Speak
English to Improve Your Listening Skills
Andrei
was confused when his teacher told him to speak English more. Andrei
felt his speaking was fine, but he really wanted to work on his
listening skills.
He had made speaches in front of people,
and presentations in English. He was strong and confident.
Yet,
he could not get a good mark on the Toeic test.
His
teacher said he had to practice speaking english even more to improve
his listening. "You cannot hear words that you cannot say,"
his
teacher told him. practice saying the same things you hear
and
your listening ability will go up.
Andrei's teacher was correct. There are
several advantages to repeating what you hear.
- By repeating what you hear, you tend to listen
more to the speaker.
- When you repeat the speaker's words, you start
to memorize them. They become, step by step, your words.
- Repeating
a native speaker's English lets you hear again; plus you hear it in
your own voice, and that subtely convinces you of the correctness of
the sounds.
As you listen to the story on this page
(and all the other stories), take advantage of this chance to speak
English by repeating the story you hear. Try to say it as
fast as
the recording to push your speaking and listening abilities.
As Poor As A
Churchmouse
Idioms List
1. fit the bill: to be
exactly what is required, to be extremely suitable
2. like a shot: very willingly or
eagerly
3. as poor as a churchmouse:
very poor, havning very little money
4. like golddust: extremely rare
5. get a move on (informal): to
move more quickly; to hurry
Gerald Heart is dining like a king tonight. A meal as big as
this one is like golddust to him,
and he wants to enjoy it as much as he can. He has to get a move on, however, because the
cafe he is eating in is going to close soon. Gerald is as poor as a churchmouse, but today he
saw a wealthy man drop a piece of paper. Like
a shot, Gerald was there, picking it up and giving it to the
man. That fit the bill,
since it was a very important piece of paper and the man didn't know he
dropped it. The man was very wealthy and gave Gerald a tip
for his
help. That tip was big enough to buy Gerald food for a week,
and
tonight he is celebrating in this cafe.
 
Return from speak English to Idioms main page.
|
