Listening is perhaps one of the most daunting skills for new international students upon arrival in Britain. Of course, it is even harder for anyone who is learning English outside an English speaking country. Everyone seems to speak quickly when you first arrive in a country, and it is hard to gain the general meaning of what is said. Sometimes English tutors may, sensibly, say to students 'I advise you to listen to as much English as you can', but even if this advice is useful, it is not easy to know where to start. Explore the material below where you can find some helpful advice for developing your listening skills. What kind of listening materials are there?In general, there are two different kinds of materials you can listen to:
Note that a scripted text is one that is written down before the speakers speak (less natural). An unscripted text is one that is not written down in advance, but rather, transcribed afterwards (more natural, but often harder to follow, because in real life people do not speak in an organised or structured way). These materials can be classified according to the list below. The list ranges from the easiest to listen to (first on the list) to the hardest to listen to (last on the list)
What makes a text easier to listen to?In general, it is considered easier to listen to a text when:
Having said this, you will also want, and will need, to develop your experience of listening to English when:
It will be difficult to listen to texts which include the above elements but be philosophical. You will gradually get better at listening and it is good to see this as 'experience'. General advice for developing listening skills for academic studyDeveloping a routine: Listening to the newsA very useful starting point when you are developing listening skills for academic study is the news. It could be Radio 4 (92.4 to 94.6 khz) or the BBC World Service, but it could also be another radio station. The BBC provides excellent online news programmes; for example, http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/categories/news. There is also a really good website which contains interactive exercises on recent news stories at http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com Try to start by making your listening to the news into a routine - listen to the same broadcast each and every day, at the same time. Just listen to a few minutes at first, and gradually extend your listening as you feel you are getting better and more experienced. The news is a good starting point because:
From listening to the news, you can then progress to the next area below. Recommended interactive tasksEarly in your stay in an English speaking country, it is very useful to try to listen to and interact with native speakers by undertaking some simple tasks. You could, for example, try:
Make sure you ask the person you are speaking with to speak more slowly if you don't understand, and do ask them to spell words and phrases if you find them difficult to catch. These are called 'repair strategies' and are an important part of 'strategic competence'. Recommended websites to practice listeningThere are many websites out there which are excellent and free! Try out the following to help you develop your general listening skills: |