Effective ways to practice listening to English

You can’t become good at English by reading or memorizing grammar structures. The reason you study for years in school and still can’t communicate is mainly because English in school focuses too much on grammar and spends very little time on listening. To become fluent in English, you have to focus a lot on listening. And what’s the best way to listen?

Nowadays, practicing listening to English will become simple if you grasp effective listening methods. Practicing listening to English is an important skill, helping communication become simple. Practicing listening is a long process that requires effort, so you should apply simple, easy-to-understand learning methods. Below are methods you can apply for all levels.

1. Listen to what you like

Learning English can be boring and sometimes you may feel discouraged and want to give up. Therefore, you do not need to force yourself to listen to content that you are not interested in, making it difficult for you to absorb and easy to give up.

So feel free to learn to listen to the content you love. If you are a travel enthusiast, subscribe to YouTube channels about travel and listen every day. If you are a football fan, listen to sports news in English. If you like watching movies, learning English through famous movies will be your favorite choice. That will help you evoke emotions, you will not feel tired, easily absorb and always be interested in practicing listening to English every day.

2. Choose listening content that is appropriate to your level.

You have the problem of listening a lot but not understanding much. The reason is that the listening is more difficult than your current English level. If you are a beginner and you choose to listen to presentations that are an hour long, you will definitely not understand and feel bored, losing motivation. Therefore, if your English level is at an average level, you should choose suitable listening materials that are easy to absorb and then gradually upgrade the listening level so that learning will be extremely effective, although slow but sure. Before listening, you should take online tests to know your current level and choose the right listening source.

3. Listen – read – repeat

First, when you listen to a piece of content, try to listen and understand the main idea of the text. Then, while listening, read what the speaker said in the listening. This will help your mouth get used to the sound, your brain will review the vocabulary you already know and learn new vocabulary through sound.

4. Write down what you hear

Many people think that learning to listen to English only requires the ears to work, but no matter what skill you learn, there is a close connection. Learning to listen is the same, the ears listen, the mouth reads, the eyes look, the hands must take notes, only then will learning be effective, and the remaining skills will be practiced.

5. Improve your vocabulary

One of the main reasons why you can't understand what you hear is because your vocabulary is limited. When you don't have much vocabulary, listening becomes difficult and you easily fall into the state of 'ducks hearing thunder'. So start learning vocabulary every day through listening and reading sources, books and newspapers. Learning vocabulary not only helps you listen better but also supports other skills.

6. Be patient and listen a lot

Listening is a skill that requires time and perseverance. Most learners fail in listening skills because they do not listen enough. If you only spend 5-10 minutes listening every day, it will take you years to really see progress. The more time you spend listening, the shorter the time it takes to improve. Therefore, the ideal time for listening practice is about 30 minutes a day and you should maintain it continuously for a long time.

Hopefully, with these shares today, it will help everyone know more effective and suitable ways to practice listening to English. As long as you are determined, have faith and try, you will definitely listen to English well.

MSc. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy – Lecturer, Faculty of English Language