Developing the ability to understand foreign speech by ear is one of the most important key points in learning English.
Definition and essence of listening
Listening is the process of listening to foreign speech. This is one of the most difficult skills, as this language activity involves several factors:
- Unlike reading, listening requires real-time understanding. There is no way to stop here and explore. Especially if it's an exam where time is very limited.
- You can't control the content like you can by speaking or writing your own text. There is no way to bypass unfamiliar lexical units and grammatical constructions, replacing them with more familiar ones.
- The speaker's speech may have some features that make it difficult to understand the text: a peculiar accent, diction, intonation.
- The English language contains many dialects. It is not uncommon for people from different parts of the UK, the United States or Australia to have difficulty understanding each other.
- The average English or American speaks at a fast pace.
Types of listening
There are several varieties of thisspeech activity:
- Listening for detail - listening with a full understanding of the content of the text, including the smallest details. This is one of the most difficult types, since it is possible to perceive all the details only with a good knowledge of the language.
- Listening for gist - listening to understand the main points and general meaning. This view is much easier, as there is no need to try to capture every detail. In addition, this type of activity helps to develop one useful quality - a linguistic guess, that is, the ability to fill in the gaps from the context.
- Listening for specific information is listening to a passage in order to find specific information. You can skip the rest of the text.
- Inferential listening - a guess based on the information heard. This type of speech activity is more of a psychological nature, since the main point in this case is not understanding the information, but capturing the emotional mood and state of the interlocutor. This type can be attributed to non-verbal communication. When preparing for exams, this type of activity is not very useful, but in real life, the ability to capture the intonation shades and mood of another person greatly simplifies the process of communication.
Learning and communication
Educational listening is a means to achieve the main goal, the free recognition and understanding of English speech. It involves tuning the ear, acquiring the skills of recognizing foreign speech, recognizing lexical and grammaticalmaterial, understanding, evaluation of what was heard and reproduction in written or oral form. For this language activity, special educational materials and adapted audio books are used, designed for different levels of English proficiency. With independent studies, it is possible to listen to the text repeatedly. In exams, as a rule, the number of auditions is limited to two times.
Communicative listening - this is the main goal of learning, free understanding of the speech of native speakers of any foreign language with a single playback.
What does listening do?
There are a number of useful skills that it will help you acquire:
- Speech melody and intonation. Many people who learn English without communicating with native speakers transfer the intonation of their native language to a foreign speech. To fully master another language, you need to know not only the grammatical system, general pronunciation rules and vocabulary. It is very important to master the emotional side of communication as well.
- Pronunciation. Despite the fact that in almost any English dictionary all lexical units are accompanied by transcription, not all nuances can be conveyed using graphic reproduction of sound features. Many moments can be understood and felt only in practice, listening and repeating.
- Polysemy. English words have many meanings and uses. Listening is one way to help you understand the use of words with specific examples.
- Language guess. When communicating in their native language, each person is able to fill in the missing information if they have not heard something. Exactly the same skill must be acquired by learning a foreign language. Another side is the ability to guess the meaning of a new lexical item from the context, as well as through understanding the structure of the language.
Reasons for the language barrier
There are a number of reasons that affect the degree of learning. The language barrier may be caused by some factors:
- Personal features. According to the way of perception of information, people are divided into visuals, auditory and kinesthetes. If a person perceives information best visually, then it will be more difficult for him to understand unfamiliar speech by ear. It is impossible to completely rebuild a personality type, but it is possible to develop the missing qualities.
- Lack of knowledge. It is likely that the difficulties in understanding the speaker's speech are caused by insufficient knowledge of grammar and a small vocabulary.
- Features of spoken English. Often in everyday speech, native speakers use a number of abbreviations: going to - gonna, want to - wanna, am not - ain't, must not - mustn't etc.
- Lack of practice. Even with a good level of foreign language proficiency, a sufficient amount of practice is needed. It is important to take time to practice each skill (writing, speaking, listening and reading).
- Complex stuff. As you learn, you need to gradually increase the requirements. Excessively high bar at the very beginningeducational process will not bring good results. Therefore, first of all, you can focus on educational texts and adapted audio books. If there are certain difficulties when trying to understand English speech, you can choose a book one level lower. For example, if your grammar and vocabulary are Upper-Intermediate (B2), take the Intermediate (B1) audiobook.
How to improve listening comprehension of foreign speech
The two main causes of difficulties are the pace of speech and insufficient knowledge. It is important to learn to perceive not every single word, but whole stable expressions and constructions. This process can be compared to playing a musical instrument. The musician does not think about how to play each individual note, he thinks in passages and phrases.
In each text there are a number of phrases that you have already met repeatedly. First of all, these are all kinds of clichés, such as, for example, as a matter of fact - in fact, there is no doubt - no doubt, etc. Knowledge of such stable structures will greatly simplify the process of perception of information.
Regularity of classes
Constant practice is the key to success. Half an hour of daily lessons will be more useful than a three-hour lesson once a week. Listening to a foreign text should be given at least some time every day. This will greatly speed up the learning process. If your level of knowledge allows, you can include listening to songs and watching movies, series and TV shows. Alsopodcasts are very useful - short audio releases on various topics that discuss linguistic phenomena, traditions and customs, society, news, etc. Another way that deserves attention is listening to audiobooks in the background. That is, you do not have to try to delve into and understand absolutely everything. You will just gradually get used to the sound of English speech.
What to look for when preparing for exams?
If you are working through texts from a textbook, before listening, pay attention to the title of the lesson, illustrations and a list of questions. Try to penetrate and anticipate what exactly you will hear. This will help tune the brain to perceive the necessary information.
If you have to take the exam (English), listening should be worked out as carefully as other questions, and preparation should begin long before the exam. When preparing, try to recreate the same conditions that will be on the exam:
- Try to complete the task within the limited time.
- Use speakers, not headphones.
- Because this is a listening session with assignments, take the time to complete the forms as well as listening.
- Read the questions carefully, as quite often mistakes are caused by a misunderstanding of the task.
- As early as possible, learn about approximate topics and find the necessary manuals. Whether you're taking your audition for Grade 11, IELTS or TOEFL, start preparing early.
Severalmore tips
- Learn your favorite songs. This will help develop both listening and pronunciation skills. Moreover, these two language activities are closely interconnected. You find it difficult to hear what you cannot say.
- Listen to an English audiobook that you have read in your own language.
- When searching for materials, focus on your level and interests. Choose listening texts that are of interest to you.
- At the beginning of training, avoid materials full of specific terminology.
- Understanding unfamiliar words, try to fill in the context.
- Communicate with native speakers whenever possible.
- You should get rid of the illusion that in a week or a month you can master a foreign language at a high level. If you have an exam to take, start preparing well in advance.
English listening is a rather difficult task, but with regular classes and the right study materials, you can even prepare for this part of the exam on your own.
