Tips for being a good listener
How to improve my English Listening?
This question (or near question) is often asked by ESL students who are new in Canada (and of course any other English speaking country). In many cases the speed of the the English they are now hearing is faster than greased lightening on a luge run and they just can’t deal with it. The accent and speed they are accustomed to from their teachers is nowhere to be found, and this leads to confusion, self-doubt.So, as ESL teachers we get repeatedly asked the simple question “How to I improve my English listening ability?” The answer to this question is a frustratingly simple 3 steps.1. “Listen lots!” 2. “React to what you hear” 3. “Repeat!” Do this regularly and listening comprehension will increase drammatically and quickly.Ok….let’s look at these in turn
Listen Lots
Enhancing your listening skills requires you to expose yourself to authentic English constantly—as often as possible. You could certainly use ESL recordings and follow along with Made For English CDs, however these seldom replicate genuine language in relation to pace. Learners of English (or any language) should obtain as much natural speed exposure as feasible. Excellent approaches include watching TV or radio news programmes, accessing online audio content (podcasts, sound files, videos), participating in community organisations, community service, viewing English-language films, TV shows, attending social venues, or establishing a club.
React to what you hear
Merely listening is insufficient. A learner must engage with what they have just heard. This engagement enables the communicative process to flow organically. This response helps a learner verify that they have received the message accurately, comprehended it properly, and were able to reply suitably in that context. Often this is as straightforward as sustaining dialogue by answering a query or seeking to draw out viewpoints/details/thoughts regarding the subject. In other instances it might require written responses: composing summaries, recording thoughts, writing journal notes, or creating critiques can serve as methods to respond to what was heard.
Repeat
Really simple here. Don’t it once? Great, now do it again…and again…and again on a regular schedule, in different situations and on different topics. Listening well involves more than just understanding the words. It involves understanding the contect (the place) and being able to understand the language being used in context.In the end what really matters for improving English skills overall, not only English listening skills is practice and use. Improving langauge skills always requires 2 acts 1) getting input and 2) reacting to the input (output). You need to get langauge into your brain and then you need to get the language out to be heard and read by others.So, if you or your students want to improve English listening skills, just follow the three simple steps. Listen, Respond, Do it again.
English Listening Tips – Active Listening
An excellent method to develop stronger English listening proficiency is by engaging in tasks that demand engaged listening. By this, I mean placing yourself or your learners in circumstances requiring them to actively engage with and apply the language being heard to carry out meaningful exchange. This requires a minimum of 2 people, should include numerous exchanges, and exchanges ought to be 'unscripted' instead of controlled. By controlled, I mean avoiding predetermined scripts, although some setting-based framing may have merit. Those involved should feel empowered to express themselves and communicate in the manner they deem suitable and in accordance with their existing proficiency.
Listening & Speaking
The possibilities available are as limitless as your imagination, spanning from tightly regulated (predetermined exchanges) to entirely unstructured collaborative assignments. Regardless of the approach, such activities ought to push a learner to simultaneously receive information through listening and convey ideas through speaking.
Structured Listening
Structured listening/speaking activites can be quite good. In such cases the interaction is controlled or limited in some way. Perhaps by requiring answers to specific questions, having very specific expectations of the activitiy (e.g. interview your homestay about their job), or
working in a specific context (do a skit about ordering pizza over the phone).
This kind of listening helps keep a student’s focus and gives them boundaries within which they
can work. This will ideally help reduce some stress.
Unstructured Listening
Such scenarios generally emerge from goal-oriented exercises in which participants collaborate to finish a particular objective. Such exercises might range from straightforward—like collective conversations, organized 'small-scale debates'—to intricate and elaborate, such as creating fresh theatrical scenes and performances, or delivering duo presentations. The benefit of these tasks lies in the fact that a learner must be equipped to adapt and reply to constantly evolving circumstances. Because they lack predictability, they prompt students to utilize their talents in the spur of the moment.
Listening & Writing
Regardless of how, responding to what you hear is important. This can, and should be done in writing as well by speaking.As a teacher, encourage your students to keep simple journals that they regularly write in as a way of developing their overall langauge ability. 5 – 10 minutes 3-5 times/week will make a huge difference in a students overall writing fluency as well as their overall comprehension of the langauge they are experiencing through reading and listening.This does not to be anything special. They just need to write in response to something that they read or listened to. It can be a summary, an opinion, a feeling, personal comment, agreement, disagreement, whatever turns their crank.The point is to take an opportunity to recycle and reuse the language they they have been hearing and a way that is relevant to them. what they write about is in a way irrelevant. It can be about a TV show or movie they just watched. It could be about a conversation they had at a coffee shop with a friend. It could be about how bad small town DJs are in the local bar scene. The point it to integrate their daily listening experiences into their writing in order to reinforce the language. Ok…enough of that.
Listen lots….listen actively…and English Listening Skills will improve.
Tips for being a good listener
Give your full attention on the person who is speaking. Don’t look out the window or at what else is going on in the room. Make sure your mind is focused, too. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your mind wandering, change the position of your body and try to concentrate on the speaker’s words. Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance to say everything they would like to say without being interrupted. When you interrupt, it looks like you aren’t listening, even if you really are. Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You can’t really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next. Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with phrases such as “My point is…” or “The thing to remember is…”
Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said so that you can be sure your understanding is correct. For example, you might say, “When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean that the stripes are different on each one?”
Provide responses. Maintain an upright posture and maintain eye contact with the speaker. Periodically, demonstrate comprehension through nodding. During relevant moments you might additionally grin, show displeasure, chuckle, or refrain from expression. Each represents methods to communicate to the speaker that you are genuinely engaged. Keep in mind, you listen through your expressions and nonverbal cues in addition to your sense of hearing!
Thinking fast
Keep this in mind: you have time working in your favor! Mental processes operate roughly four times quicker than spoken communication. Through consistent effort, as you receive language you can likewise process the material, gain genuine comprehension, and deliver meaningful response to the speaker.
