Self-study tips to improve English listening skills

Listening and understanding skills are always quite a challenge for foreign language learners in general and English language students in particular. However, everything will become much easier if we find the most suitable learning method for ourselves. Let's try to apply the tips below to improve listening skills.

Start with a positive outlook.

Listening to English is never easy for foreign language learners, especially with listening exercises that involve fast speaking speed, strong intonation or regional accents.

However, don’t forget that this is not the first time. We have been learning to listen and speak since we were babies, when our understanding of the world was still very limited. So what is there to be afraid of?

Listen with full concentration. Don't worry about how you're going to respond, don't try to interpret every word or analyze every grammatical structure in the speaker's speech. Just listen with as much mental clarity as possible.

Micro-learning: Learn little by little but consistently every day

You think you are too busy and only have a few minutes a day to study, but in fact, that is the most ideal way to study. Many studies have shown that practicing listening for a short period of 15-20 minutes a day, also known as micro-learning, will be much more effective than trying to do a lot of listening exercises, remembering hundreds of grammar structures and vocabulary in just one day. Simply put, micro-learning is dividing a large learning task into small exercises that only take a few minutes to complete.

For example, a podcast listening exercise can be divided into small parts, each lasting 1-2 minutes. This way, learners have more time to listen - understand thoroughly and learn new vocabulary in the lesson. Or learners can divide the listening part as they want, but each part should not exceed 5 minutes of listening.

Diversify listening content

Try listening to a variety of different styles and find the source that works best for you.

For example, you can choose to listen to a podcast, audiobook or radio station on a topic you like. This can help you stay focused for a long time. Or if you have more free time, you can try an English learning channel on Youtube. Reading along with an audiobook is also a good idea to practice listening and speaking at the same time.

However, be careful when selecting listening sources when practicing. Listening that is too difficult will easily make you feel bored, discouraged or even sleepy. Start with easier listening sources (sources that you understand about 70-80% of the main idea). The difficulty level of the listening source must also be adjusted regularly to suit the changes in the learner's listening ability.

Practice listening and dictation

With this method, try practicing with listening sources that have English subtitles. After listening to each sentence, stop the audio, recall it, read it aloud, and then write it down. Or you can read and record it to practice pronunciation at the same time.

Only write down the whole sentence when you hear it, avoid stopping to listen to each word, because in daily communication we always need to listen to the whole sentence, the whole paragraph continuously and memorize it, the same is true in the listening test.

Listen carefully and take notes

Another effective practice to improve listening skills is “intensive listening” and note taking. Find a quiet place and be prepared for 15 minutes of uninterrupted concentration, then turn on the audio file, quickly note down everything you feel is important in the text as well as the main idea of the whole text. Pay attention to the speaker’s tone when it goes up and down or emphasizes certain information.

This is an important exercise to practice concentration – something that will be used a lot in your future studies and work.

If you are still having difficulty in improving your English listening skills, try these “tricks” to feel the progress every day. Don’t forget to practice regularly every day and add as much vocabulary as possible.

Good luck!

MSc. Khanh Huyen – Faculty of English Language