Understanding English however it is spoken Collins Business

Understanding English however it is spoken Collins Business Skills Ian Badger, BMES , Bristol UK IATEFL Glasgow 20. 3. 12 ian@bmes. co. uk www. bmes. co. uk

Current and recent projects English for Erasmus Medical students in the UK (from Austria, Spain and France) English for logistics process integration (Finland Russia) Collins Business Skills 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)

Content Listening challenges The value of using authentic recordings Key features of the Collins ‘Listening’ titles Collins Business Skills Sample recordings Helping the listener/Helping the speaker Scottish Eleven! Some references and resources

Which speakers of English do you/your learners find difficult to understand? UK speakers? American? Australian? Indian? Chinese? French? Spanish? Russian? Others? Collins Business Skills

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

…. 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 Collins Business Skills 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

Collins Business Skills

All the recordings in the Collins ‘Listening’ titles were made before the learning material was written; there are no scripted dialogues Collins Business Skills read by actors. The books aim to sensitise learners to the varieties English they need to understand in the real world.

Features of authentic recordings Range of accents Fragmented sentences Collins Business Skills False starts Standard/non-standard grammar Mistakes

Communicating clearly • Seamus, a sales manager from Northern Ireland Collins Business Skills

• Voicemails • Catrina voicemail Collins Business Skills • Jindee voicemail • Nick voicemail

Samples from ‘Listening’ Adapting to local customs Tourist information Collins Business Skills Booking a hotel room Directions to the hotel New Zealand/Australia Tube announcements

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 Collins Business Skills Explain acronyms and abbreviations when necessary Check others have understood your points Don’t overwhelm the listener with information

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

References and resources Badger, I ‘Listening’ in the Collins English for Business series, Harper Collins/Collins ELT 2011 + App for I Pad and IPhone published in 2012 Badger, I ‘Listening’ in the Collins English for Life series, Harper Collins/Collins ELT 2012 Sweeney, S. ‘Authentic materials’ in Business Issues, 2/2006 Collins Business Skills 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