We need to check our English and our listening. These checks help us do that. They help us show that we are listening. They help us show what we heard. They help us show what we understood.
“I don’t understand” is not helpful.
“This is wrong” is not helpful.
This is helpful:
You are introducing yourself. You told me your name, you said your name is Mahiro. You told me about your job. You said you “work company.”
Can you tell me the name of the company or the kind of work you do?
I’m listening to you. I know what you are talking about, your job. I don’t understand what your job is.
I didn’t tell you that you made a mistake, I told you I want to understand you.
We all need to know that we are being listened to. We all need to know that people want to understand us.
These checks help us do that, and they help us to do it in English.
Are you ready to be a good listener?
Notes to the teacher:
This simple activity is harder than it seems. Helping people practice doing this well is challenging. One thing that can help is getting the speaker to tell a very short story, just 5 or 7 sentences long. I usually do the transcription part myself in the interest of time, but the greatest benefit comes when students are doing that part too.
This video focuses on the first part of listening. Listening. 100% to the other person and showing them that you have done that.
You said “I uh I, my cat is cute”
The Check Sheets go over this and beyond. Once we show that we are really listening we can widen out from the speaker’s story to our conversation.
Here’s how to begin. The video is 8 minutes long.
Keyboard Village 