"Know how to listen, and you will profit even of those who talk badly"
Plutarch
Hello everyone!
Some of you have asked me to write about how to improve (make or become better) listening comprehension. It is true that this skill is most of the times one of the most difficult ones when learning English. I completely understand you because I still remember the first time I went to England, I could say that the very first moments that I spent in Nottingham (UK)were really frustrating, I couldn’t stop thinking that I had lost all my life studying and loving something that in that moment was completely useless for me.
If you are feeling like that, right now...Don’t panic! There are several things you can do to stop feeling this way.
If you think about how a baby learns to speak his or her native language, from the very beginning he/she is listening to people speaking around him all the time. He is receiving an input (the process of putting something in) which will help him to learn. That’s why is so important to be in touch with the language you are learning.
As I said before my first experiences in England were a little bit frustrating but I received some advices (recommendations) in Nottingham Trent University that I would like to share with you. This will not be the last time we talk about the listening skill but I hope that you find it useful!
The way we listen to something depends on our reason for doing so. If we have the radio on in the background, we are not probably listening very carefully; we just want to get a general idea of the topic. If we have asked for instructions on how to get somewhere, we should listen with more attention. It is because of this that we have to distinguish between different types of listening:
GLOBAL LISTENING:
This is when we simply want to get the main point of what we are listening to. We might only want to know the topic of a conversation, radio or TV programme. Native speakers do this type of listening frequently and automatically because they need to pay little attention to get the general idea. You that are learning the language may find it more difficult. You may feel the need to understand every word, and give up (stop doing something) completely if you don’t, and you may be disturbed by distractions such as noise and poor sound quality which are not generally a problem for native speakers.
Listening Strategies
How to improve your GLOBAL LISTENING:
Remember that it is not necessary to understand everything! Many words are not essential and you can get the message without getting all the words. Often what is important is emphasized or stressed, so try concentrating on that. You could try to predict or guess (suppose) what the words you are unsure of mean.
Prepare yourself before you start listening. Think about what about you expect to hear. Use the context or the situation, the intonation of the speaker and if you are watching a video/the TV, the expressions and body language of the people involved.
There are also clues in the language which help you predict what is coming: signals such as “There is one point I’d like to make.....” ; “ I’m afraid that....”(signals something negative will follow)
LISTENING FOR DETAIL:
We do this when we need to understand practically everything- public announcements at airports, for example. However, even here, it may not be necessary to understand every word. Did you know that approximately 40% of the words used in spoken language are non-essential? You just need to be able to separate the essential information from the non-essential.
Listening strategies
How to improve your LISTENING FOR DETAIL
The best way to improve this kind of listening is to take notes
- Use either linear or mapping techniques to organise your notes.
- Use symbols and abbreviations.
- Pay attention to signal words.
- Recognise examples.
- Use non verbal communication and context for meaning of unknown words
Songs are a great way to practice the listening skill and also to improve pronunciation. Check lyrics training, where you will find lots of songs classified by their level of difficulty.
You can also look for PodEnglish user on Youtube, in this channel you have lessons from beginner to advanced level, and can be interesting to get used to listening to people speaking in English.
More articles and new links soon!
Have a good week!
