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Listening practice | ||
Tags: Comprehension/understanding | Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5170 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 1 of 23 23 October 2010 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What do you think will increase the understand of spoken language？
it's often the case, that a person can read, but cannot understand what they are speaking on TV. Maybe especially with Asian languages. For example, I can't understand Chinese movies, but I can chat in this language. Because of it, I though to myself that I would try to watch it as much as I can... first Japanese, and later Korean and Chinese. I started with anime, then some manga, some dramas (not so many) and movies （just a few). I have watched something like over 1000 episodes of anime~~ I don't watch using subtitles, I htink it would distract me. There are actually subs, in place I am watching it (in Chinese), but I actually don't even see them, and they go to fast anyway. I managaed to improve my level significantly, apart from learning a lot of new expressions and words, I can now understand slowly spoken anime, unless they cry out loud or do some strange things with voice. anime with more talking is harder... and movies are even harder. The reason being they talk less clearly in them than anime. my aim is being able to watch movies etc. My Korean practice is shorter (some dramas on Korean TV). And I can see the difference between my proficiency。 That would mean actually that it works. But I am not sure~~ I have listened so much, but still I don't understand it all yet. Do you think it's a good way to learn? How much do you need to listen to? Of course there is a possibility of going abroad, but for me, I cannot do it. Edited by clumsy on 23 October 2010 at 5:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6574 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 23 23 October 2010 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Merely listening and letting what you don't understand go by you will probably increase your listening skills a bit, but it seems inefficient to me. If you can read decently fast, watching with subtitles in your target language might help you with identifying the words. I recall a post citing a study where Dutch English students were watching American movies with English subs and it concluded that the subs helped them identify the words used in the movies when they were later exposed to them in real conversation.
Here's what I'm doing with Cantonese at the moment: I'm watching a movie in Canto and I've got the script for the movie in my web browser, with a popup Canto dictionary running. I watch the movie (with English subs) and I regularly pause and read along in the script, alternating between script and movie. When I get to a part I feel the language is at a good level (that is, a bit higher than my current comprehension level), I rip that piece of audio (I use the very convenient Audio Hijack for OSX). I try to keep these pieces around half a minute up to two minutes in length. I go through the script of the part making sure I understand it completely, using the dictionary as needed and adding new words to my SRS deck. Then I listen to the audio whilst reading the script, pausing and repeating all the little parts where it's too fast for me until I can hear the sounds corresponding to the script. When the entire piece is processed in this way, I listen through it once more, seeing if I can mostly understand all of what's being said. These audio clips form a playlist in iTunes which can play on shuffle and repeat at times (like when I'm going to sleep, using iTunesShut to shut it off after half an hour or so–I don't believe in sleep learning). The next step will be to shadow these pieces of audio, I think. I have only recently begun to use this method, so it's too early to draw conclusions, but my previous learning experiences tell me it should work well. The key elements are choosing the right sound clips (not too hard and not too easy; Krashen would be proud, I'm sure) as well as being able to listen to the sounds and understanding them completely (after having worked with them for a while). I think the process of turning incomprehensible input into comprehensible input and then listening to that input is a good way of increasing your listening comprehension. As a side note, I don't think having the audio clips playing "in the background" as you do something else is a good idea. Listen to them intently and actively try to understand them. I doubt having the language playing in the background will be good for your comprehension, as you'll just get into the habit of ignoring what you don't immediately and easily understand. Although there might be a case for it when it comes to "getting used to the sounds", but that's a whole 'nother story. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| B-Tina Tetraglot Senior Member Germany dragonsallaroun Joined 5519 days ago 123 posts - 218 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish | Message 3 of 23 23 October 2010 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As I see it, listening problems can stem from two sources: either you don't know the words themselves or you fail to recognize words you actually know due to unfamiliar pronunciation, sentence structure etc.
There are some techniques which allow you to strengthen your listening comprehension: 1. Get yourself a transcript of the movie/anime/whatever it is you're watching. Analyze the used words (meaning, flection, choice of word in that context...), get to learn them (the 10.000 sentences-method may be helpful here) and take a closer look at how the sentences are formed and pronounced. This method did wonders for my English when I got my hands on some quotes of Dr. House and Big Bang Theory :-) 2. While watching, try to jot down everything you hear, so you concentrate on hearing single words out of that mumbling stream. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5959 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 23 23 October 2010 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As the others suggested, as you study you'll find certain techniques that help. But the most important thing is to just keep going and accept that language learning is a long-term project and that often progress is slow. Do a little bit each day, at least, and eventually you'll realize that you have learned more than you knew you were learning at the time.
I have not studied any Asian languages, so your difficulties may be different than mine, but I do have problems being patient with the whole process. It helps me to keep in mind that this is normal. Unfortunately, it's not possible to simply download a new language into the brain! Sometimes I wish that could be, but then the feeling of accomplishment would not be there when I finally do understand what I've been working for. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6003 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 23 24 October 2010 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I like slowing down things on my computer.
In a lot of software, you can play back video and audio files at a reduced rate. My pocket MP3 player even has this feature. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enki Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5825 days ago 54 posts - 133 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), English*, French, Korean Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 23 24 October 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Dictation.
It may be considered old-fashioned, but I think it's great! Dictation forces you to listen to chunks of language multiple times, slows you down so you can look at structures and patterns more deeply, and also helps you connect spoken and written language. Select a scene from an anime or drama that's not too easy and not too hard, and that is interesting to you(so you can tolerate the repetitions required!), then have a go at writing it down. It's even better if you have a script that you can look at afterwards. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6431 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 7 of 23 24 October 2010 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Listening repeatedly helps a lot, after a certain level. My Italian comprehension improved a lot a couple of years ago, when I got an mp3 player and loaded it with a few Italian songs, which I listened to many, many times. On the other hand, techniques like this don't help at all for my weakest languages.
If you can read but not listen, get audio with transcripts. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6667 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 8 of 23 24 October 2010 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think we can improve our listening skills using two approaches:
1-Extensive listening: Listen as much as you can. -Active listening: * Paying attention. * You can use movies, sitcoms, radio, audiobooks, podcasts and so on. * With our without scripts, subtitles or transcripts. -Passive listening: * Without paying attention and as you are doing other things in your target or native language. * You hear the language like a background music. 2-Intensive listening: Dictation techniques. As Enki wrote, it is extremely useful. Here I copy and paste two jtdotto's explanations:
Edited by slucido on 28 October 2010 at 10:32pm 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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