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  • Hello. This is Jack from ToFluency.com and in this video I’m going to teach you how you

  • can improve your English listening. So, keep watching.

  • Before I go into the specifics of how you can improve your listening, it’s important

  • to know that you need to work on other areas of your English too. So, for example, if youre

  • reading a book and you learn new words and phrases, this means that when you hear these

  • words and phrases being used, youll be able to understand them. So, work on your

  • general English in addition to your listening. But, in order to improve your listening youre

  • going to have to listen more. Most English learners that I talk to, they don’t do enough

  • listening. In fact, I surveyed my audience and asked them, how much time do they spend

  • listening in English and the vast majority spend less than 1 hour a week. And, this is

  • not enough. Youre going to have to listen more in order to understand how people use

  • English sounds, how these sounds connect together, how people use stress, rhythm and intonation.

  • So, get as much listening practice as you can. The good news with this is that you can

  • listen while doing other things and this is going to be beneficial. So, listen while youre

  • commuting to work; while youre washing the dishes; while youre walking the dog.

  • Therere so many opportunities in our lives where we can do more listening. So, listen

  • as much as possible. You might be asking, "What should I listen to?"

  • "What is going to be the most beneficial thing for me to listen to in order to improve

  • my skills?" So, the important thing is, is to make it relevant to you, make it relevant

  • to how youre going to use your English in the real world. So, if you are a business

  • person and you deal with people from America, then learn Business English and learn American

  • English, make it relevant to you and your situation. It’s also important that you

  • make it fun. Listen to things that you enjoy listening to. For example, I love soccer so

  • I listen to so many podcasts in Spanish about soccer and for me this is just enjoyable.

  • I don’t feel like I’m studying, but I’m getting the practice that I need. So, think

  • about what you enjoy listening to and listen to more of that.

  • A potential problem is that what you want to listen to might be too difficult. So, for

  • example, you might want to listen to conversational podcasts talking about politics but theyre

  • speaking too quickly or theyre just speaking about things that you don’t understand.

  • Now, if this is the case, then you can actually start listening to something that is easier

  • and build up from there. I want to give you 2 things that you can listen to if you struggle

  • with really fast conversation. So, the first thing you can do is listen to the news. This

  • is because the news reporters speak in a very clear way and also theyre talking about

  • current events and most people are up-to-date with current events so youll understand

  • what theyre talking about. The second way you can do this or the second option is to

  • listen to graded readers and these are books and audio books that have been adapted specific

  • to certain levels of English. So, I made a video where you can evaluate your own level

  • of English. You can evaluate yourself and then you can get the readers, the graded readers

  • specific to your level. Starting with those 2 things will help you get more adapted to

  • the way English is spoken and then you can move on from there.

  • Repeating what you listen to is also going to benefit you. So, for example, if you listen

  • to a podcast and you don’t understand 50% of it, listen to it again because what normally

  • happens is the second time you can understand more words because the first time you listened

  • to it you get the general idea of what theyre talking about. But then, the second time you

  • know what theyre talking about and therefore you can fill in all the different words and

  • phrases that they use. So, repeat a podcast 2, 3, 4 or more times because youll be

  • amazed at how much you can understand the second and the third time of listening to it.

  • We can also get smart repetition by doing narrow listening. So, this is where you choose

  • a topic and then you listen to a podcast on this topic. Watch the news report on this

  • topic. Watch your documentary on this topic and youre getting the vocabulary and phrases

  • repeated again and again. This last tip might surprise you. Working

  • on your pronunciation is going to help your listening. So, there was a study done that

  • took 2 groups. They tested the groups before the study. They both did the same things except

  • for the experimental group had extra pronunciation training and that training led to a higher

  • performance in listening comprehension. And, I think this works because once you know how

  • to make the sounds, how to use the correct intonation and rhythm and stress, then youll

  • be able to recognize this when you listen to it. So, work on your pronunciation in order

  • to improve your listening. I have given a lot of advice here on how you can improve

  • your listening. If youre only going to remember one thing, remember to get as much

  • practice as possible. Take your smartphone or your music player wherever you go. Take

  • your headphones and listen to English at every opportunity you get and enjoy it. Enjoy what

  • youre listening to. So, thank you for watching this video and I’ll see you next time.

Hello. This is Jack from ToFluency.com and in this video I’m going to teach you how you

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