Listening Comprehension

[Ralf]

How can we give ESLers the tools they need to understand spoken English in this globally communicative world of ours?

We surely need to focus more on understanding the American variety of our beautiful language since America's influence on the business world (and hence the English language) is rather substantial. But how can we make Hans Kuntz, Lee Wang and Carlos Gomez help understand our Glaswegian investor Mick McGee who wants to invest millions in local property?
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[Torsten]

Hi Ralf,

Thanks a lot for your interesting question. I think it doesn't matter so much what variant of English you are exposed to as long as you get the right amount of exposure. Let's say, Hans Kuntz surrounds himself with standard American English. He is exposed to spoken US English several hours every day for several years. After a while he will understand our Glaswegian investor in a very similar fashion an American native English speaker would.
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[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

Many ESLers have difficulty with various English accents. Exposure to variety helps.
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[Yankee]

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What I've experienced in many international companies is that the employees often need to be able to understand a wide variety of English accents. Many, maybe even most, non-native speakers do not ever get hours and hours of daily exposure to one particular English accent. However, it may well be true that they will have to deal with one particular accent more often than others at any given time. The location/nationality of the people an employee has to talk to can change fairly often and unexpectedly, and employees may suddenly find themselves having to understand accents they've had little or no experience with or exposure to.
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