Understand Spoken English With These Simple Steps
Photo by Malte Wingen on Unsplash
Are you cautious, or afraid of, having conversations in English with native speakers because you can’t understand them well? If so, this blog is for you!
When learning a language, listening is usually a difficult skill to develop. English learners tend to succeed with reading, writing and speaking more than listening. Why is this?
With a language, there are many different accents and ways of speaking, different persons speak at different speeds and you (the student/listener) have no control over the other person who is speaking.
You can’t really learn to listen the same way you learn to read.
So, what should we do?
#1 - You need to listen to a wide variety of English speakers!
A common mistake that English learners make is not listening to a wide variety of English speakers.
It is understandable to listen to only (or mainly) British material if you will be in a British environment for a particular reason (i.e. family, work, school, vacation, etc.) This is an excellent way to speed up your progress!
However, we should NOT exclude other nationalities and accents!
When studying English, ensure that you listen to as many different people as you can. Sure, you may have a few favorites, but don’t forget to add some other listening materials to your routine. (Different podcasts, different news channel, different music artists etc.)
#2 - You need to listen to different types of materials
There are generally two types of materials available to language learners.
Material made particularly for language learners - e.g. listening programs, podcasts (for learners)
Material made for native speakers (authentic material) - e.g. radio, music, podcasts
I highly recommend using mainly authentic materials as much as possible. In the beginner stages, sure, you will use some language learning materials. However, once you get a good grasp on all the different sounds and basic sentence structures, you should slowly replace your listening material with authentic material.
Depending on your age, you can find age-appropriate items:
Kids - kids tv shows, G or PG rated movies, songs, etc.
Teens & Adults - PG-13 (and up) movies, music, TV shows, etc.
TIP: For practice, most of your listening should actually be passive listening.
Steve Kaufmann, a linguist who speaks 20 languages, defines “passive learning” as this:
“Passive learning is the opportunity to just listen to or read something of interest, without having to interact with anyone, do drills or exercises, or answer comprehension questions, or say anything when prompted.”
When doing passive listening, it is very important to listen to content that interests you!
If you’re interested in learning about the world, listen to podcasts and watch shows that speak about the world.
If you’re interested in music, listen to songs in all of your favorite genres.
If you’re interested in comedy, watch some funny TV shows.
This is crucial to successful passive listening!
#3 - You need to listen to English in different speeds
When you are studying English, you should ensure that your materials include items where the English is spoken/sung at different speeds- slowly, at a moderate pace, quickly etc.
This will help you get used to hearing the language at many speeds, and this practice is essential for beginners to advanced to students. Beginners who listen to songs at a moderate or quicker pace are still able to train their ear.
In some applications, like YouTube, it is possible to change the speed of the video you’re watching. This is an excellent feature for language learners! Don’t forget to use it!!
#4 - You need to listen for meaning!
I urge you to stop focusing on what you do not understand. Instead, focus on all the things that you do. You will be able to understand the story (of a song, show, movie, podcast, etc.) much better when you can piece together all of the elements that you were able to comprehend.
Sometimes, you won’t always understand EVERYTHING you hear, and that’s perfectly okay!
Believe it or not, when you have understood some (or most) of the elements, sometimes you will be able to figure out what the other elements mean. In other instances, you will need to re-listen to, or re-watch the content to grasp what you did not understand.
If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t understand a lot of things and only understand a little bit of things, perhaps you should work with an easier/slower piece of material, and save this one for later.
The opposite of passive listening is actually called… active listening!
In most cases, active listening requires some type of response to the person we’re listening to.
These responses can be non-verbal: a nod, a smile, eye contact.
Or verbal: positive reinforcement, questioning, clarification. (“I understand.”, “I see what you mean.”, “Could you repeat that?”, “Tell me more about…”).
How to practice active listening:
Have a conversation with an English speaker (and use the non-verbal and verbal responses).
Use interactive English-learning materials (e.g. with a question and response feature).
Did you read the last blog post?
What To Do When You Get Stuck In English (3 Tips + Useful Phrases)
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Thanks for reading!
-Maryse.
