diff --git a/mycroft/audio/speech.py b/mycroft/audio/speech.py
index d8460345cb..0fdab3ff29 100644
--- a/mycroft/audio/speech.py
+++ b/mycroft/audio/speech.py
@@ -35,11 +35,6 @@ mimic_fallback_obj = None
 _last_stop_signal = 0
 
 
-def _start_listener(_):
-    """Force Mycroft to start listening (as if 'Hey Mycroft' was spoken)."""
-    bus.emit(Message('mycroft.mic.listen'))
-
-
 def handle_speak(event):
     """Handle "speak" message
 
@@ -60,11 +55,7 @@ def handle_speak(event):
         stopwatch = Stopwatch()
         stopwatch.start()
         utterance = event.data['utterance']
-        if event.data.get('expect_response', False):
-            # When expect_response is requested, the listener will be restarted
-            # at the end of the next bit of spoken audio.
-            bus.once('recognizer_loop:audio_output_end', _start_listener)
-
+        listen = event.data.get('expect_response', False)
         # This is a bit of a hack for Picroft.  The analog audio on a Pi blocks
         # for 30 seconds fairly often, so we don't want to break on periods
         # (decreasing the chance of encountering the block).  But we will
@@ -82,7 +73,10 @@ def handle_speak(event):
             utterance = re.sub(r'\b([A-za-z][\.])(\s+)', r'\g<1>', utterance)
             chunks = re.split(r'(?<!\w\.\w.)(?<![A-Z][a-z]\.)(?<=\.|\;|\?)\s',
                               utterance)
-            for chunk in chunks:
+            # Apply the listen flag to the last chunk, set the rest to False
+            chunks = [(chunks[i], listen if i == len(chunks) - 1 else False)
+                      for i in range(len(chunks))]
+            for chunk, listen in chunks:
                 # Check if somthing has aborted the speech
                 if (_last_stop_signal > start or
                         check_for_signal('buttonPress')):
@@ -90,7 +84,7 @@ def handle_speak(event):
                     tts.playback.clear()
                     break
                 try:
-                    mute_and_speak(chunk, ident)
+                    mute_and_speak(chunk, ident, listen)
                 except KeyboardInterrupt:
                     raise
                 except Exception:
@@ -103,7 +97,7 @@ def handle_speak(event):
                                                'tts': tts.__class__.__name__})
 
 
-def mute_and_speak(utterance, ident):
+def mute_and_speak(utterance, ident, listen=False):
     """Mute mic and start speaking the utterance using selected tts backend.
 
     Arguments:
@@ -125,7 +119,7 @@ def mute_and_speak(utterance, ident):
 
     LOG.info("Speak: " + utterance)
     try:
-        tts.execute(utterance, ident)
+        tts.execute(utterance, ident, listen)
     except RemoteTTSTimeoutException as e:
         LOG.error(e)
         mimic_fallback_tts(utterance, ident)
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/__init__.py b/mycroft/tts/__init__.py
index c049091d55..123cc9a9d9 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/__init__.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/__init__.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import random
 import re
 from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod
 from threading import Thread
-from time import time
+from time import time, sleep
 
 import os.path
 from os.path import dirname, exists, isdir, join
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ class PlaybackThread(Thread):
         """Thread main loop. get audio and viseme data from queue and play."""
         while not self._terminated:
             try:
-                snd_type, data, visemes, ident = self.queue.get(timeout=2)
+                snd_type, data, visemes, ident, listen = \
+                    self.queue.get(timeout=2)
                 self.blink(0.5)
                 if not self._processing_queue:
                     self._processing_queue = True
@@ -111,7 +112,7 @@ class PlaybackThread(Thread):
             except Exception as e:
                 LOG.exception(e)
                 if self._processing_queue:
-                    self.tts.end_audio()
+                    self.tts.end_audio(listen)
                     self._processing_queue = False
 
     def show_visemes(self, pairs):
@@ -196,7 +197,7 @@ class TTS(metaclass=ABCMeta):
         # Create signals informing start of speech
         self.bus.emit(Message("recognizer_loop:audio_output_start"))
 
-    def end_audio(self):
+    def end_audio(self, listen):
         """Helper function for child classes to call in execute().
 
         Sends the recognizer_loop:audio_output_end message, indicating
@@ -205,6 +206,8 @@ class TTS(metaclass=ABCMeta):
         """
 
         self.bus.emit(Message("recognizer_loop:audio_output_end"))
+        if listen:
+            self.bus.emit(Message('mycroft.mic.listen'))
         # Clean the cache as needed
         cache_dir = mycroft.util.get_cache_directory("tts/" + self.tts_name)
         mycroft.util.curate_cache(cache_dir, min_free_percent=100)
@@ -287,15 +290,17 @@ class TTS(metaclass=ABCMeta):
         """
         return [sentence]
 
-    def execute(self, sentence, ident=None):
+    def execute(self, sentence, ident=None, listen=False):
         """Convert sentence to speech, preprocessing out unsupported ssml
 
             The method caches results if possible using the hash of the
             sentence.
 
-            Args:
+            Arguments:
                 sentence:   Sentence to be spoken
                 ident:      Id reference to current interaction
+                listen:     True if listen should be triggered at the end
+                            of the utterance.
         """
         sentence = self.validate_ssml(sentence)
 
@@ -307,7 +312,11 @@ class TTS(metaclass=ABCMeta):
                                                 self.spellings[word.lower()])
 
         chunks = self._preprocess_sentence(sentence)
-        for sentence in chunks:
+        # Apply the listen flag to the last chunk, set the rest to False
+        chunks = [(chunks[i], listen if i == len(chunks) - 1 else False)
+                  for i in range(len(chunks))]
+
+        for sentence, l in chunks:
             key = str(hashlib.md5(
                 sentence.encode('utf-8', 'ignore')).hexdigest())
             wav_file = os.path.join(
@@ -323,7 +332,7 @@ class TTS(metaclass=ABCMeta):
                     self.save_phonemes(key, phonemes)
 
             vis = self.viseme(phonemes) if phonemes else None
-            self.queue.put((self.audio_ext, wav_file, vis, ident))
+            self.queue.put((self.audio_ext, wav_file, vis, ident, l))
 
     def viseme(self, phonemes):
         """Create visemes from phonemes. Needs to be implemented for all