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B1+ to C1 listening exercises? | ||
Tags: Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5352 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 21 01 July 2012 at 3:49pm | IP Logged |
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I recently sat the DELF B2, and I had problems with one of the two listening
comprehension exercises. Listening is definitely my least reliable skill—I can usually understand clear, standard speech if I'm paying attention, but it varies tremendously. I figure if I just keep using my French, this will eventually sort itself out. (I've made enormous progress in the last 4 months.) But I'd love to spend 100 hours focusing on just listening—not listening to background audio, not necessarily watching French TV for fun, but actual, focused study. What kinds of intensive listening exercises have worked well for you? What pushed you from "I can often follow the plot without any problems" to "I understand almost everything they're saying"? What are some good ways to use 100 hours of study? Edited by emk on 01 July 2012 at 3:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4950 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 21 01 July 2012 at 4:08pm | IP Logged |
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How about an audio book or two? It doesn't have to be fiction. It could be a biography
of someone you want to learn about or a historical topic. You can listen to it repeatedly, if needed, and pretty much anywhere, too. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4688 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 3 of 21 01 July 2012 at 10:29pm | IP Logged |
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watching TV with and without subtitles. Preferably the same video several times: without - with - without. Because you're not concerned about the entertainment aspect I would focus on smaller units. Take one scene and watch it several times, until you understand it pretty well. Repeat with a different scene.
At the same time I think it might be beneficial to add sentences (maybe especially ones you have difficulty understanding) to Anki. Listen to the audio and then look at the transcription. I've noticed that the repetition automatically makes it easier for me to pick up the nuances and thereby my listening comprehension improves on the whole. You could also try G.L.O.S.S. lessons for your level (or slightly lower) which train listening comprehension. They have a lot of audio/video lessons that guide you through news reports step by step until you understand all of it. Also make sure that you really have the pronunciation rules down. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5586 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 21 02 July 2012 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
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What helps my listening compehension most is to use a source of audio material with a transcript, transcribe the audio myself and correct my transciption using the original transcript. And then I make sure I actually understand the text. (Talking it through with a tutor, comprehension questions, translating, reading a translation - whatever works and is available.)
The reason for that is that usually, I guess a lot when listening. When I decide what word exactly has been said by writing, and then check whether I was right or wrong, I disable that guessing strategy, and that makes me actually improve. It also is a good idea to review the text I transcribed that way. (Also motivational because it's really nice to understand something with ease that was very challenging only a week ago.) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| LtM Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5680 days ago 130 posts - 223 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 5 of 21 02 July 2012 at 3:10am | IP Logged |
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Have you tried the "7 jours sur la planète" exercises from TV5 Monde? They are specifically for listening comprehension, and the advanced ones are pretty demanding.
Each week they offer three video snippets of selected stories from the week's news (each is generally around two to three minutes long), along with a series of (graded) listening exercises for each video. It may not sound like much, but they're very well done, and are a great workout for listening comprehension at more advanced levels. TV5 Monde - 7 jours sur la planète The videos are also available for download each week via iTunes, and I usually open one up and have it available for viewing as I'm doing the exercises, although you can also watch the video (in a small window) on the site itself. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5291 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 21 02 July 2012 at 4:24am | IP Logged |
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I think audio books are way too clearly spoken to be much help - and by professional readers too. There is
however french.yabla.com which now contains over 400 short videos with transcripts that play under the video as you watch it. I did have a 6 month subscription to this site and studied about 200 videos. My main complaint was that none of the videos were extracted from movies and thus lacked that highly informal register of speech. They were mostly from interviews and news sources. They have added over a hundred more since then however. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kaloolah Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4685 days ago 16 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 21 02 July 2012 at 5:17am | IP Logged |
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I just passed the C1 DALF. Listening was really difficult for me at first. I listened to online radio in French. I'm in
Canada so I put more of an emphasis on understanding Quebec and Acadian French. I would actively listen to Quebec French one day, then "France French", then Acadian French, then back to France French. This made me FAR more comfortable with different accents. However, I highly doubt that the DELF/DALF would include a lot of Canadian listening materials. Some tips for listening: I would try for a mix of active listening (which is basically studying), and just chilling out listening to French music with some dialogue thrown in. Try Googing "Espace Musique". It's great. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5971 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 8 of 21 02 July 2012 at 1:38pm | IP Logged |
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If you want to do a very specific DELF type listening course, I'd recommend the following by CLE International.
Comprehension Orale, Niveau 4: Competences B2/C1 by Michele Barfety [With CD (Audio)] 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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