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The ears have it!

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How can I improve my listening skills?

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In a previous blog post, I tried to answer the question: " What is listening skill?" To briefly review, listening is a holistic process, where a listener's experiences, preferences and comprehension work together to construct an understanding. No two people will understand what they hear in exactly the same way, because no two people have exactly the same background. However, if this is true, the question for the second language learner still remains: " How can I improve my listening skill? "

Much has been written about the importance of input and output in language learning. The basic idea is that the more you hear a language (input) and then try to speak it (output), the more your language will improve. At the same time, anyone who has tried to learn a second language already knows that simply listening to language, without any previous study or support, is not a very effective way to learn. In fact, trying to identify which types of input best help language learner's to learn is an important discussion in the language teaching field.

Stephen Krashen's input hypothesis is perhaps one of the most famous theories about how input works. Basically, Krashen suggested that language input should be only slightly above a language learner's current ability level. So, for example, if an English language student is a beginner, they should practice listening with very slow, clear, simple audio samples. A more advanced student might try listening to a lecture or the news. In both cases, Krashen suggested that input needs to be comprehensible to the learner. If the language input is so advanced that the learner can't understand it, then that learner's language skills will not improvesignificantly.

So, one important step for language students is to try and find listening materials that they can almost understand. It is not necessary that the student understand everything that they hear completely, but they should at least understand enough so that their practice doesn't feel too stressful, difficult or impossible. This is one area where working with a language tutor or taking a class can be helpful, because a trained teacher can help students find materials that are appropriate to their language level. At the same time, for English language students, there are a wide range of listening materials available online that have already been sorted by proficiency level. Whatever the case, it's important that students who want to improve their second language listening skills regularly practice with materials which are both challenging and accessible.

However, it is equally important for language students to acknowledge that even when they listen to something in their first language, they do not remember everything that they hear. Anyone who has attended a lecture or listened to a talk in their first language knows that sometimes attention wavers, we are attracted to certain things in the talk, but not others, and our understanding of the listening is largely shaped by our own opinions, preferences and past experiences. Because the common format for language listening tests involves students listening to passages and trying to answer questions about specific information in the passages, students often develop the incorrect understanding that high level listening skill involves remembering every detail that they hear. In reality however, this is rarely the case even for native speakers of the same language.

Therefore, in addition to finding listening materials that are appropriate to their learning level, language learners should also practice incorporating their prior knowledge and experience into their understanding of the passage. One way of doing this is to look at the title of the lecture or listening materials before they begin listening, and brainstorm both what they think the passage will be about and what you already know about the implied topic. An easy way to approach this task is to select keywords in the title, and then draw a mind map for each of the words.

After thinking about what they already know, learners should try and listen to the audio. Especially if they're beginners, it can be helpful to listen to the passage more than once. Then, after the listening has finished, try to have a short conversation with someone (preferably in the second language) about what they heard. If a conversation is not possible, maybe write a few sentences about what they heard. In particular, try to mention how the listening reminded them of other things in their life. Learners should try to make as many connections as possible between the listening and their own experiences.
So, in summary, one strategy for practicing basic listening skills involves four steps:
1. Find listening materials appropriate to you/your student's level.
2. Look at the title and guess the topic. Then brainstorm what you already know about the topic.
3. Listen to the listening. Try to listen more than once.
4. Have a short conversation or write a few sentences about what you heard. Include information about how what you heard connects to your life and background.

And of course, find amazing listening material on EnglishCentral!

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In a previous blog post, I tried to answer the question: " What is listening skill?" To briefly review, listening is a holistic process, where a listener's experiences, preferences and comprehension work together to construct an understanding. No two people will understand what they hear in exactly the same way, because no two people have exactly the same background.

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What is 'listening skill' ?

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Learning to listen in a second language can be frustrating. If you've ever tried to learn a second language, you've probably had an experience like this:

You begin to study the language. Soon, you make friends with people who also speak the language. You spend time together. Eventually, you can have conversations in the second language and begin to feel confident.

Then you hear two native speakers of that second language talking to each other. It is a shocking experience. You discover that you can't understand anything the native speakers are saying. You feel disappointed.

What exactly is the problem? How could you have studied differently?

Developing strong listening skills in a second language can be difficult for students. In fact, teaching listening skills is a challenge for teachers, too. One reason for this is that the actual process of listening, or what we mean by "listening skill" is not very well understood.

What does it mean if someone has " good listening skills?"

When we think about the role that listening plays in language, we can generally divide listening skill into two broad categories. Christine Goh, a researcher at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, calls these categories one-way and two-way listening. Basically, one-way listening is when the listener can't interact with the speaker, and has to get most of their information from the language they hear. We experience one-way listening when we listen to the radio or watch television programs, presentations, or use language textbooks and testing materials.

Two-way listening is when a listener can interact with the speaker. Generally, any interaction where you use language, including when you buy something, have a conversation with a friend, or talk on the phone, is an example of two-way listening.

In some ways, one-way and two-way listening are different skills. For example, in one way listening, the listener can't ask for clarification. Students can't ask their textbook listening materials to "slow down," or "could you repeat that please?" However, this is possible during two-way listening.

So, before a student can improve their listening skills, they need to think about which type of listening skill they want to improve. If a student wants to watch the news or listen to the radio in a second language, their listening practice will be different than students who want to improve listening as part of their communication skills.

One of the major challenges with practicing listening is that most listening classes teach one-way listening. In other words, students listen to a recording of the language, and try to answer comprehension questions. While this sort of listening practice can be useful, it may not be the best way to improve student's skills in conversation or in spontaneous listening practice.

The reason for this is that listening is not only about the sounds that students hear. When we listen to something, we don't just recognize the words and "upload" them into our brain like a computer. Instead, we experience what we hear through a holistic process where our past experiences and knowledge about the topic construct our understanding . Often, we will be thinking about what we hear long after the sound has already stopped.

In this way, answering comprehension questions really isn't a good way to prepare students for one-way listening either. This is because, with comprehension questions, students don't practice accessing their existent knowledge or past experiences, but instead focus on listening for the information connected to the questions.

I'm sure you have had the experience of going to a presentation or seeing a movie with a friend, and during the discussion afterwards, discover that your friend remembered completely different parts of the movie than you did. This is because different people's knowledge, experiences and preferences naturally construct what they hear and what they remember. This is real listening skill.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy reading: The Ears Have It.

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Learning to listen in a second language can be frustrating. If you've ever tried to learn a second language, you've probably had an experience like this: You begin to study the language. Soon, you make friends with people who also speak the language. You spend time together.