Footwear – expand your shoe vocabulary Posted by Gabriele on Jul 9, 2013 in English Vocabulary
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About the Author: Gabriele
Hi there! I am one of Transparent Language's ESL bloggers. I am a 32-year-old native English speaker who was born and raised in the United States. I am living in Washington, DC now, but I have lived all over the US and also spent many years living and working abroad. I started teaching English as a second language in 2005 after completing a Master's in Applied Linguists and a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults' (CELTA). Since that time I have taught ESL in the United States at the community college and university level. I have also gone on to pursue my doctorate in psychology and now I also teach courses in psychology. I like to stay connected to ESL learners around the world through Transparent Languages ESL Blog. Please ask questions and leave comments on the blog and I will be sure to answer them.
Comments:
Sergio Rodrigues:
I have a general question, not related to listening skills. Some bloggers say we only should listen áudios we understand 80 to per cent of it is said. Otherwise, would be a waste of time.
Others, however, say we should listen everything as long as the subject interest us, even not understanding most of it is said, just to get acquainted with the rythm and intonation of the language.
I would like to know your take on that, since my main weakness is exactly the listening. To improve my listening skills I have subscribed a lot a podcasts, but I am still lost
about how to choose the best ones.
Thanks for your time.
gabriele:
@Sergio Rodrigues Sergio,
These are great questions about how to work on and improve listening comprehension. There is no right or wrong answer to your questions, but I’d be happy to give you my take.
I think listening to English on a subject that interests you is important, if for no other reason than you will listen to the material for longer. But length of time spent listening is not the most important factor. Listening to something in which you are only understanding every 3rd or 4th word is not likely to be extremely beneficial to your overall listening comprehension. So, finding the right level of program to listen to is important. To improve listening comprehension you do not want to just be listening for individual words, but listening to the whole structure of how those words go together and are interconnected through grammar. This is why finding the right level of listening materiel is important.
Also, although podcast are great – I love them – for language learns actually seeing language produced (in person or on TV) is often extremely helpful when it comes to increasing understanding. This is why phone conversations are harder than in person conversations for a lot of ESL learners. So, perhaps watching a show or movie on a topic you are interested in would be more beneficial to your listening comprehension, in the beginning, compared to listening to a podcast. If you really want to listen to podcasts, I think picking ones geared toward young audiances might be better than ones geared toward the English-speaking, lay person, adult, or professional, because these podcasts are likely to be produced at a level requiring a higher level of comprehension.
I hope my two cents helps.