How to Improve Your Listening Skills 

Listening skills allow speakers to communicate because half of the information is received just by listening to the other. You might have heard that a good listener is also a good speaker. Therefore, mastering this important skill while having fun will help you in your interactions.  

Are you a good listener? Listening is often considered an art. When learning a foreign language, this isn’t an exception. It takes time, self-discipline, and a lot of effort to reach an advanced English level. But once you get the results you are looking for, it feels incredible. 

Do you want to learn more about obtaining good listening skills? Keep reading to discover the secret to quickly improving your listening skills.

Choose Material According to Your Level

Have you heard the expression “slowly but surely”? You can apply it to your language learning process and start seeing results in less time. Don’t rush things. Take the necessary time to ensure effective learning. In a previous blog post, we talked about learning English on your own, so you can read this post for more support.

The internet is full of free resources. You might feel tempted to start watching any movie that you like, but the level might be too advanced for you. Consequently, choosing appropriate material among the vast sea of movies, eBooks, audiobooks, and online resources can be challenging. One way to assess your current level s to listen to a podcast on YouTube and pay attention to the number of words you understand. Mind you, you’d need to listen to the audio twice. The first time, you should mark down the number of words understood, and the second time should include you participating in active listening. 

Practice active listening with dialogue and ask yourself questions about the audio to see how much you understand. However, if you’ve started to learn the language, get familiar with the sounds in English to speed up your learning process.

Ask Questions

What do you usually do when you want to get answers? You ask questions! In fact, asking questions is related to listening because you pay attention to what the other speaker says. Also, asking questions shows that you, as a learner, are interested in the topic that’s being discussed. 

There are formal and informal ways to ask questions. The essential part here is knowing what to ask to improve your listening skills. You can start by asking to repeat what was said to make sure you got the point. However, keep in mind that some people might find it impolite and think you’re not paying attention to them. 

Another way to ask effective questions is to learn how to pronounce words. Now, when you find a new word and are unsure about its correct pronunciation, you can ask a native speaker how to say the term. This is helpful so that you start training your ear to the different sounds in the English language. You’ll hear where the stress of a word is and will be ready for the next time you have to use that term.

Work on Your Pronunciation 

If you can pronounce a word correctly, you’re likely to be able to identify it when someone else uses it in conversation. Phonetics is a linguistics field related to speech sounds. By dedicating some time to improving your pronunciation, you can achieve results. Plus, you’ll also understand what you want to convey and avoid misunderstandings. 

One tip is to learn how connected speech is used in sentences. Find a video that has subtitles, turn them on, and pay attention to how the words are combined in a complete sentence or fragment. You’ll realize that words aren’t pronounced one by one. Native speakers combine them and often produce only one sound. 

Identify Your Struggles with Listening Skills

Sometimes, you need to focus on what you do incorrectly in order to improve any skill. English language students who can identify their own weaknesses and strengths are able to create a plan to get results. 

One tip to identify the areas where you need reinforcement is by writing down what you hear. How? Ask someone else to play an audio or a clip and write down what you hear. After that, compare what the speaker said to what you wrote. Did the other person combine sounds or shorten words? Also, you could also try to record yourself, then listen back to identify the areas that require more attention.

Test Yourself 

Do you want to challenge yourself and see how good your skills are? Look for some listening exercises on the web! 

Find dialogues or short conversations that require you to fill in the expression that the speaker said. You can start out with single sentences where you have to fill in the blanks for a missing subject or verb. Then, up the ante. 

Challenge yourself by watching a whole movie without subtitles. Don’t worry if you don’t get every single word. You can watch the film as many times as necessary. Learning a new skill is about having fun! 

Bonus 

The REF team knows that each student learns at their own pace. How can you improve your listening skills in less time?

Look for a video of something you enjoy and jot down all the new words in a notebook. Memorize the terms and re-watch the video. Give yourself a short break to process the new information. Next, play the same video but focus on the new words you memorized. 

You’ll definitely enhance your listening skills if you do this consistently. To make this challenge more interesting, leave us a comment with the date you started to apply these tips and the progress you’ve made a month later. We’ll be glad to read your comments! 

Takeaway 

Each English skill requires time and practice before you can master them. Being aware of your current language level can give you the advantage of identifying where you need more reinforcement. Additionally, dedicating extra time to your pronunciation will advance your listening level by leaps and bounds.