Study English
Listening:
Use these Tips
to Improve Your Practice
Listening is a great way to study English. For most people,
this ability is stronger than their ability to speak.
And when one goes up, the other
also goes up.
To improve this ability,
you should know about the sounds of
the English language and how they mix. One important area to
be aware of is called reductions.
Then we can practice hearing
vocabulary. That is what this site specializes in.
Choose some vocabulary, and practice hearing it in
sentences and stories. It becomes easier and easier to
recognize with practice.
Grammar is another thing you need to practice hearing.
Choose a grammatical pattern
that you want to learn, and then try to hear to the pattern in many
stories
again and again. You will get used to hearing it.
It will begin to sound normal. Then the meaning
will become easier to understand.
Finally, listen for communication
techniques. There are lots of these. They
include intonation, and vocabulary. For instance, the word
'anyway' is almost always a marker that the person wants to change the
subject or finish the conversation.
Reductions
What are reductions? These are things like 'gonna', 'wanna',
'whatcha', and so on.
There are whole books written about practicing hearing
reductions.
One thing to remember is that most of these patterns are not
slang.
**the best
way to practice hearing reductions is to practice saying them yourself**
I will discuss some of the more common patterns here.
Gonna
This means 'going to' and is very, very common.
I strongly recommend using 'gonna' in your english speaking practice.
Wanna
This means 'want to' and is also very common.
Whaddaya,
and Whatcha
These both mean 'What are you...'
Vocabulary
When you practice hearing, choose some words or phrases that you want
to master, and find something to listen to that has these words or
phrases. English
Listening World is made for this purpose.
Repetition is very important. Spaced Repetition is
the strongest way to learn fast, and not forget.
Some tips for listening
practice:
- Read while you are hearing the stories on this
site.
- Read the story before and after you have heard
it.
- Try to memorize the story.
- Say the story out loud while you hear it.
- Say the story out loud while you hear it with
your eyes closed.
- Never practice hearing these short
stories
for more than ten minutes.
- Practice frequently. Once a
day is good
- once a day is good
- twice a day is very good
- three times a day is excellent.
- Try hearing with your eyes closed while you
imagine the
story
Grammar
One of my students once said 'that
sounds wrong!" when I taught some
difficult grammar.
The best cure for this is to hear
it many times.
Between practice sessions, say
it (use the pattern) out
loud so you hear yourself.
Alternate hearing practice and speaking practice.
The tips above in the
vocabulary section work here too.
Communication
Techniques
There are many communication techniques in English. Here are
a few to watch for.
Intonation
Rising intonation usually signals a question.
Falling intonation usually signals a command.
flat intonation usually signals neutral information, and it may not be
finished until the intonation finally rises or falls.
Keywords
'I mean..'
signals that the speaker will say the same thing again ni different
words.
'That's....'
signals that the speaker will repeat back some information to you as a
confirmation that they understood it all.
'You mean...'
is another signal that the speaker will repeat back some information to
you as a confirmation that they understood it all.
'Anyway,...'
is a signal that the speaker wants to change topics or stop the
conversation for some reason.
Return from listening to How to learn english
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