Hey guys,
We had a very good phone-in show on LOVE FM 'fantastic feeling' 5steps2ielts.com show last night and I want to share with you some great advice from some of the callers about improving 'Listening'. These come from Sothea, and I think they are good tips....
1. Improve your vocabulary
In order to improve your listening skills, it is necessary to improve your range of vocabulary. This means that the more words that you know and can recognise, the better your chance of understanding the words that people are speaking to you. If you don't know a lot of vocabulary it is hard to follow when native speakers are speaking as they will use a lot of unknown vocabulary. So try to learn new words every day or every week, even if you cannot speak or write the new words yourself, at least you have a better chance of understanding them when you hear them.
2. Improve pronunciation
The better your pronunciation, the better your listening will be. Try to get used to the different accents which are used by native speakers. The American and Australian accents can be difficult as well as the different dialects from the fantastic United Kingdom. Listening to BBC WORLD, 100 FM on the radio can help you to develop a good ear for the British accent and will help you to understand when you are listening to someone from the fantastic United Kingdom
3. Use a dictionary
Learning how to use a dictionary properly will help with listening and pronunciation. Words that are in the dictionary appear with their phonetics and syllables for the exact stress and pronunciation. Don't forget when you learn new vocabulary to make sure that you know how to pronounce it properly because this will help you recognise it when you are listening.
4. Focus on speech patterns
This is an advanced skill, but involves the knowledge of 'connected' speech patterns which are used to connect words together in sentences and can often make it difficult to differenciate between the individual words that a native speaker is speaking.
Thanks to all the callers on the radio show last night and DJ Brett and I will open up the phone lines next week to hear more of your tips and answer any questions you have about learning English live on air.
Thanks again to Sothea for the listening tips she shared with us last night and that I am sharing with you guys now,
Have fun,
Paul
