10 powerful ways to improve your English listening skills

How to improve your English listening skills

Many learners find their English does not improve even though they have studied it for years, and they do not know why they fail. Some of them get disappointed and quit learning it forever because they think it is impossible to grasp. 

 

One of the main reasons for not improving is they depend mainly on text and grammar books and don't give time for listening to English and speaking what they have learned with their friends or classmates. So, if you want to perfect your English, listening is the key to mastering the English Language.

Listening is a skill that a lot of learners struggle with, and they don't know how they should achieve their goals regarding listening skills.

If you find listening to English difficult and awful and need to improve this skill, you should apply the ten powerful ways you can find out in the following lines.

Here are 10 ways to improve your English listening skills

Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) .

The IPA is just a way of writing down sounds. If you want to know how to pronounce any word, once you learn the IPA, you can look up that word in the dictionary and learn the phonetic symbols next to each word. Learning the IPA will help you listen well because you will be familiar with how the sounds are pronounced, and you will be able to understand the audio well. Click Learn English Sounds Right to learn more about them.

Be an Active listener.

Passive listening means listening to English without giving your full attention while you walk, ride your bike, drive to work, do the dishes, and so on. However, it is more important to be an active listener. That means responding to the speaker, giving feedback, and asking questions. This way will help you check your understanding of the audio.

Start with an understandable English level.

When you listen to English, it is more important to start where you can understand and increase the difficulty. If your level of English is not quite good, start with short stories. They are beneficial for enhancing listening skills. Once you get comfortable with this level, take your listening skill to the next level and start listening to more advanced audio. In this area, listening to TED talks will help you out.

Listen to different accents.

People speak English with a variety of accents. If you focus only on one kind of accent, and even if you understand it clearly, you will get frustrated when listening to a guy with a different accent, and you have no idea what he has said. So, it is better to familiarize yourself with the various accents of people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Study your courses in English.

Immerse yourself in the English language. Study your lessons in English, follow recipes in English, and watch YouTube videos about different topics such as travel, cooking, and science in English. That will build your vocabulary and make you aware of the context of these various fields.

Repetition is vital.

To learn any language, to learn any skill, to be a master, do a lot of repetition. Repeatedly listening to the same material creates connections which is beneficial. It helps you absorb the language and listen automatically without thinking about what the words you are listening to mean. 

 

Listen and read at the same time.

Listening and reading together is one of the best strategies you use when you learn a language, especially at the beginning of your journey. It will help you connect the sounds you listen to and their related words. You will absorb the words, their meaning, and their sounds.

 

Slow down the audio speed.

Instead of listening to the audio with English subtitles, it will be more beneficial to decrease the audio speed to suit your listening level. That will build self-confidence that you can listen to English. I will also give you more energy and enthusiasm to carry on. 

Write what you hear.

Another powerful technique is writing what you hear in the audio. It is a kind of transcription process. It will help you know your weak points, recognize what you have missed while listening, learn the missing words and why you mishear them, and finally improve your listening skill when you listen to the same audio or a new one.

Consistency is key.

To understand spoken English, you need to give it enough time, so be consistent to find the wanted result.  Do not get easily bored and quit for any reason. Take your time and be patient with your learning process.

 

Read also 10 ways to improve your English speaking skills.