The importance of good listening
We hear things when learning a foreign language, but do we actually listen? As with reading, it’s easy to ‘skim’ and only hear what you want to.
An easy way of testing your listening skills in any language is to think about whether you remember people and place names. We often blame our inability to remember names on our memory, however, how many of us don’t actually listen in the first place.
It’s human nature to only listen to something if you have a genuine interest in the subject. So if you’re learning a language and you want to succeed you should train yourself to listen. When you’re listening to the language being spoken try and hear the different sounds and various pitches and stresses of the words.
When learning a new language we often find it hard to mimic the correct sounds as our own language doesn’t contain those sounds. We can also feel silly, as we’re not used to making different sounds. Try not to feel like this, but take pride in the fact that you are speaking a language that many others can’t.
Listening hints
· When you’re in public places, such as shops and restaurants, listen to native speakers and make mental notes of phrases they use. Then practise these phrases as often as you can. You’ll soon be told if you’re using them in the wrong context.
·
Record news bulletins from the radio and listen to them over and over until you get the gist of what is being said. Each time you listen you should understand more. Listen enough times until you are able to write a short summary of what is going on.
·
A more challenging, but effective task is to listen to a recording, and try and pick out all the verbs and adjectives. You can also do this for other grammatical forms. Then you could try and state which tense each of the verbs is in. This may seem a bit boring, but it can improve your language skills immensely.
·
Have the radio on in your new language at every opportunity. You don’t have to be intensively listening to it to pick up the language. Even with songs (particularly those you recognise from your own language), you’ll start to understand what’s being said.
The telephone
A particularly challenging form of listening which many language learners will avoid. If you don’t understand what’s being said it’s too easy to just hang up and pretend the conversation never happened.
Try and persevere.
There may come a time (say in an emergency), when you do have to use the telephone effectively, so don’t give up.
When the person at the other end is speaking listen as carefully as you can. Learn some simple phrases such as ‘please can you repeat that’ and ‘please could you speak slowly’. Above all, don’t revert to your native language – that’s the easy way out.