Listening is by far one of the most difficult skills that people who are learning another language have to come across. It is essential to have accurate listening in order to keep a good conversation. Some people have problems with listening because they get nervous when they start talking or just because their ears are untrained. For this reason, we have some tips for you to improve your listening as you can see below.

1 – GET USED TO THE SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS

In order to perfect your listening – and your speaking as a consequence -, it’s crucial to get used to the sounds of the letters. There are loads of videos where you can practice by learning the phonetic chart. It will give you the ability to easily recognize a word by a combination of different sounds. It’s actually very exciting when we do recognize a word by its sound, even when we had never come across that word before. It shows us that we are going the right way. Below, you can find a video with a very interactive phonetic chart. Enjoy!

2 – REPETITION IS THE KEY

Sometimes memorizing is a very good option to learn some new vocabulary. So, whichever new word you come across, just write it down on a sheet of paper, go to Google translator, check its pronunciation and repeat it as much as you can by parroting exactly what you heard. It will help you to memorize the sounds and will also give you some new vocabulary.

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READ MORE: 7 TIPS FOR YOU TO GET USED TO THE IRISH ACCENT
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3 – USE THE VOICE RECORDER ON YOUR CELLPHONE

Some tools available on our cell phones seem to be very outdated, but they can actually help us a lot in the process of learning a new language. A good example is the voice recorder. By using this tool, you can record your own pronunciation and listen to it as much as you can. It will also make you memorize everything in a very easy way. Give it a try. You will enjoy it for sure.

4 – LISTEN TO PODCASTS IN ENGLISH

There are millions of websites with English podcasts out there for you to enjoy and improve your skills. It’s simple and it’s really helpful. You can repeat it over and over until you understand the whole content. Below you can find a very famous website with podcasts of current news in English, available for beginners, intermediate, upper-intermediate and so on. The audios are also transcripted and you can listen and read it at the same time. Check out and have fun! https://learningenglish.voanews.com/podcasts

5 – SONGS AND MOVIES ALWAYS HELP

It’s like a tradition: people who are learning a new language always listen to songs and watch movies to improve their comprehension skills. It’s actually very efficient. All you have to do is to watch movies with subtitles in English and repeat it as much as you can. Another good tip is to listen to some songs and read the lyrics at the same time. You will get used to the pronunciation and the sounds of the words. Below you can find an example of a song lyrics. There are loads of songs on YouTube. Have fun!

We hope you can take advantage of these tips and improve even more your English skills. You can also learn some more by visiting our online platform.