Name: 5 Steps to Improve Your English Listening - How to Improve Your English Listening (Today)
Uploaded: 2018-06-07T07:38:59.000Z
Duration: 14 min 6 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Future simple

In this lesson, you're going to learn how
you can improve your English listening.

You'll see simple, effective tips that anyone
can use to improve their English listening

We'll also give you a practical, easy-to-follow
study plan to help you improve your English

But first, let's start with some questions.

I'm going to ask you about four different
situations where you would hear spoken English.

You should think about whether understanding
spoken English would be easy or difficult

First, you're listening to an English teacher,
speaking British English, speaking slowly

Next, you're listening to a native English
speaker from Scotland, who speaks with a Scottish

accent, and also uses a lot of slang and idiomatic
English.

What do you think: would this be easy or difficult
for you?

There are four non-native speakers from four
different countries talking to each other.

Do you think you could understand their conversation?

Finally, you're listening to a news show
on the radio or as a podcast.

There are many different speakers, and of
course you can't see them.

They're talking fast, using a lot of less
common vocabulary, and changing topics often.

Probably, most of you think that the first
situation is the easiest, and the last situation

However, a lot depends on you and your experiences.

The big question is: what can you do in those
difficult situations?

You've been studying English for years,
but you still can't understand everything

Here's a question: if you worry a lot about
your English listening, will it make your

Many English learners get very stressed and
anxious when they can't understand something.

This doesn't help your English listening,
and it can even make it more difficult to

To understand a foreign language, you need
100% of your brain power.

If you're worrying and thinking thoughts like
this, you aren't concentrating on listening.

You're focusing on your own worries and
thoughts, and not on what you're hearing.

This makes it harder to understand, not easier!

If you don't, you don't—it's not the end
of the world!

By relaxing and focusing 100% on what you're
hearing, you have the best chance to understand.

I don't know one word of Portuguese, so
I can't understand anything she's saying.

If I listen carefully, I can hear a few words
which sound a little familiar, so I could maybe guess

Take the same attitude when listening to English.

If you don't understand, there's nothing
you can do about it.

Being relaxed and focused gives you the best
chance to understand what you hear.

Remember: you need 100% of your brain power
to understand spoken English, or any foreign

You know what takes a lot of brain power?

Professional interpreters, who translate spoken
language as they hear it, have a very difficult

In fact, they can only work a few hours a
day because it requires so much concentration.

If you listen to English and try to translate
into your language at the same time, you're

trying to be a professional interpreter, except
you haven't had the years of training that

Also, you're not getting paid like they
are.

Again, when you're listening to spoken English,
just listen.

Don't think about things you didn't hear.

Want to know a simple secret about understanding
spoken English?

You don't have to understand what someone
said to understand what they mean.

Very often, I see English learners focusing
too much on the things they don't understand.

I hear things like, “There was a word I
didn't know, so I couldn't understand.”

Here's the thing: understanding doesn't
just depend on listening.

Very often, there are other things you can
use.

For example, if you're face to face with
someone, you can use their body language,

tone of voice and facial expressions to help
you understand what they mean.

Also, think about the situation you're in.

For example, imagine you're at the airport.

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5 Steps to Improve Your English Listening - How to Improve Your English Listening (Today)

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