’ in the Collins English for Life series, Harper Collins/Collins ELT 2012 Badger, I ‘Listening’ in the Collins English for Business series, Harper Collins/Collins ELT 2011 (+ App for I Pad and IPhone ) Badger, I and P. Menzies ‘English for Business Life’, Heinle Cengage 2007 Badger, I ‘Everyday Business English’, Pearson 2003 Dignen, B and I McMaster ‘Communicating internationally in English’ (pp31-42) York Associates/Business Spotlight Sweeney, S. ‘Authentic materials’ in Business Issues, 2/2006 Walker, R. ‘Teaching the pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca’, OUP 2010 Wilson, JJ. How to teach listening, Pearson 2008 www.collinselt.com/businesslistening - Further recordings of ‘Business Listening’ speakers http://accent.gmu.edu – People from around the world recording the same paragraph in English http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects – Examples of regional UK accents and dialects http://www.languagebyvideo.com • Video examples of English accents around the world