3 Tips for Practicing Your English Listening Skills

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if you’ve studied your target language

but you can barely understand native

speakers you might be doing something

wrong you know the vocabulary and

grammar they’re using but for some

reason when they speak at a faster speed

you can’t keep track of what’s going on

why is this happening

have you spent all this time learning in

vain this is a common issue that all

language learners face at some point or

another

the truth is it’s actually a good

problem to have because only students

with a higher level of skill will

experience it when you know a lot of the

language but have trouble understanding

native speakers the problem is almost

always with your listening skills

learning what words mean and practicing

how to use them in a sentence are both

invaluable skills to develop but people

often forget that in addition to

speaking writing and reading we have to

develop our listening skills in a

foreign language as well in this video

we’ll look at three practical ways to

improve your listening skills number one

practice active listening one of the

best ways to practice listening is to

well listen to your target language but

this doesn’t mean putting on some music

and listening to it in the background as

you do other things you need to practice

active listening get your hands on a

recording of spoken language you can use

a movie news broadcast or a podcast you

can even try subscribing to a YouTube

channel listen to a segment of the audio

and do your best to write down what you

hear after a couple tries at this go

back and double check what you wrote

against the script of what was actually

said if you’re watching a movie you can

double check yourself by turning on the

subtitles our language learning program

is one of the best tools for developing

your listening skills you can listen to

the conversation in a lesson and then

check it back against the lesson

transcripts this is simple easy and you

can be sure that the transcripts are

correct number two practice

pronunciation

any problems you have pronouncing new

words correctly will be reflected back

in your listening skills

it’s hard for your brain to decipher and

remember a sound be it a letter or a

word that you don’t know how to make

yourself a good accent will give you the

ability to hear and pick out the

otherwise unnatural new sounds to

develop your accent focus on any sounds

or letters that feel difficult or

unnatural for you once you get more

comfortable with the basic sounds start

to combine them using words and whole

sentences listen to native speakers as

much as possible and take note of how

words and sounds can blend morph or get

dropped in rapid speech

do your best to listen to this

phenomenon and imitate what you hear

focus more on how the syllables are said

together rather than simply saying the

words next to each other

there is often a significant difference

between how words are said individually

and how they are said when spoken

together in a rapid-fire sentence this

is a big part of the reason language

learners can know a lot of vocabulary

and grammar but still not understand

native speakers our playback feature is

great for pronunciation practice you can

playback the podcast itself or listen to

words individually you can even listen

back at a slower speed if you’re having

trouble catching the correct

pronunciation at native speaker speed

number 3 make listening part of your

routine now that you’ve started

practicing active listening and

pronunciation make it a part of your

regular learning a lot of specific

amount of time for each of your

listening activities for example you

might practice 10 minutes of active

listening followed by ten minutes of

practicing vowels and then 10 minutes of

imitation practice with a podcast now

you don’t have to use this schedule

exactly tailor it to your own needs and

availability the point is that you

should make a conscious and decisive

effort to practice your listening skills

on a regular basis it could be 30

minutes a day or it might be 10 what

matters most is that you practice

consistently these three tips will help

you close any gap that might exist

between your knowledge of your target

language and your listening abilities

understanding native speakers may seem

daunting at first but with a little time

and perseverance you will see your

skills improve and for even more ways to

practice listening check out our

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have you speaking in your target

language and if you enjoyed these tips

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