Techniques to practice listening English effectively

1. Improve pronunciation
This is the first thing you need to do. Recognizing a sound correctly will help you hear it.
If you can pronounce the word “environment” correctly, it means you can immediately recognize what sounds the word consists of, where the stress is, and what the intonation is like when you hear it.
However, learning to pronounce each sound one by one will definitely be boring, and we can completely change our learning style with the “SHADOWING METHOD”.
When watching movies, listening to the radio, watching Youtube, … you should notice how native speakers pronounce, how they move their mouth and lips, then imitate the same way they pronounce. If you keep practicing over and over again, you will be surprised at the speed of your improvement.
2. Listen anytime, anywhere
To improve listening skills, you will definitely have to listen a lot, listen actively, listen passively, anytime and anywhere.
You can listen through news, podcasts, songs, audiobooks, etc. Let your ears “flood” in English. This is called “passive listening”, and it has at least two benefits:
– Help your ears get used to sound, stress, intonation. When your ears get used to it, your listening skills will definitely improve.
– Help you build vocabulary. The more you listen, the more words you will know. As a result, your listening ability will improve dramatically.
You can start listening to the content you like, then you can move on to different topics. You should also read many different materials to expand input, also background knowledge – this will help you improve your listening skills.
It is advisable to make it a habit to practice listening to English every day and remember that your ears need time to get used to and absorb, in other words “practice makes perfect”.
3. Watch movies with English subtitles
Why should you watch movies in English?
If you had to choose between books, tapes, and movies, what would you choose? It’s definitely a movie, because it’s a lot more interesting.
When you like something, and really focus on it, your listening will also improve.
There are many movies that are set in real life, so the language in the movie is also more natural.
Watching movies will help you learn your friends to learn vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation in a better way (all these are called input).
Another striking point is that watching movies will help you improve your pronunciation a lot, because pronunciation is very important when listening because it will determine whether you can recognize sounds or not.
Why should you watch with English subtitles?
When you read a word and at the same time you hear it, it can help you improve your listening comprehension skills. If you miss something, just stop and rewind. Subtitles will also help you read along with the movie, but don’t rely too much on subs because you’re still practicing listening comprehension skills, not reading comprehension.
If you don’t like watching movies, you can watch TV shows in English. Beginners should choose children’s shows to watch. The language for children is very simple and is presented vividly with lots of pictures. You can easily hear and visualize with pictures, and this also greatly enhances your skill.
Some English shows that you can refer to:
“Friends, How I met your mother, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, TED”
4. Practice Speaking
These two above-mentioned ways are called “passive listening”. Besides, we will have to listen actively by listening and reacting to what we just heard.
Listening and speaking at the same time will help you practice better reflexes through conversations, and it will also be more interesting than passive listening.
When listening, you can guess what the other person is about to say, analyze and synthesize based on the information given. These are also considered effective strategies to improve listening skills.
Listening and speaking always go together. If you can say a word, you can hear it clearly, and this is always true. If you have a chance to talk with native speakers, you can learn standard English from them.
Where can you find native speakers to practice speaking?
You can refer to some of the following websites.
– mylanguageexchange.com
– conversationexchange.com
– www.language-exchanges.org
– www.speaky.com
– www.interpals.net
5. Practice Deep Listening
DEEP LISTENING – What is Deep Listening?
It means you listen to the same content over and over again actively. Language is built on a foundation of perception and habit. This can help you to strengthen your memory of vocabulary, phrases, structure and pronunciation.
How to choose the right listening material:
Step 1: Choose your favorite content
Step 2: Choose content that is not too complicated, so you need to choose content you can hear about 70% or more.
These are the methods that I have tried and experienced. I dare to share them with you, not just a theory or an online collection, so you can rest assured.