4 Steps to Easily Understand English Improve English Listening Skills

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with lucy long time no see right

i know i had a little break

i’ve moved house i’m in a new house now

and this room will soon be my new studio

it’s got a lovely window over there

there’s lots of light so i’m in the

middle of setting that up for you guys

today i’m going to talk about improving

your understanding so being able to

understand what native speakers say when

they’re talking and when they’re talking

quickly now i have done a video that is

quite similar to this it’s along the

same lines it talks about the same

subject about listening and improving

your listening skills if i remember

correctly i think there were 12 ways

that you could improve your listening

skills in that last video if you want to

see that you can click right here and

i’ll put a link in the description but

today we’re only going to focus on four

tips and we’re going to be focusing less

on the academic side of listening and

more on the real life side of listening

and the listening skills and the

listening comprehension skills because

it’s about understanding that you will

use on a daily basis so let’s get

started so tip number one order your

resources now the biggest tip that any

english teacher will give you if you’re

trying to improve your listening is

listen to movies listen to audiobooks

listen to more exams and things like

that listen to the news listen to the

radio excellent tip it’s a tip I give

myself but I want to make sure that my

students listen to the right things in

the right order

I wouldn’t recommend a sarcastic British

comedy that uses the complexities of

British English to the fullest extent

see they’d use things like that and I

almost don’t know what I’m saying so you

maybe won’t either

and you want to start with easier things

and work your way up to more difficult

things there is no point starting at the

top unless you’re a genius

so I’m going to give you this sort of

order of resources

that you should go for and you can kind

of see where you’re at see what you

understand and then you know maybe move

up to the next one so what kind of thing

should you listen to if you don’t know

any English if you’re a complete

beginner mr. bean joke that is a joke in

mr. bean he says very little in English

but it is a fantastic TV show so watch

that for fun

first and then you can start your

English listening practice so beginners

and even early intermediate because

remember that listening is often found

to be the hardest skill of all for

skills that they tend to test in exams

listening speaking reading and writing I

always see with my students they get the

highest scores in reading and writing

and it’s listening and speaking where

they start to suffer and listening tends

to be the worst oh my god oh my god

sorry about that

I got disturbed this is why I do upload

more regularly by well so what I was

trying to say was don’t be afraid if you

can actually understand way less than

you would expect a person of your level

to understand so even if you’re at like

a an intermediate level you might need

to listen to to lower levels to start

with so what I always recommend is test

out listening to children’s TV programs

simply because children’s TV programs

are normally designed to help a child

learn more and understand more and also

improve their vocabulary especially TV

programs for younger children if you

want I have a great recommendation for a

British TV show that’s designed for kids

it’s very educational it’s packed full

of vocabulary and it is Peppa Pig

incredibly famous TV show that I

imagined will be in your country as well

see if you can switch it into its native

language which is British English and

it’s actually really really funny

because I think it’s designed for

parents to watch it with the child so

not only are you learning loads it’s

just a really good program if you find

yourself understanding 80% of Peppa Pig

whatever you choose to watch that’s

designed for children then you can move

up to slapstick comedy comedy that is

silly it’s not got in-depth humour and

it doesn’t play around with the language

it’s just basic comedy normally and I

really don’t want to offend anyone here

but normally American comedy shows are

more on this level than the English ones

the British English sense of humor tends

to be darker more subtle we tend to say

things with a straight face that as a

huge generalization American comedy TV

shows seemed to be more in-your-face the

jokes are more obvious and you can

follow the plot more easily a couple of

recommendations for you are of course

friends friends can be enjoyed in any

language and chances are you’ve seen

friends in your language so you

understand more or less what’s going on

in English as well um if you do want a

British TV series one I really like it’s

an old one now is the Vicar of Dibley

again I’ll put this in the description

box it’s very very British I would say

it’s slightly more difficult than

friends because they do use the language

and play with language a little bit but

it’s a gorgeous British accent they’ve

got a wide variety of accidents really

it’s about a female vicar Dawn French

one of my favourite female comedians who

becomes the vicar for a very small

village that’s very set in their ways

they’re not very modern they like to do

things in a traditional way and it is

hilarious there aren’t that many

episodes but it’s something I always

watch with my parents at

next I would move up two films and TV

shows that tend to have less talking

ie action films detective films films

and TV shows where there’s time for you

to think about what’s going on and it’s

very visual and then obviously for the

most advanced you’d want to look at

sci-fi because they give in-depth

explanations dark comedies drama and

also period drama that’s quite difficult

because they tend to use old-fashioned

language obviously the next tip is one

that is so so important it’s practice

but it’s not just practice it’s practice

with consistency an hour-long

conversation with a native fantastic

that is great practice but an hour-long

conversation with a native every single

week with feedback and that is how

you’re going to improve your

understanding and not only that making

sure that you work on every single other

skill as well obviously we need more

obviously it’s always good to really

focus on what you’re lacking which is

your listening skill but improve your

pronunciation improve your reading so

that you understand more words writing

is also incredibly important speaking

and listening goes hand-in-hand this tip

comes thanks to the sponsors of today’s

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success stories moving on to my next

point which is more focused on real-life

conversations and how to understand

native speakers when they’re talking to

you and when they’re talking quickly my

tip for you is dominate the conversation

which I know can be quite hard

especially if you’re naturally quite an

introvert I have my days some days I’m

an introvert and some days I’m an

extrovert but I’m not talking about

going into a conversation and taking

over and dominating everything I’m

saying take the lead with the

conversation and direct it because if

you’re speaking with a native speaker or

somebody who has a much higher level

than you you are the one who is doing

most of the work and they can kind of

relax it’s very easy for them to not

understand if they’re just native or to

forget if they did learn once but now

they’re at a kind of level where they

don’t have to think about anything it’s

all natural it’s very easy for them to

not understand how tough it is for a

non-native speaker for a learner of

English so I want to make it very clear

to you I as a teacher and I as a friend

and as a native speaker of English have

never once felt annoyed or frustrated

with somebody asking me to repeat

something if I know that they have been

listening and trying to understand me if

you know it’s my boyfriend who obviously

has zoned out who wasn’t listening to

what I was saying and then says what

sorry can you say that again yes that is

annoying

if someone’s obviously not understood me

I don’t mind in fact I’m glad that they

want to understand what I’m saying and

that they care enough about what I’m

saying they’re asking me to repeat it

so there are two things I want you to

start getting confident that’s saying

the first one is asking for repetition

and the second one is

asking for somebody to slow down so

asking for repetition oh sorry I didn’t

catch that I didn’t quite understand it

I got the majority but not all of it I

didn’t quite catch that sorry could you

repeat that note that I’m often starting

with sorry because it’s a good

interjection to get somebody to stop

talking

what was that could you say that again

notice that I’m showing you my ear and

I’m kind of doing a circle motion could

you repeat that I’m making it very clear

that I’m having trouble understanding

about slowing down you’re either asking

for them to speak a little bit more

slowly or to speak more clearly maybe

they’re joining their words too much

they’re using too much connected speech

you could say sorry I’m having a little

bit of trouble understanding what you’re

saying would you mind speaking a little

bit more slowly a little bit more slowly

and I think these hands here mean

separate your words don’t showing them

all together I remember living in Spain

I could see English people coming over

to Spain and speaking slowly but still

using words like won and gunner and

don’t sure like connecting all these

words together and not understanding why

people weren’t getting what they were

saying they had no idea they were trying

to be clear so people just need that

reminder and you have every right to ask

someone that so dominate the

conversation another part of this tip is

you ask the questions you can make sure

that the conversation stays on track it

stays on the topic that you are

comfortable talking about if you ask the

questions and instead of asking for

repetition again and again and again you

can kind of confirm that what you’ve

heard is correct by saying an

affirmative statement so you missed the

bus or by using a tag at the end of the

sentence so you missed the bus didn’t

you and then they will confirm that

that’s yes what they said or if you’ve

misunderstood they might say no no I got

the bus but I almost missed the bus and

there we are

it clears it up a bit I think that tip

is more of a collection of pieces of

advice that are often overlooked in the

English classroom asking somebody to

speak more clearly is absolutely fine

one last thing I’d like to add to that

is asking somebody if they’ve used a

specific saying or if it’s a slang word

if you have no idea what someone has

just said you could say is that a saying

and then they will hopefully explain it

to you or is that regional slang or do

you say all over the country then that

will hopefully go on to explain what

they’re talking about and it might also

serve as a reminder that they can’t use

loads of different slang words and loads

of different sayings when they’re

talking with an English Learner

obviously if you’re at a very high level

you of course want somebody to speak as

naturally as possible but there is

nothing wrong with asking somebody to

slightly adapt to you if you’re really

struggling to understand now my last tip

tip number four this one is incredibly

important because it’s very easy to lose

enthusiasm and to feel disappointed

because you’re not understanding as much

as you think you should be able to I get

this comment all the time okay it is

Lucy are you speaking really clearly

because I can understand everything

you’re saying but when I try to listen

to other natives because I can’t

understand anything my tip is manage

your expectations you need to understand

that what you study in private and what

you practice in private is always going

to be at a higher level than what you

experienced in real life what I mean to

say is I’m in a teaching environment

right now I am making sure that I’m

clear I’m not slowing down a hell of a

lot and I still use slang phrases but I

will try and explain them a hell of a

lot means a lot but you need to

understand and expect you’re not going

to be able to comprehend as much outside

of the classroom and outside of your

private personal practice as you do in

those times and it’s very important to

have this understood from the very

beginning because it’s so easy to lose

most

vation and really these tips they all

link together you need to practice in

order to practice you need to use

different resources but make sure you

choose the right one make sure you put

them in order understand that you might

be feeling really confident after an

English lesson but when you go out and

you speak to a native you might not be

able to communicate as much as you

thought before manage that expectation

but something that you can do to

understand more in real life is lead

that conversation you ask the questions

ask them to slow down ask them to speak

more clearly and ask them to repeat

things that’s one thing that you can do

but in order to understand 70% of a

real-life conversation you need to make

sure that you’re understanding 80% in

the classroom right guys that’s it for

today’s video thank you so much for

joining me here in my new house very

exciting it’s in a lovely tiny village

near Cambridge here but it’s a very old

property and I can hear everything my

neighbor is saying I can hear everything

my boyfriend is saying on the phone

downstairs and I can see and I can well

I can see neighbors walking but I’m very

happy here very excited don’t forget to

check out lingo der all of the

information is in the description box

and you can use the code that is here

and don’t forget to connect with me on

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facebook my Instagram and my Twitter but

I definitely want to point out Instagram

because I’ve been doing loads of

giveaways and I did one with Cambridge

University Press the other day we gave

away some grammar in use books we’ve got

some very exciting giveaways in the

pipeline in the pipeline means they’re

being planned they’re coming up soon I

hope you enjoyed the lesson today let me

know any video requests in the comment

section I will see you soon for another

lesson

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