Improve Your Listening to Easily Understand Fast Speakers

so many of you out there tell me i want to improve my listening skills what should i listen to if that's you raise your hand okay almost everyone so i want to help you discover what you should listen to in order to help you improve your skills the most so that you can easily understand native english speakers that's coming up [Music] hey everyone my name is wes this is interactive english which is all about helping you practice and improve your english skills and today i want to help you improve your listening fluency and this lesson is going to be done in three parts we're going to go through variety speed and exposure and by the end of this lesson i hope that you have some new ideas that you can use to improve your listening so let's begin with variety and i think the beauty of learning english or or any other language for that matter is that there are so many different options that are out there and available to you for you to improve your listening skills so i i want to start out with a simple question and that is what are you listening to for example a long time ago when i started learning spanish i decided that i wanted to practice my listening skills and i was going to listen to music i was going to do this every day i never really stopped to think that well is this really the best way to do it i put all of my eggs in that one basket and i would listen to music every day and it's good but that it's not always relevant when you want to be able to do things like listen to other conversations or even listen to movies or tv shows and that's what i want to talk to you about right now i want to go through a variety of different options that are available to you to improve your listening let's begin with well tv and movies there is so much out there and the real benefit to this is that you get to listen to natural conversation the way that people would talk to each other out on the street or casually with friends something else you can do is listen to educational videos just like this one right now you are learning english while listening to english and i i think this is a really great option because when when you watch videos like this i think people's speech it's very clear and it's a little easier to follow and understand let's continue talking about different ways to practice your listening and my next suggestion is well just have a conversation talk to your teacher your friend your classmate and the benefit is that you get that face-to-face interaction and it's also more active listening because you are required to listen to them and then respond now so far i've talked about tv movies educational videos and conversations and with each of those you are able to see someone and you can follow visual cues which makes it easier to understand so my next suggestions are going to be a little more challenging because you really just have to listen and this is great for intermediate to advanced learners for example you can listen to a podcast these have become so popular nowadays and and there are podcasts on a variety of different topics as well but this is another great way for you to listen to natural conversations and discussions another thing you can do is listen to an audiobook and this is great because well books they have a beginning a middle and an end and it is a wonderful way to practice putting pictures in your mind and see if you can create that story and bring it to life another thing that you can do is listen to music this is a great way to try and understand the the rhythm and flow of speech and it it's also very relaxing i think any time when you can try to learn and and feel relaxed that is a huge benefit and finally you can listen to the radio and i think this is a great option because well it really has everything that we just talked about you can listen to interviews on the radio you can listen to different sports broadcasts and of course you can listen to music when you're listening to the radio and it also provides a lot of flexibility you can just jump right in and out of it it's not like a an audio book where you need to start at the beginning you can just turn on the radio start listening and then when you have to do something else just turn it off and you have that flexibility so now that i've given you a variety of different options when it comes to listening let's talk about speed and i have another question for you and that is when you are listening to something is it too fast if you're listening to a tv show or a song do you feel like it's just too fast for you to understand and the reason why i'm asking you this is because you need to consider your level as an english learner and more specifically i would say you need to think about your level as a listener because when you are talking about the different english skills listening speaking reading writing you're not always going to be at the same level for example listening is the most challenging language skill for me i've always had trouble with listening and my level is a bit lower and you need to think about that because this is going to help you decide what you should listen to and how you should listen to it my suggestion is that if you feel something is too fast you need to slow it down there's an expression in english that that goes slow and steady wins the race and that is what i want you to think about when when talking about speed you need to find the appropriate level you need to listen to things at your level or or listen to things that are slightly above your level i would say that if you are listening to something you should understand at least 80 percent of what you hear and nowadays what's great is that you have that option to slow things down so that you can listen at your level for example there some of you out there might tell me you know wes i like your videos but you speak so slow or others might say well you're speaking way too fast youtube allows you to control the speed so if you think i'm just speaking too slowly then you can just speed things up so that you feel like you are listening at a comfortable level or if you think that i'm speaking too fast then you can slow things down and again you want to find a speed that you are comfortable and that you understand at least 80 and not only with youtube you can do this there are many media players out there such as vlc and they let you control the speed of a tv show or a movie but you should really take control of that speed and slow things down or speed things up so that you find your level find where you are comfortable because that is just going to help you improve the most especially over the long run slow and steady wins the race now let's talk about exposure and another well another question that well i would ask you in general would be like how much time do you spend listening to english how much exposure to the language do you get now i think many people out there myself included we like to multitask and often people may think well i'm going to listen to english while i do something else at the same time i'm going to listen to an audiobook while i cook dinner or i'm going to listen to a podcast in the shower i i it's always great to get exposure to the language but i think it's so much better if you can get quality exposure and just be able to give all of your focus and concentration to whatever it is you are listening to and that's what you should strive for you should strive to get more quality exposure if you are listening to a podcast only concentrate on that podcast if you're listening to an audio book only focus on that audio book if you are listening to a video lesson like this one i just want you to focus on this lesson wait a second are you are you doing other things right now i i hope not i want you to stop stop whatever it is you're doing and i want you to focus on what i'm about to say you need to get more quality exposure and the more quality time that you can make for it the faster you're going to improve so now that we've talked about the variety of options that you have when it comes to practicing your listening skills we talked about speed and the need to consider your level as a learner and we've also discussed the the exposure that quality exposure that you need to get i want to offer some suggestions for all different types of learners out there for example if you are a beginner learner with either very little time or you have a lot of time the most important thing that you need to focus on would be the speed whether you are listening to an audio book or a podcast or a video lesson really think about controlling that speed and you need to slow things down because slow and steady wins the race if you are an intermediate learner and you don't have that much time throughout the day then i think the best thing that you could do would be to listen to these video lessons because they they're very short you it doesn't take as much time but you also get to control that speed and really put it where you think it needs to be and if you want to really challenge yourself then turn on the radio jump into some radio broadcasts try to challenge yourself you're not going to be able to control the speed but radio it's a great option for somebody who may not be able to listen for a long time if you just have these short periods throughout the day if you are an intermediate learner and you have a lot of time throughout the day a longer time period where you can sit down and really get some quality exposure then i would suggest an audio book because this it's a story that you get to follow and you can try to listen to it and and put those pictures up there in your mind because again you get to control the speed and you get to find that that speed that is best for your level as a listener i think movies and tv shows are also good for intermediate learners with more time because you get to listen to that natural conversation which is always beneficial if you are an advanced learner who doesn't have a lot of time throughout the day just a few moments here and there then i think educational videos that's a great option you can try to make the speed a little faster and challenge yourself i would also suggest that you try to engage more in conversations and try to get the face-to-face interaction that active listening practice and and respond to what other people are saying you could also listen to music that's a great option but because you are an advanced learner i would still say that you really need to focus on the music don't listen to music while you're doing other things try to to get that quality exposure listen to the song and see if you understand well what what is it that the person is singing about see if you understand the song completely and then if you are an advanced learner who has more time throughout the day than i i think you should do all of them the more the better but the one suggestion that i would make is try try listening to a podcast think about what you're interested in and find a podcast about that topic and listen to it and try to follow along if you want to increase the speed and challenge yourself that's great as long as you understand at least 80 percent so i hope that you now have a better idea of what you can listen to and how you can listen to it in order to improve your listening skills if you enjoyed this lesson please hit that like button and as always thanks so much for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: Interactive English

Views: 14,949

Keywords: interactive english, learn english, listen to english, english listening practice, listen to english conversation, improve listening, listen english beginner, listen english intermediate, listen english advanced, listen to fast speech, listen to native speakers, understand native english speakers, listening exposure, listening speed, listening variety, what should I listen to improve english, learn english listening, english listening skills

Id: rkLV74BLaZA

Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020