From classroom challenges to innovative learning solutions
It all started in 2005 or so when my English conversation students couldn't understand me.
I said something.
They looked at me with blank expressions.
I wrote it on the board.
They smiled.
(They could read and understand but they could not listen and understand.)
They desperately needed listening practice.
I started with simple short stories. English is always easier to hear and understand if there is context. My aim was for stories around one minute.
At first, I recorded them and sent them to students by email. That was very difficult to manage, and unreliable.
Then I decided to make a listening practice site. English Listening World was born.
About two years after that, I learned about shadowing from one of my students. It was amazing! I began to ask students to practice shadowing.
Shadowing is great practice for learning rhythm and intonation. It is also great for learning to anticipate what the speaker will say.
On the other hand, most students did not understand what they were saying when they shadowed. As a result, they could not remember much of what they listened to.
It sounds very simple, but my students and I discovered the value of listen and repeat. Now they could start to build English memory.
We discovered that understanding is important BUT it is meaningless if you can't remember anything.
Listen and repeat helps students build their English memory.
My next BIG STEP was about ten years later.
A student wanted help improving his pronunciation. I listened to him speak. His pronunciation was fine.
But there was something off. Then it hit me. His rhythm was not natural!
I spent the next two years studying rhythm with my students. I discovered they needed to recognize the rhythm. Then I discovered English rhythm makes hearing some words VERY difficult for some learners. They simply needed practice.
They needed to learn the rhythm of English. The first and easiest step here is simply counting the beats in the words or the sentences.
That is how the Basic Rhythm section of this site was born.