Here’s a little story about listening comprehension. But first, what do I mean by the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) environment? This would be classrooms generally made up of students who share a common native tongue. Like, for instance, an English class in Japan taught by a Japanese instructor.

The Story
I was training to be an interviewer for Cambridge exams in Samara, Russia. The trainer was British. We trainees were Americans and Russians. We had to evaluate the speaking abilities of several people from different countries. The goal was for all of us pretty much to agree on the level of the speaker. We watched video tapes of interviews and gave our ratings. Most of our evaluations were close, with one exception. One guy on the video–probably from Russia–scored pretty well with the Russian evaluators. We Americans rated a certain Chinese guy higher. The Russians were surprised. They felt that the Chinese guy was hardly comprehensible.

We Americans thought the Chinese guy was understandable, and spoke a little more fluently. Were we Americans right?

Conclusions
Not really. The Russians weren’t being biased, weren’t just favoring a fellow countryman. No, for them the Russian WAS more understandable, because Russian English teachers were accustomed to Russians speaking English. They had far less experience–perhaps none–listening to a Chinese speaker of English.

In a non English-speaking country, like Russia or China, students and teachers often speak beautiful English. They write beautifully. They read easily and prolifically.

But when it comes to listening, we native speakers might have to adjust (or accommodate) our language to be understood. The listening skills have received less attention. It is unlikely that the students–and the teachers–have not engaged in focused listen tasks on a daily basis.  This was born out in my TOEFL preparation classes, where students scored lowest on the Listening portion of the exam.

Increase Listening Tasks: Native and World Englishes
So we see the is importance of increasing listening practice of American, Brit and Aussie English in the EFL environment.

Likewise, it’s necessary to give students listening tasks involving the speech those who speak English as a second or foreign language–Indians, Chinese, Malays, Egyptians, Mexicans, or Vietnamese. Is it not good practice for Russians to understand Chinese speaking English and visa versa?

In our increasingly linked worldwide community, L2 English interactions are becoming more and more common.

In the past, teachers had an excuse not to do so many listening activities. They did not have access to a broad range of audio to do listening activities every day.

But with all the authentic audio available on the Internet, it’s time to dig in and pump up the number of listening activities in your classes. Heck, with English Teachers Everywhere alone you could do a new listening thingy every day of the term.