Other Strategies
Have you ever had to ask someone to repeat something you couldn’t understand?
Whether it’s because they’re talking too fast; they have an unfamiliar accent, or they’re using slang words you don’t recognize... It can be hard to really hear what people are saying, right?
Here’s the thing: What you hear in real conversations is often completely different from what you learn at school!
And this is why it is so important to master your listening skills!
Techniques to help you practice and improve your listening skills.
1. Study natural pronunciation
This is one of the best ways to improve your active listening skills!
Now, let me be clear: I’m not talking about studying pronunciation as you would at school. I’m talking about recognizing and paying attention to the sounds of English as it is actually spoken.
Because real, spoken English isn’t always what you expect! Sometimes sounds blend together, they change - they can even disappear completely!
For example, in school you may have been taught to hear,
“What do you want to do?”
But while listening to a native English speaker, what you actually hear is something like,
“Whadayawanna do?”
It can be super confusing, right?!
So, how can you overcome these real-world listening challenges?
It’s all about studying the elements of naturally spoken English, including:
Contractions;
Reduced forms;
Sentence stress; and
Intonation
2. Surround yourself with different accents, voices & contexts
Opening yourself up to different voices and different accents is so important!
This point goes beyond listening to different English accents. It is also about getting used to the sound of different voices, the different paces at which people speak, and getting comfortable having conversations in different settings and contexts.
3. Write what you hear
This strategy is simple, practical, and very effective - especially if you follow these specific steps!
Step 1:
Choose one, a 30-second section of a video, podcast, or Talk!
Step 2:
Listen to that section a couple of times. No writing yet! Just listening. This step is all about familiarizing yourself with the topic, along with the speaker’s accent, and the tone and pace of their voice.
Step 3:
Now it’s time to pick up your pen and write! Listen to the first sentence, then pause the video and write down what you hear.
The brilliant thing about this method is that, unlike the other tips, this one helps you to discover exactly what you are not hearing. In other words, it highlights the gaps in your listening ability - the words and expressions that you need to learn and recognize more instinctively - and helps you to fill in those gaps in your knowledge!
4. Watch without subtitles
Now, I know what you’re thinking...Watching a video (in English!) without subtitles is hard work, right? But, it can be a great way of practicing and strengthening your active listening skills.
After all, there are no subtitles in real life!
But don’t worry, I’m not asking you to struggle through an entire movie without subtitles! Just like in all the previous strategies, the key here is to start small.
Every time you sit down to watch a movie, turn off the subtitles for the first minute. This means one minute of training your active listening skills before you can passively enjoy your movie!
Pause the movie after one minute and write down a quick summary of what you heard (just a summary, not every word!). Repeat this step if you want to!
Then, go back to the start, turn on the subtitles (in English!), and read them for the entire minute to check that you understood the meaning correctly.
This is a great habit to get into if you are hooked on a TV series. It’s a little easier to do this consistently if you are familiar with the actors, accents, and storyline.
So, there you have it!4practical techniques that you can implement in your daily routine to practice and improve your English listening skills.