listening skills transformation

The time has come to focus on listening! It's hard, but I have a lot of experience guiding my students to a listening skills transformation!

In my years as a teacher, I've tried every method in the book.

I'll tell you a secret - lots of them are absolutely rubbish. They train students to pass exams, but they don't train students to genuinely understand spoken English.

In my view, there are 5 exercises that really work:

1. Transcription exercises

Like the ones I sent you in an email 2 days ago, transcription exercises are seriously effective. Play a sentence, and write what you hear. Practice practice practice, and it will become easier and easier and easier!

2. Real conversation clips

My pet hate (something I hate most) is when textbooks give scripted conversations. They aren't authentic, and they won't help you in the real world! If you want to improve your listening skills, you have to listen to real conversations.

3. In-the-moment comprehension

Take a real conversation, and answer true/false or multiple-choice comprehension questions in real-time, as you listen. In real life, you won't have time to pause a conversation, and think about what everything means. You've got to try to gain general understanding in the moment.

4. Targeted Vocab Study

It seems broad, but if you don't know a word when it's written down, how on earth (how, emphasised) are you going to understand it when you hear it in a fast-paced conversation? If you want to improve your listening skills, you have to check where you are lacking in vocabulary, and try to fill in the gaps!

5. Studying spoken English and pronunciation

Conversational English is hugely different to written English. To understand it you need to focus on the language and pronunciation used. You need to know about topics like:

• connected speech
• the glottal stop
• thinking noises like 'ummm' and 'eeeerrrrr'
• interjections
• noises of agreement/disagreement like 'mm hmm' and 'mm mm'
• dropped syllables

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Does it seem like a lot?

It is, but I can offer you a lot.

This afternoon, I will tell you about my latest project that will transform your listening skills in just 30 days.

We'll cover all of the topics above, every single day!

If you struggle with:

• listening skills
• understanding spoken English
• participating in conversations
• general vocabulary

Source By English with Lucy