Page 68 - Perfect Phrases ESL Everyday Business

Speak Up and Speak Out

is active. Listening occurs when you choose to listen, focus on what is
being said, understand what is being said, and are able to react.

Telephone Listening Practice

Through practice, you can become more comfortable using the tele-
phone. Start by practicing your listening. First, call numbers that have
recorded messages such as:

• Movie phone lines. These are often difficult to understand
because people with no specific telephone presentation
training are speaking rapidly on the recordings. Listen to the
messages several times, and write down what you hear. For
example, you may write, “Roxy Theater Jurassic Park 12 noon
3 P.M. 6 P.M.” You may then check spelling and information in
the newspaper or online.
• Businesses. Those that are closed for the weekend, evenings,
or holidays have recorded messages. Again, listen to as many
messages as you want. You will start to notice some messages
are clear and professional and others are more difficult to
comprehend.

Additional listening practice may include:

• Telemarketers. When they call, listen first and try to
understand, and then you may say, “I am not interested.”
• Friends. Ask them to call you so you can practice having
telephone conversations or ask them to leave messages on
your voice mail for your listening practice.

For even more practice, listen every chance you get to the radio,
music on tapes or CDs, books on tape, audio books on CD, and live
speech. Also, watch movies, news, situation comedies, soap operas,

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