Are you having trouble improving your English listening skills?
Sometimes, when we are learning a language, we might reach a plateau and find that we cannot make progress.
This might be something you are experiencing as an intermediate English learner.
Don’t worry — this is very common.
We all know that mastering proper English listening skills is essential for effective communication and English proficiency.
But how to do it?
What you need are the right strategies to help you get through this plateau and then start making bigger progress in your English learning.
In the following guide, I am going to outline NINE effective techniques that you can start using right now to help you make big improvements in your English listening skills.
Are we ready? Let’s get moving…
Watch Movies and TV Shows with Subtitles
In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your English listening skills.
Not only that, but it is also great fun.
We all have our favourite movies and TV shows that we love to watch. Now you can use these movies and TV shows to help with your English listening.
And the best thing of all, it can be totally free to do it. No need to pay a lot of money for this activity.
The best thing to do is to start with movies or TV shows that you know and love.
If you are familiar with the movie or the TV show, then that can help you a lot.
These are the main points I would follow to use movies or TV shows to improve English listening.
- Choose a movie or a TV show that you like.
This can help you to focus and be motivated. - Start with one scene.
No need to watch the whole movie or one entire episode of a TV show. Just choose ONE scene and use that first. Watch the scene a few times until you can understand everything the actors say. - Start with subtitles.
Watch the movie or TV show using English subtitles to match the words you hear with the text at the bottom of the screen. You can turn the subtitles off as you improve. - Pause and replay the scene.
Don’t be afraid to pause and replay the scene when you hear difficult words or parts. Replay the scene again and again to help you with any difficult pronunciation. - Take notes of hard words or phrases.
Use a notebook and write down any unfamiliar words, phrases or idioms. Look these up and practice them. - Mimic the actors.
When the actor says a line, you can copy them. Yes, this is speaking, but it will help you with your English listening too. Pay attention to the pronunciation, intonation and rhythm.
Also, check out my fantastic guide here.
How to Study English by Watching Movies
I go into much more detail on how to use this technique in my essential guide above.
Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks
Another great asset that you can use are podcasts and audiobooks.
Podcasts come in a wide variety of topics and in a very wide variety of English accents.
Plus, they are usually free.
So it is easy to find any podcast you want to listen to.
Audiobooks are usually paid. But there are also many free audiobooks available.
These are usually older novels and books, but you can still get a lot of use from them.
Another thing you can use, of course, is our old friend YouTube.
There are many many channels of people reading out short stories in English.
So many stories to choose from in every genre and style. You can use all of this for free, so dive in.
And again, just as I mentioned when watching movies or TV shows, listen to ONE segment of a story at a time.
Listen to the one segment, and read the same passage at the same time in the book or story.
Repeat this one segment until you can understand every single word and sentence clearly.
Use English Learning Apps
There are many English learning apps that you can also use to your great advantage.
These apps offer exercises that cover ALL the English skills. So of course they have to cover English listening too.
You might find many stories, short podcasts, dialogues, and other listening exercises to help you practice and improve your English listening skills.
Take a look at the following apps and choose one that you like.
Unfortunately, to unlock all the parts of the app, you have to pay…
And in my opinion, I don’t think you can only rely on the app to help with your English. One good app that you like is a great asset to have in your English learning journey.
But don’t rely on just that.
Use other exercises and activities too.
Engage in Conversations with Native Speakers
Yes, practising conversations with a native English speaker is a great thing you can do to help boost your English listening skills.
This is a very useful and highly effective thing to do.
Unfortunately, trying to find a native English speaker might be very difficult for some people.
If you live in a large town or city, you might be able to find a native English speaker with whom you can practice English.
The way to do this is via social media.
Look for a native English speaker who lives in your town and you could offer language exchange.
For example, you live in Tangiers or maybe Osaka.
Find a native English speaker near to you and offer language exchange in Arabic or Japanese.
You will find someone who wishes to do this!
But if you live in a smaller town or there are just no native English speakers nearby, you can use the internet.
There are sites you can use to find a native English speaker for language exchange.
Maybe you are in Vietnam and you want to find a native English speaker and have language exchange with this person.
You help them to practice Vietnamese.
And they help you to practice English.
It’s very simple to find someone like this.
Below are some sites you can use to help you do just that.
Join and find someone.
The great thing about doing language exchange with someone is that it can expose you to all the different accents that English speakers use.
Plus the different ways that people speak anyway.
This can be quite a daunting thing to do for many English language learners, but if you take that leap of faith, it can really help you tremendously.
Practice Shadowing
Do you know what shadowing is?
It’s a fantastic way to help you with listening — and speaking.
What is shadowing?
It is a method where you listen to an extract of spoken English and you immediately copy it or mimic it with your own voice.
I wrote a full and comprehensive guide on shadowing and you can find it at the link below. Please take a look as I think it is a great way for you to practice English listening.
I think the essential thing to pay attention to is to just choose short segments of audio to listen to.
And then repeat, repeat, repeat until you can understand every single word.
Also, by copying the speaker with your own voice, this can help your listening as you try to emulate the English speaker on the audio.
Start small. Small one-minute extracts or even shorter ones are enough.
Then gradually build up to longer extracts or more complex English patterns.
Use Transcripts for Practice
A transcript is a piece of text that shows in written form what people say in audio form.
So, for example, you listen to a podcast about cats.
You can listen to the audio version of this.
But there could also be a transcript that you can read too.
Both forms are the same words used by the speaker.
Using transcripts is a very useful thing you can do to help you with your English listening practice.
I have already hinted at this in terms of watching movies and TV shows and using the subtitles.
The subtitles are the transcript of the movie or TV show you are watching.
Audiobooks of course have a transcript in terms of the original book.
But even many podcasts today have a transcript too.
The way you can use the transcript is to read it through and make sure you understand most of the words that are written there.
Then listen to the audio — and read the transcript at the same time.
This will help you link the words you hear to the words you read.
It will help you to understand more clearly what you can hear.
Finding transcripts for movies and TV shows is easy. Just click on the subtitles.
Same with audiobooks or short stories on YouTube.
But many podcasts have transcripts too.
This is a great technique and it can help you truly understand what you are listening to.
Give it a try!
Focus on Different English Accents
If you are a beginner or even lower intermediate English level, it is hard to focus on all the different English accents that exist in the world.
But as you progress — and you will progress — you should try to listen to different English accents.
It’s not just the native English speakers who speak English.
Sure, try to practice listening with American, British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian accents.
But how about a Swedish accent when speaking English?
Or Korean people?
Or Indian?
Nigerian?
English is a language spoken all over the world. And as such, there are many different accents.
Try to practice listening with as many as you can.
Use YouTube and Online Videos
I’ve already mentioned YouTube, and how you can find short stories and the like there.
But it’s not just short stories.
There is a ton of content on YouTube — IN ENGLISH — that you can use for English listening practice.
There are educational channels, how-to guides, tutorials, interviews, news channels, TED Talks, and much, much more.
This is a great way for you to improve your English listening.
Just use the same techniques that I talked about above by using subtitles and repeating ONE section of the video.
For example, maybe you have a deep interest in cycling.
So, you could watch a video about a guy talking about going out on his bike and the benefits thereof.
You can use this to practice your English listening.
And because you have an interest in cycling, the video becomes much more engaging for you.
Give this a try!
Set Realistic Goals and Track Progress
As with any part of your English learning journey, you need to set realistic goals for yourself.
And you need to track your progress.
Make a clear decision on how much time you can dedicate to English listening practice.
Don’t establish unreasonable times here. It’s a waste of time saying that you will practice English listening for two hours every day.
That could easily be too much.
But if you can manage fifteen minutes a day… Then do that.
If you can build on that time and increase it, all good.
But don’t be too hard on yourself.
As I have mentioned elsewhere on the site, keep a journal to track your learning progress.
Write down what your goals are for the week and then at the end of the week write down what you did and how much progress you made.
Note down any improvements you saw.
And celebrate the wins. No matter how small.
Over time, you will find success.
Conclusion
When you start to improve your English listening skills, you are embarking on a journey that requires you to use great deals of dedication, patience and consistent effort.
It can be hard work!
But I promise you. If you start using all of the NINE strategies I outlined above, you will make great progress in your English listening practice.
Remember: Sometimes you will not be able to see the progress you are making. Sometimes the progress is so small that it is almost invisible.
But it is happening.
And if you stick to it, you will become a much more confident and capable English listener!
Try to embrace all the different English accents around the world and listen to as many as you can.
And adapt all the NINE methods I offer you above to your own needs.
Over time, your ability to hear and understand more and more things in English will flourish.
Good luck to you!
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