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Improving Your Listening Comprehension

When learning to speak English, there is more to do than simply learning the words. You must also learn to understand what you hear. Listening comprehension, or understanding what you hear, is a major part of having a conversation or watching a movie in English. That is why it is important for you to work on your listening comprehension abilities.

Before you can listen, you have to hear. When you were learning your first language, you could hear people speaking, and you may have listened to what they were saying. In less than a year after you started hearing your language, you began to repeat the words you were hearing. The same thing happens when you are learning English. There are several ways you can hear and listen to English every day.

Watch English movies. For beginning learners, the idea of watching the movie in English is to hear the language. At that stage, subtitles can be used to help you understand what is being said. As you learn more English, you can turn off the subtitles and listen to what is being said. Watching facial expressions and body language can help you gain a better understanding of the language, too.

Listen to English language radio. Many English radio stations are international. BBC World Service and Voice of America are two English language stations that can be heard in most countries. Both of those stations have programs for English language learners. The websites for those stations list the time and frequencies for the different countries in which they are broadcast.

Listen to English music. Try to find songs that are slow, with real English words that are sung clearly. Beginning learners may want to avoid pop songs because they are usually fast and the words are not always clear. As extra practice, try to write down the words to an entire song.

Use the internet. Many English language radio stations and television programs are available on the internet. You can also listen to English language news programs. Many websites offer free audio files of stories, poems, songs and conversations. Some of these also include worksheets to help you test your listening skills. Listening to or watching these programs will require software called a player. The most commonly used players are RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. Both of these players are free and many computers already have them installed.

Use Newspapers online.   Online newspapers are a great way to improve your reading skills.  Article about learning english from newspapers.

Listen to people speak. If possible, make friends with people who speak English. You can listen to them speaking, and you can ask questions when there is something you do not understand. Even if you do not have English-speaking friends, you can listen to people around you who are speaking English. Listening to other people will give you a chance to practice understanding what you hear, and it will let you hear how words and sentences are spoken in conversation.

Try a listening comprehension course.   Many courses are available where you can learn at home at your own pace.   We recommend this Listening Comprehension course.

Join a conversational English class. The class will let you practice speaking and listening at the same time. You will have other people to help you, also, which will make it easier for you to learn.

Listening comprehension is necessary, and it does require practice. Make an effort to listen to English whenever possible. You will soon find that you understand everything you hear.