ELW logo
ELW logo × How to... Podcast Blog Contact About me login
☰ menu

The Brute Force Technique for English Listening Practice

Overview of the Brute Force technique

This is a technique that uses shadowing AND listen and repeat. It also uses some of the listening features of the English Listening World practice audio. There are three stages to the technique, and if you follow it well, you can listen and speak with ease!

Brute Force Step 1

This works best with a short short English audio. Short like about one sentence long. That means 3 seconds up to 10 seconds (roughly). It is best if you can loop the audio to play again and again.

first

Turn on the looping

second

Shadow the audio as best you can 10 to twenty times (more if you still can’t remember it).

third

Take a ten second break. Don’t think about anything.

Brute Force step 2

Now you need to repeat the sentence from memory as fast as you can say it. I mean, really fast. Do this 5 to ten times.

Now you are done step 2.

Brute Force step 3

Come back to this sentence a day later and review it. Do step one for about 5 repetitions. Do step 2 for about 3 or 4 repetitions.

Daily Recommended workout

Do the Brute Force technique on 4 or 5 sentences a day, and review the past days sentences. One sentence should take about 1 to 2 minutes on day one, and 30 seconds on review days. Spend about ten minutes daily doing the brute force technique. If you want to do more than 10 minutes, split it into more than one session, say once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Author:

Les holds a degree in Science and a degree in Education. He has been teaching most of his adult life. He has a passion for finding ways to make listening practice easier or more efficient. He also enjoys rock climbing, computer programming, and meditation.