How to Improve Listening Comprehension in English with These 7 Amazing Tips!

Listening comprehension is a skill that every person should possess. You can do this through self-hypnosis or by using an app. In this article, we have highlighted some of the best tips to improve your listening comprehension skills.

How to improve listening comprehension?

These tips tell you how to improve listening comprehension

1. Prepare yourself before listening

To other languages. It is very important that you learn how to listen effectively and worthwhile: You should first pick a language that interests or fascinates you; this will help you practice more frequently rather than wasting valuable time on those boring native tongue lessons.
Be active listening, Trying to understand every single word can get very stressful and stressful state. You may not know what you are actually listening for.

2. Practice active (deliberate) listening

Listening actively is one of the most important ways to improve your listening skills. 3. Your listening attention span is too short (X with 300 items per day). It takes a person 3-4 months of intensive practice to develop good active skills, but just 10 minutes will not do the trick. It’s quite easy for one lapse in your concentration and you may miss the most important issues that you’re trying to listen to carefully.

3. Don’t overuse the dictionary

When you come across an unfamiliar word, it’s tempting to pause what you’re listening to and look up its meaning. But many excellent lessons can be marked down if you try to figure out the meaning of each word from your dictionary, especially with harder words where finding a corresponding English definition is almost impossible.

What can you do instead? Here are a few useful strategies:

  • Do your best to understand unfamiliar words and phrases from the context. Quite often you will be able to understand a sentence or paragraph without translating every single word.
  • Only lookup keywords. In some situations, an unfamiliar word or phrase can prevent you from grasping the meaning of a paragraph or even a whole text – these are the keywords and phrases that actually contain the main ideas.
  • Listen a second time. When you listen to something a second time around, you always pick up new things and generally understand more.

4. Listen to content according to your level

If you listen to something that is either too easy or too hard, not choosing content according to your level is not good for your listening skills. Not only will you fail to benefit from relevant content, but the most difficult lessons will be covered over and over again.

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5. Vary your listening practice

If you always listen to one and the same person, for example, your favorite podcast presenter, that’s not the best idea – it might be quite boring and less effective than joining a new podcast series where you can listen to different people. Vary your options and try something else every now and then: Listening for 30 minutes of easy content, followed by an episode of hard content or vice versa, is much more fun!

6. Listen extensively

No guide on how to improve listening skills would be complete without this tip: To improve your listening comprehension in a foreign language, you need listening resources, but to improve your language skills in general you should listen extensively. So it’s not bad if you try and add an entirely foreign language podcast series to your daily routine.

7. Listen to something you enjoy

Listening to what you find interesting and enjoyable helps you improve your listening comprehension and improves vocabulary as well.

5 Reasons why listening comprehension is so hard

Compared to the other comprehension skills such as reading and writing, this skill is relatively new, and insufficient data has been made available for all the people to universally learn it. The current study on listening comprehension states that most of us cannot listen to more than two minutes of a foreign language without making mistakes in pronunciation or misinterpretation.

1. Talking speed

If you are a beginner in your target language, you will be struggling to understand what is being said. The speed at which the native speakers speak their target language actually becomes difficult for you to comprehend. Have in mind that listening comprehension applied on an audio track requires much more time than reading text-based materials because it takes up your attention completely, unlike books where you can read between words or sentences (also known as skimming).

2. Dialects

People speak one and the same language differently in different parts of the country or the world. It is difficult to comprehend what people say in their native dialect in the city you are visiting because your brain doesn’t have enough time to process it.

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3. ‘Wrong’ sounds

Native speakers don’t always pronounce words the way they are represented in dictionaries and textbooks. Some words that are written in the textbooks may not sound like they should; however because these sounds do exist in your language.

4. Lack of practice

No matter how well you have mastered other language skills, you cannot learn a foreign language without constant practice of listening comprehension.
All these issues will consume a tremendous amount of your mental energy and ultimately make you feel tired, frustrated, discouraged from learning the new language especially if it is already difficult for you to comprehend what people are saying in English. At this point, no matter how much effort or time you put into actively practicing your skill of listening comprehension.

5. Bad tech

An old scratchy recording, bad headphones, an unreliable Internet connection, and many more technical problems can easily break your concentration, decrease your motivation to do anything in the new language that you currently study.
What causes listening comprehension errors? For some reason or another, it may occur any time during daily speaking activities with native speakers of a foreign language: Bad habit of not paying attention to what is being said.

Finally, listening is a skill that can be improved with practice. This guide has given you some tips on how to improve your listening skills and make the most of them.
Improving your listening skills isn’t impossible. By implementing one or more of the tips in this guide, you will be able to increase the efficiency of your listening practice and eventually improve your listening comprehension.

Listening comprehension encompasses the multiple processes involved in understanding and making sense of spoken language. These include recognizing speech sounds, understanding the meaning of individual words, and/or understanding the syntax of sentences in which they are presented. 1

FAQ

What are 5 ways to improve your listening skills?

  1. Active Listening: Focus entirely on the speaker, avoid distractions, and show interest through body language and feedback.
  2. Practice with Audio Materials: Listen to podcasts, audiobooks, and news in English to get accustomed to different accents and speeds.
  3. Engage in Conversations: Participate in discussions and conversations with native speakers to practice real-time listening.
  4. Watch Movies and TV Shows: Watch English-language movies and TV shows with subtitles to improve comprehension and understand context.
  5. Take Notes: While listening to lectures or presentations, take notes to reinforce understanding and retention of the information.
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Which songs on this list would you recommend for improving my listening comprehension skills?

This is a tricky question. Songs are meant to be enjoyed and sometimes it is hard to distinguish which songs will help you improve your listening comprehension skills.
However, the following songs may help you improve your listening comprehension skills in English:

  1.  KHS India – Let Me Love You
  2. Justin Bieber – Love Yourself

What causes poor listening comprehension?

Poor listening comprehension can be caused by several factors:

  1. Distractions: External noise or internal distractions can make it difficult to focus on the speaker.
  2. Lack of Interest: If the topic is uninteresting, it can be challenging to stay engaged and attentive.
  3. Language Barriers: Limited vocabulary or unfamiliar accents can hinder understanding.
  4. Mental Fatigue: Being tired or stressed can reduce the ability to process and retain information.
  5. Poor Listening Habits: Not actively listening, interrupting, or not making eye contact can lead to missing key points.

In conclusion, enhancing your listening comprehension skills is a valuable endeavor with far-reaching benefits. Throughout this article, we’ve delved into a comprehensive guide to help you become a more adept and confident listener in any language, including English.

Listening comprehension is a skill that transcends linguistic boundaries, opening doors to effective communication, enriched learning, and better understanding of the world around us. As you embark on your journey to improve this skill, keep in mind that it is a process that requires patience, practice, and persistence.

References:

 

  1. Lewis, M., Norbury, C., Luyster, R., Schmitt, L., McDuffie, A., Haebig, E., Murray, D. S., Timler, G., Frazier, T., Holmes, D. L., Feinstein, A., Wiesner, L., Johnson, K., Doehring, P., Prelock, P., Goyette-Ewing, M., Green, E., Boorstein, H., Levin, H., . . . Fein, D. (2013). Listening comprehension. In Springer eBooks (p. 1743).