The reason why we learn languages is for the purpose of communication which is successful only if you’re able to express yourself - speaking skills - and understand the others - listening skills.
Developing speaking skills is considered to be the most challenging task when learning a foreign language, but acquiring the ability to understand native speakers is underestimated.
In order to be able to understand spoken English you need to
- have a rich vocabulary and be familiar with the correct pronunciation of the words
- distinguish between accents
- recognize grammar patterns in speech (patterns like “I’ve, I’ve been, it might have been” are pronounced very fast, unless recognized comprehension may be hindered).
How to work on your listening skills? There is a simple answer to it – listen to native speakers as much as possible.
However, some types of listening yield more results than others. If you are familiar with the concepts of extensive and intensive listening/reading, you might want to make BOTH types part of your learning routine.
The difference is very simple. When you listen extensively, you listen a lot (radio, TV series, podcasts).
Then, you might ask yourself
- how much do you understand by listening only?
- how much do the images help you?
- can you retell any of the dialogs or jokes?
- how many new words have you learnt?
- did you really get that joke that obviously had to be funny?
BUT!
- you don’t understand 30% to 80% of the information
- you don’t make a note of new, unusual, or useful expressions
- you don’t talk about what you’ve heard
The intensive listening is the opposite. The know-how of extensive study is rather self-evident, whereas when it comes to intensive learning, there might be some doubts as it is rather a passive activity.
Always follow these 3 principles
1. Adjust the content of what you are listening to your current level, or slightly higher.
2. Make sure you understand at least 90% (to achieve this, listen up to several times and look up new words).
3. Create flashcards with the new expressions or write them down to study them later in a spaced repetition program.
I’ve discovered some amazing listen&watch tools meant for learning languages. The websites below contain impressive collections of short videos, grouped by level of difficulty and by topic.
1. multimedia-english.com/videos
2. englishcentral.com/videos
3. busuu.com
Why don't you give them a try?
Meanwhile, watch this funny version of Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet' - the balcony scene, and follow the steps below:
Step 1 - Before watching - ask yourself how could 'Romeo and Juliet' develop in modern times.
Step 2 - After watching - create a dialogue between Romeo and Juliet for the infamous balcony scene yourself, but remember, the conditions are modern. Go wild!
Step 3 - Choose a friend to role-play the dialogue with
Step 4 - Get up and perform! Don't be shy!
Step 5 - You may record a video and post it on youtube as to create more teaching materials for passionate English teachers. :)
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How easy do you understand the native speakers? What learning methods do you use to improve your listening skills? You may leave your comments below :).
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