Why we need the Listening Lab

I often work with students who have completed an advanced course in English, but still struggle to understand what’s being said in business meetings in English, at parties with English-speaking friends, or on the English news channels.

These students complain that the speakers speak too fast or that they have a strong accent. While those things may be true, it’s also true that they haven’t learned how to listen in English.

Let’s think about this. What did listening lessons look like in your English classes? I’m guessing that there were some new vocabulary words, some questions about the main ideas, and then some detailed questions. Maybe some matching exercises for variety?

But, if you got a question wrong, did the teacher replay that part so that you could hear the confusing part again? Did you talk about how things were being pronounced and why that might cause confusion? Did you look at the transcript to discover that you know all of those words, you just didn’t understand them when they were spoken?

I doubt it. When I started out as a teacher, I didn’t do those things either.

It was only when I started really listening to the difficulties students were having that I started to change the way I taught listening.

Learning to listen better in English is an ongoing process. There will always be fast speakers and accents that you find difficult. (Even I find some accents more difficult.) But, just like you learned all those grammar rules, you can learn the rules of pronunciation. And learn to recognize them in fast, spoken English.

Let’s get started.