Listening and 5 ways of improving it

Listening and 5 ways of improving it

In any case, listening is one of the most important parts of human life. Whether when you listen to someone in daily life or when you learn something. Time by time when most of us learn a foreign language in order to pass our exams or get high results this section began to be an important part of our studies.

There is an idea that I consider the most important and which I don’t want to leave unmentioned. Foreign language is mainly based on speaking and listening, because when you go abroad or to interview as well as when you make conversation with foreigner writing and reading skills isn’t demanded from you right away. I don’t say that these sections aren’t important, because for every language these 4 sections (speaking, listening, reading and writing) are quite significant, even the most significant ones. What I want to say is that foreign language is first of all about communication and as you all know communication go through speaking and listening. I have several blogs about improving speaking, but this time as I take into account that this section is also important I make a decision that I will definitely write a blog about listening. Now, let’s turn to the methods. 

First of all, of course, when we learn something, we have to understand why we have difficulties, then we have to solve them. We will do the same on this blog.

Let's start with answering to question "Why?”. There are can be not only one but several reasons for this. The reasons can be different for everyone. I would like to note some of them and the most important ones. Moments that can make difficulties:

1. Different pronunciation of words in English.

2. The shortage of your vocabulary base and not knowing the correct pronunciation of words (some words pronounced alike, so it's important to know their pronunciations correctly). 

3. The words which are written differently, but their pronunciations are the same (in this situation it’s important to pay attention to the word usage in the sentence). 

4. It becomes hard to concentrate and focus your attention on listening as it’s duration increases. 

5. While listening to recordings and videos, communicating with foreigners, traveling abroad and communicate with people different accents and dialects are the main reasons for difficult understanding.  

There are can be various reasons apart from what I write here, but don’t be afraid of that, because every difficulty and every question “why?” has its answer.  Now let's turn to those answers and solve this task.

As always, this time I will also try to give the best and right advice to improve the listening.  Let's start. 

1. First of all, you need to have a vocabulary base and as you learn these words, you have to focus and give attention to their pronunciation because it’s one of the most important points.

2. Learn all the sections (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) equally. This will have an indispensable role in learning the language more excellent.

3. Don’t try to translate the texts you are listening to. Try to understand them as native speakers do or listen to them as in your native language.

4. Try to listen for at least one hour every day because it is very important. It can be when you're on the road with headphones, when you are washing dishes or cooking at home and so on. Listen to any topic that you like anytime and anywhere. Start with the topics that you understand and which are easy for you. Understand the general idea when listening for the first time, then listen for the second time, and be sure that you will understand and hear more words this time. You will also learn their pronunciation as well as the meaning and this is crucial.

5. Never try to understand 100%.  It is good if you understand 60%-80% of what you are hearing. Keep in mind that even the native speaker of the language can’t always understand 100%. The important point is to understand the topic and what it is about.

I hope this article will be useful as well. If you have any questions, you can also type in the blog or on the Instagram page by adding questions in the comment section. Good luck to everyone.

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