Hello and welcome to How to...the programme from BBC Learning English where we help you to help yourselves in some everyday situations.
My name's William Kremer. Now, when you're in English class, are you ever unsure how to show your teacher that you understand what he or she is saying? Do you just wait for your teacher to finish explaining a point and then say something like 'Thank you... I understand'? If you do, you might feel that that sounds a bit unnatural - and you'd be right, it is unnatural. In English, as in many other languages, we tend to signal to the person who is talking, that we are listening to them