Basing #7-Listening Comprehension

LISTENING
COMPREHENSION
“Learning by Doing”
Listening Skill Concept
◦ Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and
processing them into words and sentences.
◦ Listening is key to all effective communication.
◦ Listening in any language requires focus and attention.
◦ Listening in a second language requires even greater focus.
◦ To become a fluent speaker in English, you need to develop
strong listening skills.
Listening Skill Function
◦ Listening helps you understand what people are saying to you.
◦ Listening helps you to speak clearly to other people.
◦ Listening helps you learn how to pronounce words properly.
◦ Listening helps you how to use intonation.
◦ Listening helps you where to place stress in words and sentences.
How to Improve Listening Skill
◦ The power of music
◦ Music is a great aid to memory. Rhyme, rhythm, and melody help the
brain to focus on what is being said and to remember stressed words,
which are generally the most important in any passage of speech.
◦ Listen to as many songs as you can, without looking at subtitles or text,
and write down what you hear. Then, check with the original lyrics.
◦ We all love stories, and songs tell them in interesting ways. Whether
about romance, happiness or sadness, songs provide memorable
stories about different human emotions.
◦ The excitement of film
◦ Films (or ‘movies’) help us predict what will be said by providing visual
clues. The body language of an actor – as well as their tone of voice –
give signs of what is about to be said, so it is a good idea to watch as
many entertaining films or TV shows as you can.
◦ If you record what you are watching, you can practice by turning the
sound off in a clip, imagining what has been said, and then replaying
the recording to check if you were correct.
◦ Film also exposes us to different English accents. This helps us become
more skilled in understanding a wide variety of accents throughout
different regions in the UK.
◦ Listening consistency
◦ To get familiar with the pronunciation of a language, it is key that
you expose yourself to the spoken language every day.
◦ Learners often get distracted by written language and overlook
the importance of spoken language. Spend as much time on
listening as you would on practicing other skills like reading,
writing and speaking.
◦ Listen with the text
◦ Try to look for a video with subtitles, or more simply, watch a
movie and with subtitles. Alternatively, you can find audio
material with matching transcripts. In that way, you can look up
words or phrases immediately when you come across something
you don’t understand. Audio books are a good option as you
can listen to the audio while reading the actual book. Ideally,
choose a book you are familiar with so you already have a gist of
it which makes it easier for you to understand.
◦ “Write what you hear” practice
◦ Besides inputs, it’s important to know how much you understand from
the audio.
◦ Find an audio with its transcript, keep it short, work on around 20
seconds of it. Listen to it a several times and do your best to write down
exactly what you’ve heard. After that, compare what you’ve written
with the actual transcript, figure out the mistakes you’ve made and
what causes you to miss them. This practice helps you keep track on
the words and phrases you don’t understand.
◦ Listening repetition
◦ Stay within a narrow range of topics that cover similar vocabulary.
◦ Make sure you’ve understood all of the content before moving on to
something else.
◦ Different accents might vary the pronunciation of the words so it’s a
good practice to get yourself familiar with the different sounds.
◦ By listening to the same word repeatedly, you will be able to identify it
next time you listen to it.
◦ Speak with native speakers
◦ Speaking with native speakers doesn’t just help improve speaking
skills. These conversations usually take place in an uncontrolled
context which means that you will hear things you don’t expect.
◦ You might come across a lot of slang words, vocalized pauses
and linking words.
◦ Don’t be afraid to ask them to repeat what they’ve said or ask
for an explanation.
◦ Think in English
◦ Thinking in a specific language helps you learn that language.
◦ Don’t try to translate everything you hear. Translating has two
main problems. First, it is slower. Second, you
remember your language and forget the English. On the listening
exam you won’t have time to translate.
◦ You’ll have to remember key English words.
◦ When practicing English, than think in English.

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LISTENING

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