"Right?" - Why Follow-up Questions Destroy Listening Comprehension

"You understand, right?"

My student nodded.

But they looked confused.

I asked them to repeat what I said.

They repeated: "You understand."

That's it. Nothing else.

They completely missed the "right?" at the end.

Communication failure. Neither of us knew it.

Why They Disappear

"Right?" becomes "rye?"

Or it's just a rising tone with almost no consonant sound.

"Okay?" becomes "kay?"

Sometimes it's just "k?" with a vowel hint.

The rhythm compresses them into near-invisibility.

Rising intonation is sometimes the only clue.

Students catch the main sentence fine.

Then they miss the follow-up completely.

They think you finished talking.

They don't realize you're waiting for a response.

You get awkward pauses. You see confused looks.

That's the listening comprehension problem.

Chunks Through Rhythm

A chunk is a clump of words that stick together.

Your brain makes them through experience.

Here's what students get wrong:

They think one strong word goes in each chunk.

That's not always true.

Sometimes a chunk has two strongly stressed words. Even three.

Sometimes it has no clear strong stress at all.

Follow-up questions are weird chunks.

They're separate from the main sentence. But they're also attached to it.

They're very short. Very compressed.

Students need to feel where these chunk boundaries are through rhythm.

The main sentence ends. You get a rhythm pause. Then the follow-up question starts.

That's a chunk boundary.

The Repeat Method

Most teachers ask: "You understand, right?"

The student answers: "Yes."

The teacher thinks: Good, they understood.

That's wrong.

Did they catch "right?" at the end?

You don't know.

Here's what works:

You make them REPEAT the question.

Not answer it. Repeat it.

"You understand, right?"

The student repeats: "You understand, right?"

Now you know they caught the chunk.

If they can repeat it, they heard it.

If they can't? They're guessing.

Try It Tomorrow

Pick one follow-up question.

"Makes sense, right?"

Use it with your students.

Make them repeat it. Not answer. Repeat.

Do it twenty times if necessary.

Until the chunk becomes automatic.

Until "right?" doesn't disappear.

The audio examples on my site play automatically twenty times.

You don't need clicking. You don't need counting.

Link in the description.

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Coming Monday: How to build a listening streak and never break it.