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Emma's favourite English series

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The British Council has prepared some great resources for easy listening practice of everyday activities.

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Listen to people speaking in the park/on the tram (eavesdropping) - what is the main idea of their conversation? How do they feel about the topic? Do they agree/disagree? Why is this conversation interesting?

Watch TV programmes/listen to radio programmes that are interesting to you (sport, entertainment, etc). You can watch on BBC iPlayer, or subscribe to regular radio podcasts.

Watch TV programmes with no subtitles - it's ok, you don't have to understand everything!

Download audiobooks and listen on the tram/bus/train. You can start with short ones - for example, abridged novels - and then longer ones. For example, Audible is a big website with lots of audio books. It costs about £8 per month, and you get one audio book (free) every month.

Listen to the lyrics of your favourite band - all of them! Try to write them down without the dictionary, then check your text on Google. Test yourself - how well can you hear the words?

Meetup Groups may be a good way to meet new people in Nottingham in a public space, and practice speaking/listening. Avoid giving your personal information online, and only go if you like the group and it's in a safe place (they usually are!).

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Award-winning podcasts that hook you in, make you think, or just make you laugh. Subscribe and listen now.

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Some basic tips for your listening practice

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Some basic tips for your listening practice

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Make listening part of your everyday routine. Listen on the tram, or while you walk to the tram/bus, or while you are making breakfast/lunch/dinner, or in the shower!! Surround yourself with English speech.

Before you even begin to listen, you must decide why you are listening. This will help you to decide how you listen (your strategy).

For example, do you want to understand the general idea (listening for gist)? Or do you just listen for a specific idea, and you don't want to know the other things (select and reject, or listening for detail)?

Usually we don't need to understand every word we listen to.

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Our voices are musical instruments. We use them to give signals - for example, the voice usually rises at the end of a question, and drops at the end of a normal sentence. Like in this video!
[First man: Hello, I'm Raymond Holt. [normal sentence]
[Second man: Are you here to turn* yourself in? [question]
*to turn myself in = I have committed a crime and I go to the police so they can arrest me.
The idea for this box came from: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-intonation/

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Listen for words like 'firstly', 'secondly', 'next', 'lastly', 'the first thing I'd like you to do...'  - they explain the order of the information.
They help you to understand which part of the speech you are listening to.

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Listen for the words that connect ideas in a speech or a sentence. For example:

'although' and 'on the one hand... on the other hand...' = the speaker says two different/contrasting ideas.

'also' = the speaker says a similar idea or example.

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Listen for words and phrases that tell you what will happen next. For example:

'I'm afraid that...' = he/she will say something negative

'There's one point I'd like to make...' = he/she will give their opinion

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What do you know about the topic? The situation (for example, the reason for the conversation)? The people in the conversation?
Think about this for 1-2 minutes; maybe write down some ideas.

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During a conversation, we often predict (guess) what people will say in our native language. Maybe sometimes you can finish your friend's sentence before she does! We do it without thinking - it's natural.
The more you can predict in English, the easier it will be to understand what people say.
So train yourself to predict! Here are some tips.

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'Prepare' example 2: Listening to bank information on the phone

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'Prepare' example 2: Listening to bank information on the phone

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Imagine that you called the bank, and they are saying important things but you can't understand most of it. Next time, try this:
1) Think about the topic of the conversation (it's easy because you will probably decide this!) - opening a new bank account? Transfer of foreign currency? Overdraft?
2) Translate some keywords about this topic from your native language into English - use a dictionary. Put the new words in your vocabulary book.
3) Check the bank's website: can you find some information about this topic before you call? Use the keywords from your vocab book to find the relevant page, or just browse the website. You can also ask someone with better English to show you the right place on the website.
4) Predict before you listen: what questions will the bank ask you? What will you say? Try to imagine yourself in that situation - imagine the conversation, and what words you'll hear.

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'Prepare' example 1: Listening to the news

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'Prepare' example 1: Listening to the news

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Before you listen to the news in English, you can:
1) listen to the news in your own language, or read the headlines on the BBC news website in English.
2) Then write down the topics you might hear when you listen to the news.
3) Choose two interesting topics - maybe sport, entertainment, Trump?
4) and write down (briefly) what you think the news might say about these topics.
5) When you listen, you can focus on these topics ('select and reject' strategy) and check if you were right.

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It's a very good idea to prepare before you listen, and train yourself to predict what you will hear. This will increase your confidence and you will understand more.