MY FIRST PROBLEM  

(YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS) : 

LISTENING

Hi, GEF STUDENTS!

Some of you find the problem of understanding English but you are able to write perfectly in that language. Don´t worry about that, it is a long marathon in which you have to train daily yourself following the next tips:

Start with a positive mindset.

I know English listening can be very difficult, especially with speakers who have a strong accent or who talk really fast. But you’ve actually done it before! You learned how to listen and understand and speak a language when you were a baby. Why should it be any different now that you’re an adult?

Focus on actively listening. When people are talking, don’t focus on what you’re going to reply, don’t try to translate what they’re saying, don’t analyze the grammar structure of the sentences… just listen.

Study a little bit at a time.

Only have a few minutes per day to study? Perfect. There are a lot of scientific studies that prove that learning 15 to 30 minutes every day is much better than trying to memorize hundreds of new words and grammar rules in one day.

Try different types of content.

There are so many different formats for studying. Find the one that works for you, or switch between content types depending on the situation.

For instance, you can listen to podcasts, audiobooks and radio shows while you’re on the go. When you have time to sit and do more active studying, you can turn on a YouTube channel or read along with your audiobook.

There are benefits for studying with each type of content:

• Podcasts: You can hear natural conversational English on many podcasts, especially when they don’t have a script. This can help you understand people’s speaking habits, and hear the way real native English speakers have conversations, add pauses to their speech, and more. 
•  Here I attached you an interested podcast to practice listening: https://open.spotify.com/show/61uYuifW41s8WztnlcKFxA

• Radio: The radio has a huge variety of listening practice. You can listen to music, talk shows, and news broadcasts—just to name a few. Radio is great for passive listening (listening in the background as you do other things). You can choose different radio shows and focus on listening to different dialects and accents from English speakers around the world.
• Here you can find an incredible radio station: https://www.heart.co.uk/london/ 
• Audiobooks: An audiobook is basically a recording of someone reading a book. Audiobooks can be a great source of vocabulary since they use a wider range of words than common speech. People who read them often speak in a clear and articulated way. Also, audiobooks are highly entertaining, so it’s easy to listen for many hours.
• In that page you can find thousands of books: https://librivox.org/ 
• YouTube: There’s truly no end to what you can watch on YouTube. You could watch English learning channels, tune in to popular YouTuber shows, learn to knit, watch people play games, try new recipes, and so much more. Many YouTube videos have captions available. Though these aren’t always accurate, they can help support your listening until you feel more comfortable with just using your ears.
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•  An example is:  https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosIngleses

Listen to the same content every day for a week.

Find a bit of content that you enjoy like a podcast or a YouTube channel. Choose just one brief episode or video to listen to every day for a week.

Pick out words or phrases that are difficult to understand and look them up on the first and second days. Don’t forget to hit “pause” and listen again.

After a couple of days, you should be able to listen out for these words and understand them. Try speaking along with your audio source.  You can even record yourself and listen for the differences between yourself and the speaker.

By the last day, you’ll find that you can understand much more than on the first day. As your ear adjusts to hearing this English podcast episode, it’ll be easier to listen to new audio in English.

Listen for the big ideas.

At first, you should resist the impulse to try to understand every single word people are saying. It’s more important to keep up with the conversation and try to understand the main ideas.Listen out for certain words that give you a hint of the sequence or topic of conversation. 

Focus on keywords like these to grasp the most relevant parts of a conversation. Once you relax and make it a priority to understand the main idea, you’ll have the freedom to complete your comprehension with the details and clear the air later by asking questions.

Listen for the details.

Once you feel comfortable figuring out the main ideas of different conversation topics, you can start to listen in for the details. For example, if you’re interested in knowing the age of a person, pay attention to any words related to age like “old,” “years,” “born in” or even a number, which could be that person’s age.

Play ESL listening games online.

English listening games provide a fun, interactive experience if you’re looking to improve your listening skills.

A few great ESL listening game sites include:

• ESL Kids Lab: This site is filled with simple listening exercises for beginners. Practice understanding basic vocabulary for school, jobs, everyday objects and more.

• TeachThis: These games are designed for English classrooms, but if you have a group of friends to practice English with you can try them, too!

• Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab” This site is an absolute goldmine of English listening tests and quizzes. They’re organized by level, with something for everyone from beginner to advanced.

Listening games also give you an incentive to “win”—you’ll stay motivated and want to keep practicing English listening.