Hi everyone! Welcome back to English with Max. This
video is all about improving your listening. I'm going to give you my top six tips to help you
improve your English listening skills for free. These are basic principles which you can actually
apply to any language you're learning. Before we get started I'd like to thank the sponsor of this
video which is the video player app Woodpecker Learning. This app is specifically designed for
people who wish to improve their listening and work on their vocabulary at the same time.
When you're watching a video with subtitles, have you ever wished that you could touch a
word in the subtitles to see its meaning? With the Woodpecker app you can do exactly that. Okay,
I'm just going to quickly show you how it works. First, you need to select the languages that
you're learning. I'm going to select English and I'm going to say that I know French. Then you need to wait for the dictionaries to
download and then you can start watching videos. Now, here you can see the subtitles and if you click on a word, the definitions come
up and you can scroll down to see more definitions. If you click the 5, you can go back 5 seconds. And if you click .75
here, you can slow it down. You can also watch it horizontally
and still click on the words. What I've just shown you are things that
you can do for free, but you can upgrade for extra features. For example, if you have an iPad and
a Netflix subscription, you can upgrade the app to watch anything on Netflix with the same language
learning tools. The app was built by language learners for language learners, so it's a great
free resource to improve your English listening skills and confidence. If you would like to try it
out, you'll find the link in the description below. Okay, let's get started with the listening
tips. Tip number one: listen to what you like. I know some language teachers say that
when it comes to listening practice, variety is the most important thing.
But I don't really believe that. Yes, it is good to have some variety, especially
if you want to learn a wide range of vocabulary, but if, for example, you choose a podcast
that doesn't interest you, but you think you should listen to it, there's a good chance that you
won't listen to it. Or you might start listening to it, and then get bored and start thinking about
something else. You'll tune out, in other words. If you choose something that you like, you're more
likely to listen carefully (because you really want to understand the information) and you're more
likely to continue listening or to listen more often. Maybe because it's something a bit funny,
or maybe you like the people's personalities, or maybe you find the subject interesting. It doesn't
really matter, but if you find yourself thinking "Oh gosh, I should listen to this" or "Gosh, this is
boring", then look for something else. Nowadays there's a lot to choose from on the internet
and a large percentage of it is absolutely free. Don't worry if it's not intellectual or
if it doesn't seem like the most useful thing, Just try to make your listening practice
enjoyable so it doesn't feel like a chore. And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not
saying that you shouldn't have any variety. And if your aim is to pass a very hard English
exam, then of course you need some variety. What I'm saying is that it shouldn't be your guiding
principle. What usually happens anyway is that you kind of get tired of listening to the same things
over and over, and you'll probably naturally start looking for different material. Okay, tip
number two: listen to different accents. Now I know I just said "don't worry too much about variety",
but I mainly meant that in terms of subject matter. When it comes to accents, I do think that it's
a good idea to listen to a variety of accents. You don't necessarily need to do it every day or
even every week, but, for example, if you're used to listening to British English and you find American
English difficult, then I think it's a good idea to sometimes listen to American English. And
you, of course, also need to take into account that accents differ within countries. Sometimes
you might be in a situation where you need to "prioritise", so to speak. For example, if you're
living in Australia and even after many months, you find it very difficult to understand Australians,
then you should probably do things like: watch more Australian TV, or listen to more
Australian radio, or listen to Australian podcasts, etc. Because, after all, you need to understand what
people are saying to you in real life. That might sound obvious, but it's not uncommon for people to
come to Australia and not consume any Australian media. Yes, they might interact with Australians
sometimes, but in their spare time they'll watch American TV series and American
movies. I'm certainly not offended - I don't consume a lot of Australian media,
and it's for the simple reason that there's much more American and British stuff available.
So yeah, if there's not a lot to choose from in a specific accent, it might just require a bit
more of an effort to find something interesting. Tip number three: listen to your level. Now,
obviously if you have quite an advanced level, you're probably not going to listen
to things that are aimed at beginners. If it's too easy, you're probably not going to
progress very much. But similarly, if you have a low level, I don't think it's a good idea
to always listen to very advanced audio. Yes, listening to something that's too hard is better
than listening to nothing at all, because at least you're listening to the rhythm and the sounds
of English. But it's never a lot of fun if you don't understand very much. You'll probably get
bored (remember what I said earlier, you don't want to get bored), you might get frustrated, and it won't
help you get used to sentence structures because you're mainly just hearing sounds. So try to find
resources that are at your level, or a bit above your level. I think it's good if you can understand
at least 70 to 80 percent. Of course, if you love movies and you really want to watch
lots of movies in English, even if you don't understand much of the audio, by all means, do
that too. But don't only listen to things that are very difficult for you. This can be a bit
difficult if you have a beginner or intermediate level, because there just isn't as much material
to choose from. Once you reach an advanced level, it becomes a lot easier to find material because
you can usually just listen to things that are aimed at native speakers. So sometimes you
need to think outside the box a little. For example, when I was learning Spanish,
I actually watched a lot of makeup tutorials in Spanish on YouTube. I did that because I thought:
Well, the language itself is still very hard for me and requires a lot of concentration, so I
don't want to watch something that also has difficult subject matter. When I'm more advanced
I'll start listening to the political debates. It meant that I learnt some very useful makeup vocabulary
in Spanish like "párpado móvil" and "ahora vamos a disfuminar"... But those makeup tutorials, at least in the
beginning, actually helped me quite a lot. Like I said, you don't need to listen to intellectual
stuff. Tip number four: listen with and without text. If you're not sure what that means, listening
with text is reading subtitles when you watch a video or reading a transcript when you
listen to audio. Listening without text means listening without reading anything. In language
teaching people have different opinions on this. Some people say that you should listen with text
and some people say that you shouldn't. I think that you should do both, if possible. Both methods
have benefits. The main benefits of listening with text are: it can be easier to learn new vocabulary,
and it can be good for your pronunciation because it's easier to connect sounds to words. The thing
is, though, in real life situations you won't have a text to read. Um... while you're talking, could you
just, like, write down everything you're saying? Ah no. And that is why it is also important to
practise listening without text. As I said, I think the ideal situation is to do both. If you're really
trying to improve your English, dedicate some time a few times a week to listening with text,
and some time to listening without text. Tip number five: study English pronunciation
and speech. Obviously it's helpful to know how individual words are pronounced. You should
particularly be aware of minimal pairs like ship and sheep, and piss and peace,
as well as homophones like beach and... beech. But it's also important to be aware of how
words are pronounced when they are surrounded by other words. I'm mainly talking
about connected speech and reductions. At the moment I don't have any videos on connected
speech, but I do have a couple on reductions and I'll link those in the description. An example
of a reduction is the word "of" becoming "eh" or "ehv". For example, we don't usually say "a cup of tea".
We usually say "a cup eh tea" or "a cup ehv tea". In summary, having a better understanding of
English pronunciation should help you improve your listening comprehension. And now my final tip. This
one is very simple. My final tip is to make the most of "dead time". That's when, for example, you're
waiting for the bus, or sitting on a train, or waiting in queues. I know a lot of people say that
they don't have much time to sit down and study English, so those moments are great for practising
your listening. There are also moments which aren't exactly dead time, but you might be doing
things that don't require a lot of concentration. Like cleaning, or ironing, or doing the dishes. For
some people that might also include driving. I'm not a great driver, so that doesn't apply to me (I
need to concentrate a lot when I drive), but you're probably a better driver than I am. In any case,
those are also great moments to practise your listening. So that you can take advantage of those
moments, I recommend always having a device (like a smartphone) that has audio on it with you when
you go out. I don't know the exact percentages, but lots of people have smartphones nowadays.
It's just that sometimes we forget to look for and download audio before we leave
the house. That is it for today, guys. I'm curious to know what you do to practise your
listening, so please let me know in the comments. If you liked the video, don't forget to hit the
thumbs up. Also remember that if you want to check out the Woodpecker Learning app, you will find the
link in the description. See you next time, guys!
