Listening skills are the foundation for conversations, watching TV, and understanding any information through hearing. Furthermore, listening skills are crucial for expanding your vocabulary. The meaning of new words learned through hearing is better cemented in associative memory thanks to intonation. That is why English teachers place special emphasis on developing listening skills.
Still, perceiving foreign speech by ear is very difficult at the beginning of learning. Therefore, English teachers must resort to special listening skills activities to help students get used to the phonetics of a foreign language. Let's look at how to develop this essential skill in English classes most effectively.
Why is developing listening skills so difficult?
To determine the optimal path for learning English, a person needs to understand the source of their difficulties. The main obstacles to quickly comprehending a foreign language by ear are as follows:
- English may contain unfamiliar sounds compared to your native language. When a person reads a text, each word is separated by a space. But when someone is speaking, these words often merge, making it hard to separate them during speech perception.
- Live speech can include slang words that can be confusing to listeners.
- People speak at a fairly high speed during communication. Even if a student has learned to comprehend audio materials, their brain may be overwhelmed by the natural speed of communication.
Still, since English teachers know how to foster listening skills, you can learn to catch authentic speech fairly quickly.
Benefits of active listening techniques
To achieve faster progress in learning English, passive listening is not enough. You need to focus your full attention on the spoken language and on the speaker. This will make your listening active. Furthermore, teachers use additional techniques to engage students in perceiving English speech:
- Set challenging tasks. The text you listen to should always be somewhat more difficult than your current level of understanding. However, you should still be able to comprehend about 70% of the words easily. This way, you'll learn the meaning of the remaining 30% from context even without knowing the exact translation.
- Take notes. The teacher may ask you to write down new idioms, key points, facts, or anything else. This is important not only for learning new words but also for keeping your attention engaged. This technique helps the student focus even more on what they hear, making it easier for them to distinguish foreign speech.
- Ask questions. To further engage students, the teacher can encourage them to ask the speaker questions. This immediately turns a passive listener into an active one, as they become involved in a conversation about what they've heard.
Classroom activities for developing listening skills
The use of modern technology helps develop listening skills in English classrooms. Teachers have a wide range of activities they can engage students in, such as:
- Listening to podcasts/audio stories;
- Storytelling;
- Guided discussions;
- Using gamified apps;
- Listening and singing songs, and more.
The more diverse techniques used in the classroom, the more effective the learning will be. In this case, the teacher will find a way to activate each student's listening abilities. For example, music fans will listen attentively to the lyrics of their favorite songs. Those who enjoy debating with others will readily engage in discussions, and so on.
The Bottom Line
Developing listening skills in English classes is much easier than during self-study. In addition to active participation in group activities, you'll also benefit from an experienced teacher. They know how to quickly develop listening skills when faced with the unfamiliar phonetics of a foreign language. With their help, you will achieve your goal faster and efficiently perceive English by ear.
