An interview about listening skills

An interview about listening skills

Listen to the English teacher talk about listening to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Presenter: So, today's expert teacher is Gabriella, a university English teacher from Leeds. Gabriella, hi and thanks for joining us today.

Gabriella: Thanks for having me!

Presenter: So, I have to confess today's topic is something I am really bad at: listening. Most people say speaking is the most stressful part of learning a new language but, for me, with my B1 German, speaking isn't so bad. At least I'm in control of it. But listening … woah … people speak so fast and it's like my brain just shuts down. Am I just really strange and bad at listening? Tell me, honestly, I can take it.

Gabriella: No, you're not strange. In fact, it's really common. You know, in exams most people do pretty well in speaking compared with listening. Of course, exams are a different situation from real life because in an exam you can't ask for something to be repeated or explained. You usually have just one or maybe two opportunities to listen to the dialogue and then it's gone.

Presenter: Right, but in real life I feel stupid always saying, 'Sorry, can you repeat that, please?', especially if I still don't understand even when they repeat it. And people out there listening, I hope you don't do this – quite often the person just repeats what they said equally as fast and I'm still lost!

Gabriella: They do, don't they? In real life, you've got two strategies. One is to pretend to understand and get out of the conversation as fast as you can.

Presenter: Yep, sounds familiar!

Gabriella: But, obviously that's not going to help if it's a conversation with high stakes. It might have important consequences. I mean, if you're just chatting with a stranger at the bus stop, it doesn't matter. But imagine you're at a government office or a bank, trying to find out what paperwork you need to get your ID or open a bank account. What can you do then?

Presenter: I hope you've got the answer, Gabriella, because I'm coming out in a cold sweat just thinking about either of those situations!

Gabriella: The other strategy is to summarise what they said.

Presenter: But how can you do that if you didn't understand what they said?

Gabriella: Ah, well, you only start the summary, so you might say, in German in your case, 'OK, so the first thing I have to do is …?' and make it a question. Or, for example, 'And which office is that again?' Break it down into smaller questions and the other person will naturally start answering them. That way you're controlling the conversation a bit more.

Presenter: I get you ...

Discussion

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Average: 4.1 (109 votes)
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Submitted by mamalirezaenglish on Tue, 09/08/2022 - 17:03

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I've been listening to British Council audios for 3 months. Every time I listen to the audios, I try to note down new words to use them in my speaking and writing.
some times I don't understand some of the conversions, so I try to listen to audios again.

Submitted by Thanh Thien on Thu, 28/07/2022 - 17:08

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When I practice listening skills, first, I will try to hear the audio without the transcripts to see how much I understand it. Then I read the transcript carefully to catch its content entirely and listen again to recognise the words/phrases to be missed. I also note the new words and example of each word is the sentence in the transcript. Next, I will try to write what I hear from the audio and check with the transcripts when the audio finishes. I will do this step again until there is no mistake. It costs a lot of time, but I see my improvement in both listening and reading.

Submitted by Weena pineda on Fri, 22/07/2022 - 17:41

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I prefer to practice my listening just by watching tv in English with English subtitles too and talking with friends who have better levels than me.

I'm trying to improve my listening skills by watching Friends in original with subtitles all the time . It is really helping. Because almost everyone watched this TV show more then one time and knows what it is about.

Submitted by MsSunshine on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 18:26

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I try to practise with British council audios. I started to watch English show programs, films, documentary with English subtitles. I need the subtitles, because I could'nt understand without subtitles yet.

Submitted by Youssef Karfouh on Fri, 08/07/2022 - 15:45

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I often listen to British council audios and youtube podcasts to practice my listening skills, I 'm still quite don't understand some words while people talkin in movies, but with time and practice I'll be great at listening

Submitted by Alejolondono on Mon, 04/07/2022 - 19:38

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Well, the process of learn it is always been a hard on the first time and regular overwhelming, so, always one of the best extrategies to learn is face of the situations without fear to make mistakes, your brain will be pushout the find the way to learn and exercise to the same time.

Submitted by Jeedapa on Sun, 12/06/2022 - 05:10

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Try to focus and pay attention to what the other's saying and if you don't get it, just ask them to repeat it again. It can be tough at first, but you will be gradually getting used to it, and one day you will be good at listening.

Submitted by omidabbasi on Fri, 20/05/2022 - 10:58

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at first, I try to lisenning well and also I try to pay attention the words that are is familar to me the more. then if i can't understand what it says, so i ask it to repeat it and explain more about and talk to me slowly.

Submitted by Ehsan on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 05:53

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At first I listen. If I don't understand, I repeat listening again. If still there was a word or sentences that I didn't understand that, I see the text of that. and finally I listen again and I repeat that until to understand all of that.