How to Improve your Listening Skill

Hi everyone? How's it going?

Did you take a look at all of our tests. Did you do them? I hope you did them, so that you can see where you are at with your English. I've posted the listening tests, while my friend, another author, has posted the reading tests. And today, I'm going to give you some tips on how to improve your English listening skill. Do you want to know? Well, if you do, please continue reading. :)





Listening is an important aspect in communication. We also learn many things from the listening activity. For example, when we were still a baby. We learned so many things back then, and they were all started with listening. We couldn't talk, read, write, and we couldn't even do anything instead of crying and listening. Unfortunately, as we grow up, a lot of us lose this listening skill. In fact, listening is something that we can improve.

You can start by imagining to learn to play a musical instrument. If you want to learn about music, you need to listen to it. But what kind of listening do you need? Of course, what you need is critical listening. Listen to the music critically, try to understand the rythm, the notes, and everything that builds up the music. It's the same with learning a language. You need to listen critically, not only listening to the words, but you also need to pay attention and understand what the speakers are talking about. They are pretty much the same.

Now, there are problems that will make you have a hard time understanding the speakers. What are they?

1. People use different words and phrases in spoken English than in written English. They use:
   a. Slang. It is informal form of words and phrases that people usually use in their daily lives, depends on their culture, behaviour, etc.
   b. Fillers. Fillers usually used when the speaker is thinking about what he/she is going to say next. (e.g.: umm..., hmm... uh..., etc.)
   c. Contractions. This is often used when people are speaking. Contractions are also used in written English.

2. Native speakers pronounce words differently when they say them together, usually in a sentence. It might sound confusing to us, and it will be very difficult to catch the words and the meaning. Especially, when they, native speakers, talk way too fast than you expected.

3. People talk about bigger topics in real life. Some topics may be very specialize and uncommon. And the worst part is that, most of you will not find these kinds of topic in your classroom and even English school textbooks.


So, how can we improve our listening skill? We have so many problems like what have been implied above. The answer is, actually, very simple.





You need to listen to English a lot. Yes, A LOT! You have to spend hours to listen to other people speaking English. Listen to things that will likely interest you. Don't listen to something that doesn't interest you, otherwise, you'll get bored and you will STOP.

Watching TV, movies, and videos in English might be a very good start for you. Do this repetitively. Don't just enjoy the movie or the video you're watching. Try to catch their conversations, the words that are being spoken by the actors and the actresses, try to understand what they are talking about. The more you do this, the easier for you to listen. If you're using subtitles, use the English one. This will help you match the words, and you can learn how the native speakers pronounce them. These kinds of activity are very interesting for most people, aren't they?

Is that it?

No, there's more.

* Try interactive learning. It is when you speak to other people, and you listen to their responses. This will train both your listening skill and speaking skill. Cool, isn't it?

* Explore different kinds of situations and topics. You can find them on the internet, or you can chat with your friends in English. You will see that you can find many daily and other topics when chatting with your friends.

* If you have any hobby(s), do it with English speaking people. You can also do it with your friends, and ask them to use English in most occasion.

* If you want better results, you can talk one-on-one with an English speaking tutor. As you talk, ask for tips, tricks, materials, and many other things that you want to find out about learning English.

* Finally, if you feel ready to take your English to the next level, you should try to live and work in a completely English speaking environment. You can move to English-speaking countries like U.S, U.K, Singapore, etc.


I think that's all the tips that I want to share with you. These tips will give you many advantages if you do it right. Everything is easier said than done, but if you try your best, you will get what you want. And, apparently, these tips will also be useful to train your speaking, reading, and your writing skills because they integrate those aspects on the process.

After you feel like you have improved your listening skill, why don't you come back here and re-take the tests that I posted before? See if you can get yourself better that the last time you did the tests.

How do you think about these tips? Is there any other way to improve you listening skill that you know? You can also use them, and you can share them with us. Write your thoughts in the comments! :)



sources:
http://www.learn-english-have-fun.com/images/say-what.jpg
http://engtestonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/toeic-tips.jpg
http://www.learnenglish.de/improveenglish/improvelisteningpage.html
http://www.phrasemix.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-english-listening-comprehension