The Importance of Listening in Language Learning
In language learning, there are four main areas people tend to focus on: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking.
Today we are going to take a look at listening skills.
Listening is learning a language through audio and sounds. This includes music, TV shows, movies, etc.
My personal favorite way to learn through listening is listening to music. This is because after a while I can sing along with the words to be able to practice speaking as well. Now, with songs, some grammar might be changed to help the songs flow, but as long as you can recognize that, songs are a great way to learn languages.
Here are my suggestions when practicing listening skills:
1. Listen to people you can understand
When you are learning a new language, there are many accents
to pick from. I am a firm believer that EVERYONE, every single
person, has their own specific accent, kind of like how everyone
has their own finger prints (that is a topic for a different day,
though.) What I mean to say is that different countries have
different accents in general. When listening, I would suggest
listening to different people from different countries, finding
which one you can understand that best (so that you can feel
confident and comfortable). After, you can start listening to
people from multiple places so that you can understand your
target language a lot better.
Examples:
Spanish from Spain is different from Mexican Spanish
American English is different from British English
Canadian French is different from French from France
2. Use subtitles, if needed
When I listen there are two things that could happen:
My brain understands what I am listening to, but I feel my mind working harder.
I cannot understand much of anything the person is saying, even though my mind is working hard, so I use subtitles.
Both of these are natural occurrences when learning languages. I
really try number one before using subtitles, but sometimes
subtitles are definitely needed.
3. Write down what you hear or have just heard
Try writing down what you hear, or you could summarize what
you were just listening to after you have finished. This allows you
to recall what you have just heard. You could write down new
vocabulary or new phrases.
4. Listen to the same thing multiple times
This is one reason I like listening to music, you get to remember
words because you hear them so much. If you are watching a
video, tv show, or movies or listening to a podcast, I would
suggest listening/watching the same one over and over to really
understand/practice listening to your target language.
5. Actively Listen
It is easy for listening to become passive, which it is technically
considered a passive way to learn, but if your mind is truly
focused on what you are doing, it can immensely help your skills
in your target language.
The main goal of listening to anything is to improve how we listen in conversations. It is an important skill to practice. When having a conversation, not only do you need to speak, you also need to listen and really hear what the other people are saying so that you can respond.