How To Practice And Improve Your Advanced English Listening Skills in 30 Days

You are an intermediate or advanced
English learner. But for some reason your

English listening skills don’t seem to
be improving. You listen to English music,

you listen to English news programs, and
maybe even listen to English podcasts.

But for some reason your English
listening skills don’t seem to improve.

Well don’t worry. Today I’m gonna teach
you how. Welcome to Speak English with Tiffani.

I’m teacher Tiffani. Let’s jump
right in!

Alright this English listening skills
plan is broken down into three different

sections. Each of these sections will
cover a ten day period.

Over this ten day period you will learn
exactly how to improve your English

listening skills each time you study a
section. Alright now each of these

sections has nine different phases and
we’re gonna look at each different phase.

So let’s look at phase number one. Find
the main idea. The main idea refers to

the point of what you are listening to.
It is the most important thought or

topic. So this is your focus for day one
okay. You’re gonna listen to the five

audio files you chose. Yes that’s right.
Each day you’re gonna pick five

different audio files. Now you can choose
how long or how short these files are.

Okay? Now you’re only gonna listen for the

main idea. This is imperative. This is key.
Don’t try to listen for the vocabulary

words or anything else. Just figure out
the main idea for day one. Alright so

the next thing you want to do is move on
to part two or phase two. Answer the five

W’s. The five W’s refer to finding the
who, what, when, where, and why of what you

are listening to. This is your focus for
day two. That’s right.

Day one was just for the main idea and
then you move on to day two you’re gonna

listen for the five W’s. Now when you
listen to the five audio files you chose

again you can pick new audio files or
you can use the same ones from the

previous day, you’re specifically
listening for pieces of information that

answer the five W’s. You may have to
listen more than once and that’s okay.

Okay? Now after you find the five W’s
stop. Don’t listen anymore. Now I know

this is gonna be a little bit
interesting or different because you’re

used to listening over and over, but
remember you’re training your brain to

actually increase its ability to listen
well. Okay. Alright now moving on to

step three or phase three. Imitate what
you hear.

Imitating refers to trying to copy the
sound, speed, and exact words that you

hear as you listen okay. This is your
focus for day three. This is your only

focus for day three. You’re gonna listen
to the five audio files you chose. Again

they can be brand new files or the files
in the previous day. It’s up to you okay.

And what you’re gonna do is you’re going
to use intervals. That means stopping and

starting. Now you can choose how short or
how long your intervals are. So for

example, you may choose to do ten-second
intervals. You can listen for ten seconds

and then try to repeat exactly what you
heard. And if that’s too hard you can

listen for five seconds, push stop, and
repeat what you heard. These are

intervals okay. So day three you’re only
practicing intervals by imitating what

you hear. Alright now moving on to the
next phase, summarize. Summarizing refers

to simply writing three to five
sentences about each audio file you

listen to. Okay this is your focus for
day four. Again you’re gonna listen to

the five audio files you chose, whether
they’re brand new or they’re the ones from

the previous day, and again you may have
to listen more than once because you’re

gonna be summarizing them okay. Your goal
is to be clear and concise. Now if you

need help with learning how to summarize,
click the link in the top right of your

screen. I have a video where I explain in
detail how to summarize anything in

English. Okay? Top right of your screen.
Alright, so again day 4 you’re just

focusing on summarizing by using three
to five sentences okay. Now when we move

on to the next phase
recognizing vocabulary is our focus.

You see recognizing vocabulary refers to
listening for new vocabulary words in

each audio file you listen to. This is
your only focus for day five. So I don’t

want you to get to day five and try to
find the main idea, find the five W’s,

summarize…No, you have to follow this
plan exactly and I guarantee it will

improve your listening skills. So on day
five only listen for vocabulary. Okay? So

again listen to the five audio files you
chose but this time you’re only

listening to each file one time. That’s
right, one time. And your goal is to hear

new words. So what’s happening is, instead
of listening over and over, you’re

telling your brain to think quickly and
you need to hear what words you don’t

recognize and just write them down. Later
on you can check your spelling okay. This

is the focus for day five. Now moving on
to the next day, day six. Okay, you’re

going to write questions. Writing
questions refers to coming up with

possible questions about the information
you listen to. This is a very, very

helpful phase or step when you’re trying
to improve your listening skills. Okay. So

again this is your focus for day six.
Listen to the five audio files you chose,

whether they are new or the ones from
the previous day, and again with this one

you can listen as many times as
necessary. Okay. Your goal is to also

answer the questions. So you’re gonna try
to write between five to ten questions.

Okay as you’re listening write down the
questions. Don’t write the answers. Write

the questions.
Once you’ve stopped the audio file then

go back and try to answer the questions
without listening again. Okay.

Very good practice for listening and
answering and being able to remember

information. Okay so that’s part six or
phase six. Now moving on to phase number

seven. Determine the emotion. Now this is
probably a phase that maybe you all have

never practiced before but it’s
excellent. It’s a great way of improving

your listening skills.
You see determining the emotion refers

to analyzing the main feeling of each
audio file you listen to. Okay this is

your focus for day seven. You’re gonna
listen to the five audio files you chose,

whether they’re new or the ones from the
previous day, and your goal is to relax

and just feel the mood. What is the
person trying to express? What is going

on in the audio file? For example is it
something happy or angry or sad or scary

or disgust, like hatred or something you
don’t like, surprise or anticipation? So

feel the mood of what you’re listening
to. Why is this key? Because sometimes

you’re not going to understand all of
the words, but if you understand the

emotion you can guess part of the
meanings of other words and other

situations. This is another key to
improving your listening skills.

Alright now step eight or phase eight,
listen and paraphrase. Listening and

paraphrasing refers to analyzing small
portions of each audio file you listen

to. So again this is your focus for day
eight. You’re gonna listen to the five

audio files you chose but your goal is
to quickly get the general idea. Now for

this one you can pick one two or three
minute intervals. Okay so what you’re

gonna try to do is after you listen to
one or two or three minutes of

information, you push pause and you’re
not imitating - not like the previous

phase - instead of imitating you are
trying to put in

your own words what you heard. You’re
paraphrasing. Again this is helping with

your English speaking ability as well.
This phase is very important. So remember

only focus on this on day 8, okay. Now on
day nine, or for phase nine, interval

listening. Interval listening refers to
taking time to process small portions of

each audio file you listen to. This is so
key because sometimes as students you

want to listen to a lot of things
without pausing to actually take the

information in. So this is your focus for
day nine. Listen to the five audio files

you chose, okay. But your goal is to take
time to process the info. So maybe go to

a quiet room or go somewhere where you
can relax. Put your headphones on or turn

the music up loud or whatever file
you’re listening to. Just relax and

listen and pause if necessary. But listen
and try to accept and understand the

information, okay. You can do that in
intervals as well. Alright now day ten.

Yes, I always love a rest day. As a
teacher, I always tell my students it’s

important for you to have a day to let
your brain rest. So this is what’s gonna

happen. Day one to ten is what we just
went over.

But, you see day eleven to twenty and day
21 to 30 are just mirror images of the

first ten days. The only difference is
you will choose different audio files.

But you’re practicing the same nine
phases, okay. And remember always on the

tenth day you’re giving yourself a rest.
After this thirty day period I guarantee

that your advanced listening skills will
have improved beyond your imagination.

Now if you want to keep studying with me,
please join the “Speak English With

Tiffani Academy”. I have tons of monthly
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