How to Improve English Listening Skills for Students?
Listening skills should be inculcated in students right from the very first day of school. In fact, it's ideal if it begins at home. One might argue that it is a skill that one possesses by default. That may be a subjective argument. But to know if one has good listening skills, here are some characteristics to consider that define its excellence.
- Actively paying attention
- Ability to comprehend another person’s speech
- Letting the speaker finish
- Responding with appropriate body language and gestures
Listening skills for students encourage a healthy exchange of words, inculcate the quality of multitasking, and help develop patience. Furthermore, improved listening skills will boost the student’s confidence to succeed in the class. It is important to indulge in active listening and not passive listening. It is a common trait among students that could be a result of disinterest in classrooms or exhaustion.
English listening skills hold value in both the academic and professional worlds. Hence, it’s important to develop listening skills for this global language that is a gateway to many opportunities in life.
With these simple practices you can improve your listening skills gradually and effectively.
1. Focus on pronunciations
Pronunciation can be the first hurdle that you might want to cross. English as a language is spoken in different ways and with different accents. The key is to be aware of those and, at the same time, learn the appropriate native pronunciation. There are two fundamental ways to put this English listening skill into practice.
- Pay close attention to what people are saying.
- Use Google to learn the accurate pronunciation and say it out loud.
Learning pronunciation also means discovering new words and enhancing your vocabulary.
2. Listen to audiobooks
Digital learning now makes it possible for students to get their hands on diverse audiobooks. These audiobooks can be based on any topic of your preference. You can listen to audiobooks while indulging in other tasks. However, you must use this factor to enhance your multitasking skills. Being able to actively listen and write or read is a skill that students can benefit from in their classrooms. Besides, due to a lack of visuals, audiobooks also encourage imagination and creative thinking.
3. Take notes while listening
This strategy is very simple, practical, and highly effective. Watch video clips or listen to short audio clips. Take notes on the content that you are listening to at the same time. It does not have to be complete sentences, as the goal here is to capture the subject of the audio content. You can use words and acronyms of your own choice. You can write down some significant keywords or stick to simple phrases. This helps with English listening skills for students as it pushes them to actively listen. This is a goal-oriented practice wherein the students have to listen to the audio and take proper notes to define the content.
4. Watch videos with subtitles
Movies are not only a great source of entertainment, but they also develop better English listening skills for students. The subtitles are extremely helpful for interpreting the language and speech. But don’t be crippled by it. Use it to your advantage. They make it easy to learn English. If you have a hard time catching up with people’s words, then start by watching movies or series with subtitles. You can reduce the playback speed to make this more comfortable. Understanding the language and the speech is essential for improving your English listening skills, and this technique can help you with that.
5. Opt for blended learning
Combining the offline school curriculum with external online resources helps students gain a wholesome learning experience. Blended learning introduces you to flexible learning without compromising on your academics. Pearson ActiveApp offers one such experience, which also accounts for an exciting learning environment. It uses an interactive learning method that keeps students engaged. It offers a learning model that fits well into a student’s daily routine.
Young minds can develop listening skills that can contribute to a better experience for them on the educational as well as professional fronts in the future. Implementing these techniques will definitely help advance English listening skills in students and benefit them with their overall personality development too.
Pearson's ActiveApp 2.0 is designed for students to comply with Pearson textbooks and it ensures that students can study at any time and anywhere. With its unique, interactive, contextual, and learner-centric approach, ActiveApp uses supplementary videos, audios and more.