5 Tips on How to Improve Your Listening Comprehension Skills
Ever felt like you’ve acquired a language really well, yet struggled to understand what native speakers say?
A lot of language learning beginners have trouble understanding native speakers at native-level speed. Listening comprehension is often deemed among learners as the most challenging skill to improve. They find that the amount of time they put into developing their skills does not correspond to their desired result. Read below to discover some practical tips that you can follow to achieve a better listening comprehension skill.
Listening consistency
To get familiar with the pronunciation of a language, it is key that you expose yourself to the spoken language every day. Learners often get distracted by written language and overlook the importance of spoken language. Spend as much time on listening as you would on practicing other skills like reading, writing and speaking. Even if you’re living in a city in which your target language is not widely spoken, you should not create excuses and search for listening resources online. YouTube is one of the most easily accessible choices. Podcasts are also a good choice as they often involve authentic dialogue using casual languages. It is a tool that offers spoken language similar to what you would hear in real-life situations.
Listen with the text
Try to look for a video with subtitles, or more simply, watch a movie and with subtitles. Alternatively, you can find audio material with matching transcripts. In that way, you can look up words or phrases immediately when you come across something you don’t understand. Audio books are a good option as you can listen to the audio while reading the actual book. Ideally, choose a book you are familiar with so you already have a gist of it which makes it easier for you to understand.
“Write what you hear” practice
Besides inputs, it’s important to know how much you understand from the audio. Find an audio with its transcript, keep it short, work on around 20 seconds of it. Listen to it a several times and do your best to write down exactly what you’ve heard. After that, compare what you’ve written with the actual transcript, figure out the mistakes you’ve made and what causes you to miss them. This practice helps you keep track on the words and phrases you don’t understand. It helps you identify your problematic areas so you will get an idea of which area to focus on.
Listening repetition
Stay within a narrow range of topics that cover similar vocabulary. Quality is always more important than quantity when it comes to learning. Make sure you’ve understood all of the content before moving on to something else. Whenever you come across words you’re unsure of, try listening to a variety of native speakers saying the same word. Different accents might vary the pronunciation of the words so it’s a good practice to get yourself familiar with the different sounds. By listening to the same word repeatedly, you will be able to identify it next time you listen to it.
Speak with native speakers
Speaking with native speakers doesn’t just help improve speaking skills. These conversations usually take place in an uncontrolled context which means that you will hear things you don’t expect. Written language is sometimes really different from how people speak it. This is an opportunity for you to understand how the language is actually spoken in certain situations. You might come across a lot of slang words, vocalized pauses and linking words. Don’t be afraid to ask them to repeat what they’ve said or ask for an explanation.
Listening comprehension requires a lot of learning materials. If you need some assistance, it’s advised to get a language teacher to help you along the learning journey. FluentUp is a platform where you can find online language lessons offered by accredited language schools worldwide. You can take small-group or individual lessons. The teacher can identify your weaknesses and provide you with listening materials that suit your level.
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