#137 How to make listening in English fun

Hi, everybody! I am Georgiana, your English teacher and founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help you speak English fluently.

In this episode:        

I'm going to give you seven ideas you can use when you perform repeated listening. After that, I'm going to read a Point Of View story. It' an excellent technique for improving your grammar.

Ok, let's start!

As you may know, I always encourage students to listen daily. Listening is the best way to deeply learn the different sounds, words, and expressions you find in English. It's how we learn our mother tongue.

Also, it's vital to understand that listening to an audio several times helps you consolidate what you learn.

However, some students complain that they get bored. It's normal. Our brain likes new and fresh content. In other words, we like the novelty.

Here are some tricks, which will help you to keep your interest while you repeat the same audio material.

Try to guess what the speaker will say next: At first, it may seem difficult, but since you repeat the audio many times, it's a stimulating game to play. Focus on the pronunciation of each word, especially the words you find more difficult to pronounce. Try to notice the subtleties of each sound. Concentrate on the intonation of each sentence. As opposed to the pronunciation of individual words, here, you need to pay attention to the "musicality" of the sentence: the rhythm and the "music" of the phrase. If you are listening to a mini-story (with questions and answers), try to answer faster. You can also try to give a longer answer. While you listen to the audio, imitate the narrator. Listen to the material and try your best to talk at the same time as the narrator.

It may be hard, but it's fun! This technique is called "shadowing" and requires a lot of concentration. So, it's better if you pick an easy material.

Try to move while listening. You can walk, run, wash the dishes, etc. Doing a different activity while listening to the same audio adds some variety. Listen to a friend. It's always more entertaining to share a task and to discuss the main topic with a friend. You will definitely lose track of time.

 

As you can see, repeating the same audio material doesn't need to be a tedious task. Using some of these powerful methods will help you to learn English patterns thoroughly.

 

Read the transcript here: SpeakEnglishpodcast.com