How to improve listening skill
HOW TO… IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING by Hội các sĩ tử luyện thi IELTS on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 11:17am ·
By Nguyen Ngoc Van Khanh (Sưu tầm từ tạp chí Hot English Magazine(from UK), rất thích hợp cho các bạn có nhu cầu học Anh văn giao tiếp, và Anh văn thông dụng đấy ^^) Here are nine tips for improving your listening skills in English. 1. Accept the facts
First of all, you need to accept the fact that you aren’t going to understand everything. Experts have shown that we only actually hear or fully understand about 40% of the words during a conversation… even in our own language.
2. Keep calm!
While you’re listening, the most important thing is to stay calm. You won’t understand everything so don’t let that upset you. The aim is to get a general idea of what the other person is saying. Never try to listen out for every word. Listen for the gist of the conversation – go for the main ideas.
3. Ask for help!
If you’re having problems during the conversation, ask the other to speak more slowly. Also, ask people the repeat things if you didn’t understand. Again, the speaker is trying to have a conversation and will do what they can to help you.
4. Don’t translate!
While you’re listening, don’t try to translate. If you do, you’ll start concentrating on translating and not on processing the information. And then you’ll lose track of the conversation.
5. Keywords!
The most important thing is to listen out for the key words – the important, stressed words. Basically, English is a stress-timed language. This means that when we speak, we focus on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the rest. Those stressed words are usually nouns (“dog/table”), verbs (“sit/run”), adjectives (“beautiful/wonderful”) and adverbs (“quickly/slowly”). Most of the other words (determiners, auxilary verbs, pronouns, etc.) are weak sounds. The great thing is that you only really need to understand the key words in order to follow the conversation. For example, if
By Nguyen Ngoc Van Khanh (Sưu tầm từ tạp chí Hot English Magazine(from UK), rất thích hợp cho các bạn có nhu cầu học Anh văn giao tiếp, và Anh văn thông dụng đấy ^^) Here are nine tips for improving your listening skills in English. 1. Accept the facts
First of all, you need to accept the fact that you aren’t going to understand everything. Experts have shown that we only actually hear or fully understand about 40% of the words during a conversation… even in our own language.
2. Keep calm!
While you’re listening, the most important thing is to stay calm. You won’t understand everything so don’t let that upset you. The aim is to get a general idea of what the other person is saying. Never try to listen out for every word. Listen for the gist of the conversation – go for the main ideas.
3. Ask for help!
If you’re having problems during the conversation, ask the other to speak more slowly. Also, ask people the repeat things if you didn’t understand. Again, the speaker is trying to have a conversation and will do what they can to help you.
4. Don’t translate!
While you’re listening, don’t try to translate. If you do, you’ll start concentrating on translating and not on processing the information. And then you’ll lose track of the conversation.
5. Keywords!
The most important thing is to listen out for the key words – the important, stressed words. Basically, English is a stress-timed language. This means that when we speak, we focus on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the rest. Those stressed words are usually nouns (“dog/table”), verbs (“sit/run”), adjectives (“beautiful/wonderful”) and adverbs (“quickly/slowly”). Most of the other words (determiners, auxilary verbs, pronouns, etc.) are weak sounds. The great thing is that you only really need to understand the key words in order to follow the conversation. For example, if