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 Safe_Mode on Wed, 11/10/2023 - 20:25

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I just try to listen to more conversations in English, as much as I can. Unfortunately, you can't improve your listening skills with any exercises, it's something you get with experience, you can't try to listen better or stronger)

Submitted by zizo2006 on Tue, 10/10/2023 - 14:54

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How much I should listen to podcasts like that. By the way my sites at listening section is 4.

Submitted by zizo2006 on Tue, 10/10/2023 - 14:51

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I don't have something to say, but I really appreciate your effort Mr peter.
thank you. ❤️

Submitted by ALNABHAN on Mon, 09/10/2023 - 15:43

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When I watch movies, I adjust the audio to English in order to improve my listening skill.

Submitted by Raho on Mon, 09/10/2023 - 14:36

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actually i pay attention to the audience and te words that i didn't understand i open the subtitles to read it form there

Hi Raho, when I´m watching films always open both, audio and subtitles in english, so I can understand about 80 % of the dialogue.

Submitted by kaanxcolak on Tue, 19/09/2023 - 12:33

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When I was watching someone in general I used subtitles. Of course, it is not suitable for the average conservative. I always say that I'm sorry I didn't understand.

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Submitted by imlix08 on Wed, 13/09/2023 - 04:58

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I put a subtitle when watching movies and when talking to English Speaker I make sure to pay attention so I can better understand what he is saying.

Submitted by dta89uct on Sat, 26/08/2023 - 03:55

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"I hope you don't do this – quite often the person just repeats what they said equally as fast and I'm still lost!"
I'm so coffusing in the sentence, I couldn't hear a word "fast", it sounds like "first" or "f/ə/st"?, I don't get it clearly

Hi dta89uct,

The presenter has a southern English accent, so they use the verb /a:/, which is a long verb similar to far as in far away. It's a common way of pronouncing this word, though it's not how I say it. I'm from the north of England and I use a short vowel sound written /æ/, similar to the sound in cat or fat.

English is very rich in terms of accents and dialects. We try to include a range of these in our listening texts so you can get ready for the many varieties of English you might hear when using it outside of a learning environment.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team