How well can you understand spoken English when you see a video? Or how much can you get from a hip hop song on the radio? Do you have problems on your listening tests and activities?
Since I became a teacher I have seen many students complaining about listening activities and tests. They all say the same thing: listening is the harder part of learning English! I definitely agree with that! My point here is on identifying the reasons why so many people struggle on that skill and not so many are successful.
At first, I should say that listening only to the audio tracks teachers take to class is never enough. They are all 3 or 5 minutes listening that were only made for you to study and deal with in classroom. Seriously, think about that: can we really learn to listen and understand a language only through those flat exercises? My answer is no!
Internet has come up with a bunch of new ways for those interested on learning English and I see that listening is one of the skills that has more available resources.
Probably you have heard of sites for watching videos and consequently improve your listening abilities. But have you ever thought about a website where you can download mp3 tracks and listen to them wherever you are? Well, for those interested on downloading nice material to be listened in the car, at home or in any mp3 player I would recommend ESLPOD . It is a website developed to share mp3 files for learning. This type of material is known as podcast. They have audios on almost every topic you know. The audios are free and there are exercises you can do if you sign up to the site.
Or have you ever thought about listening to audios related to the areas you are interested in? Then you should go to TED, a website that shares workshops and conferences on almost any professional topic as I have stated in another post previously.
Try listening to podcasts and you will see how much you can learn from them. Google it and you’ll be amazed on the quantity and variety of audios and exercises you can get!
10 tips to improve your listening ability
1 – Search the internet for videos and audios with native speakers.
– See CNN, BBC or any other TV website.
2 – Watch English vídeos.
– Try searching grammar or conversation topics on youtube
– EngVid is good for Grammar tips
3 – Listen to English songs.
– Everyone likes music. Youtube and other sites have a Nice tool that may help you a lot. It is when you can see a music video and see the lyrics at the same time.
– Get your cds covers and sing the songs along with the lyrics.
4 – Listen to online radio
On the internet you can listen to thousands of English online radios.
– Check BBC radio
– Use your mobile phone, tablet or computer to listen to online rádios – see how
5 – Watch movies with or without subtitles
– This is one of the nicest ways for practicing English.
– You can also see TV series online or download them to your computer
– You can see TV series on your cable TV
6 – Watch Brazilian films with English subtitles
– That is awesome for learning Brazilian expressions and words
7 – See the same movie more than once
– Then you won’t be paying attention to the story but rather to the linguistic features
8 – Watch movies and TV ads for children
– As you are learning that may be of great help for you. These videos tend to use simpler language and then it becomes easier for you to get the meaning of what is said.
9 – Listen to MP3 audiobooks
– Open Culture, Free Classic Audio Books, Audio Books for Free e LibriVox.
The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer),
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll).
10 – Listen to news podcasts
– check BBC (6 Minute English) and Austrália ABC (Podcasts by subject) or Scientific American (Science Talk).
Some of these ideas were taken or adapted from http://www.inglesnosupermercado.com.br/
Great job!