Improving Listening Comprehension While you are listening to somebody don’t be thinking about something else. Don’t be thinking up arguments or responses to what is being said. Don’t spend half your time criticizing yourself for your poor listening comprehension skills. Don’t get stuck thinking about the words you heard that you didn’t understand. Just LISTEN and try to understand. This won’t always work in the real world, or course. In the real world you need to respond to what people say. And you need to tell people when you don’t understand. They will need to repeat, or rephrase. They may need to speak more slowly. They may need to write things down. If people become impatient with this you can ask them if they can speak your native language. If they cannot speak your native language you can ask them which they would prefer: a) That you pretend to understand them when they are saying important things. b) That together you ensure that you understand the important points. If you repeat what you don’t understand with a quizzical expression on your face most people will realize that you didn’t understand what was said. 7) Learn to think in English. A lot of people talk about this but not many explain how to do it. To start thinking in English you need to spend a lot of time reading or listening to things that are quite easy to understand. You also need to have somebody to talk to who will engage you in conversation or exercises that are quick, easy and require a quick response. The response needs to be quick because you need to have an experience that does not give you time to start thinking in your native language. 8) Take an interest in what people are saying. This can be a bit difficult sometimes because you may have your own things to think about or the person you are listening to may seem uninteresting. It is important to try though.