How to Practise English Listening

Two Basic Types

When my students ask me how to practise English listening, I tell them there are two basic types of listening practice. One is a bit easier, but takes a lot of time. The second is more difficult, but does not take as much time.

Extensive Listening

The first type of practice is extensive listening. It takes a long time to get good listening this way. On the other hand, it’s kind of easy. The big thing to think about is what you are going to listen to.

Intensive Listening

The second type of practice is intensive listening. This practice takes less time, and gives bigger results. On the other hand, you have to really concentrate, and push yourself at your limit. A good choice of listening material is very important here. Good material can help you learn much faster.

Techniques

There are several listening techniques that you need to use to become a good listener.

Listen and Repeat

First and most obvious is the Listen and Repeat technique. You have to listen to some target English. Audio recordings or videos are the best here. Then when you are finished, you try to repeat it back.

Shadowing

The next technique, called shadowing, is a really good technique for learning how to predict what the speaker will say. Shadowing also improves your pronunciation and rhythm.

Brute Force Technique

This is a technique that I’ve been training my students with recently. It is very intensive and gives great results on a narrow range of English. To really get good you have to do it for at least half a year. Go check out a summary of the technique here.