How to Improve your listening Skills
Michael Anokye Gyabaah - Radio/TV/Songs/Podcast, etc
I am pretty sure you watch TV and listen to your favorite songs and podcast in your native language. Don’t you think now is the right time to switch to your target language? Do not forget the fact that watching movies and listening to songs in English have proved to be helpful. Millions of students worldwide have improved their listening skills by listening to the radio and podcasts. You are probably asking yourself where you can find some interesting listening material. Well, many websites and applications exist on Appstore and Google Playstore.
Here are three attractive ones which are worth visiting:
1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9s1
2. https://eslvideo.com/series.php?id=Ted%20Talks
3. https://podcasts.google.com/
2. Listen to people who have different accents
Do you have a favorite English accent? Do you love your teacher’s accent to the extent that you would like to sound like him? It could be a celebrity you admire most. Whatever the case, we tend to love one accent or the other. The question is: would you like to be able to understand people from all walks of life or just Americans and British? This is a huge mistake most students make. Remember, with over 1.5 billion speakers, English is considered the most widely spoken language in the world. This shows that all English language learners must pay attention to other speakers of English who are not from North America or the UK. So the next time you choose your listening material for school or enjoyment, consider videos and recordings made by other English speakers.
3. Listen for meaning, not the words
How many meanings do words in your native language have? I am sure some of the words have two or three meanings depending on the context. Well, it is the same in English. Imagine we were having a conversation in your native language. As someone who does not speak the language well or is not fluent yet, would I understand you if I focused on only the words? – No, I would not. What’s the lesson here? – We want to focus on the message the other person wants to convey instead of the words. Remember, It is almost impossible to know all the words in English.
