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Attaining Native Level Listening Skills | ||
Tags: Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Arnaud25 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 3777 days ago 129 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 13 22 March 2015 at 6:49am | IP Logged |
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Thanks issemiyaki, for the reference.
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| issemiyaki Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4964 days ago 38 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 10 of 13 22 March 2015 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
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No problem. On the website you can even listen to samples.
Heads up ... they might blow you away. But don't be dismayed. They're difficult, not impossible. Especially, starting with the A2-B1 level. Wicked fast. Edited by issemiyaki on 22 March 2015 at 2:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3477 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 11 of 13 22 March 2015 at 6:57pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know if there is really a definition of "Native level" listening skill, but I noticed the following in my own second-language learning.
At first, when I am learning a language, I need to actively concentrate on utterances in order to understand them. For example, if there is an announcement on a public address in a learning language, maybe I could understand it, but I would have to focus on that stream of sounds to comprehend. Later on, this process becomes "automatic", so for example, if I turn on some German television or listen to a radio broadcast, I don't have to "do" anything in order to comprehend it. By the way, I think this more related to the accent and actual sounds being used (especially when comparing what you are used to hearing). For example, if I hear someone speaking my native language fluently but in an unfamiliar accent, then again I am going to have to "focus in" on that sound in order to comprehend it with reasonable accuracy. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4379 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 12 of 13 23 March 2015 at 6:19am | IP Logged |
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I normally don't like to generalize because there may be many factors involve. I know 2 people who came to
Canada from Hong Kong to attend high school in their senior years. Both graduated from a local university and found work that involve associating with people on a daily basis. Person A who is still fluent in Cantonese can speak English without a slight hint of foreign accent. Person B works in a call-centre taking customer calls and on many days of the year he would be on the phone for more than his routine 8-hour work day. His English is reasonable but you can pick out traces of foreign accent from his speech and he would occasionally make grammatical mistakes like "he do not" instead of "he does not". Last year person B had to write a complaint letter and sent me a copy to proofread. He had at least 4 mistakes besides spelling. There was 1 word he wanted to use as a verb but wrote the form of the word as a noun. Part of being fluent in a language is exposure. Going to class for many years doesn't necessarily increase your fluency. You need to be able to ask for directions and order food in restaurants. I know someone who started Japanese after working for a few years and eventually wrote and passed an university entrance exam in Japan. He is single so besides going to the office, family responsibilities have never been an issue. He would go to class everyday after work and take time off a few times a year to travel to Japan. Another man who attended classes on and off for much longer didn't get further than saying a few phrases. Part of the problem may be that he used to be a smoker and was sometimes forgetful. The other part is your attitude. A few years ago I had a distant relative living in Guyana. Being educated in English he picked up a few phrases after attending Chinese classes in his 70s. I don't know enough to judge his fluency but he did managed to write a few phrases in his letters. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5101 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 13 of 13 23 March 2015 at 8:17pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know if I'm relieved to know that Héro Corp is among the hardest or if I'm sad to realize there are so many listening comprehension textbooks by CLE. Any ideas where to start from those listening comprehension textbooks when you are slready somewhere in the B2 range?
My English comprehension performed a quantum leap after I studied from a textbook called 'Como entender o inglês falado". I wonder how much CLE textbooks will help me with French at this stage, since I've already read textbooks on Colloquial French and studied, for example, Streetwise French. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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