How to Improve Your English Listening Skills
Practising your English listening skills is really important and it can be done easily, daily and for free! If you improve your listening skills, this will improve your speaking skills and pronunciation.
There are plenty of ways that you can practise listening to English every day. I recommend that you keep a notebook close by to write down interesting phrases that you hear or want to look up later. Here are a few places to start:
Podcasts
Podcasts are a fantastic and free way to listen to English being spoken. There are podcasts about everything so you can always find something that will interest you. There are thousands of English podcasts that you can listen to. The best thing is, you can listen while you do something else, such as travel to work. Try a short episode a day. I’ve written a separate post all about podcasts and you can find it here.
Apps
There are plenty of apps that are designed to help you listen to other languages. Duolingo is useful for simple English listening tasks. These apps are designed to be done daily and all you need is your phone.
YouTube Videos
You can of course watch English teachers on YouTube but you can also watch English YouTubers who aren’t teachers. There are a lots of very popular English YouTubers. From gamers to lifestyle vloggers, you can find a YouTube video each day to watch that interests you. Listening to them speak can make you more aware of different English accents, connected speech, slang and so much more.
Audio Books
One really engaging way of listening to English is audio books. There are thousands of audio books that are recorded in English. Sometimes the author reads the book and sometimes a professional voice over artist records them. I recommend using the app ‘Audible’. You even get your first audiobook for free so give it a go!
English TV Shows
The great thing about TV is that you will be able to interpret interactions and see a visual context if you are struggling to understand what the characters are saying. I’ve written a separate blog post about my British TV recommendations. Find it here.
Find a Speaking Partner
Listening to another language without engaging with it is called ‘passive listening’. For example, listening to podcasts or watching TV. ‘Active listening’ with requires more concentration and interactions. You might not be able to practise this every day, but trying to interact with English speakers is important, so try and do it as much as you can. You can find an English speaking partner online with help from Tannia’s blog post which you can find here.
If you are struggling with English listening, try using subtitles in your own language. You could then progress to English subtitles and finally - none! You can also try listening to different accents. You might realise that you can understand British accents more than American accents, for example.
Do you have any more tips for listening in English every day? Leave them in the comments bellow.
Thanks for reading!
Sarah from thelittlecontemporarycorner.com
I hope this blog was useful. If you think your friends would like it, please send it to them or share it on Facebook. Thank you.
Would you like my WhatsApp number and like to exchange WhatsApp voice messages with me about English? To get it, join my video courses here. I hope to become your teacher and talk to you on WhatsApp!
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Good luck with your English!
Sarah x