Study Tips From DannyDanny先生のStudy Tips
29Improve Your Listening
Listening is very important part of language. When you go abroad, you will spend almost 50% of your day listening to other people, listening to TV, radio, music and other things. A curious student at the demo lesson last week asked me, “How can I improve my listening?” In fact, this question is a very common one. To answer this great question, I have good news and bad news. I will begin with the bad news.
he bad news is...there is no quick way to improve listening ability (it takes a lot of time and effort).
Now, the good news! I know a great way to improve your listening a lot over time. Let’s first begin with some general advice.
General Advice
To improve your listening...
- Try to listen to English at least 30 minutes each day.
- Pay attention to the large meaning (not individual words).
- It’s better to listen at a normal speed (do not slow down the tape or CD).
- Repeat the listening activity (once is usually not enough).
- Find listening materials at your level (if you completely understand or don’t understand at all, it may be too easy or too hard).
Danny’s Listening Idea!
Find a listening book with a CD & transcript and try this idea at least 3 times a week! More is better.
- First, listen to the material. Just try to understand the main ideas.
- Second, listen again for details.
- Third, write a short summary of what you understand.
(for how to write a summary look at the Study Tip for 4/1/05) - Fourth, compare your summary to the transcript. Are they similar? Do they share the main ideas?
- Next, listen a third time and read along with the transcript as you listen.
- Finally, listen a last time without the transcript. Do you understand more? You should!
Some recommended listening books
These books can be bought at Kinokuniya or any large bookstore.
- Low Levels:
- Dr. English’s Listening Check-up (1,600 yen)
- Middle Levels:
- Shadowing Vol. 1 & 2 (1,800 yen)
- High Levels:
- BBC World (1,800 yen)VOA (1,800 yen); Live from New York (1,500 yen); Live on Campus (1,500 yen)
All of these books have CDs and transcripts with them!