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 ...

Task 1

TrueOrFalse_MjMzNjg=.xml

Task 2

Matching_MjMzNjk=.xml

Discussion

What do you do to help with listening?

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

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Listening is also difficult for me. When I spoke to someone, I request to speak for repeating. I can't concentrate on conversation and couldn't catch up some vocabularies well. Now, I practice listening exercises on British Council website everyday. I trust I'll improve my listening. Thanks.

Listening is the most difficult part for me. I confess that even when people speak my language, I find it hard to concentrate and focus especially if they are talkative or they speak fast. So, you can imagine what happens to me when I'm listening to audio recordings, particularly when speakers are native, it is like trying to understand a physicist explaining some nuclear theory. While I'm writing down some important point of the conversation, I miss the following part. I try to go the extra mile by doing more listening exercises, but it is still a huge challenge for me. I think that it is just a matter of time, with perseverance and hard work, I'll eventually master it. Obviously, I'm talking about listening in exams, in real life, I can manage, I'm not really that bad!

I think there are not so many options in this case. You have to practice, practice and again practice. You can't escape this even if want to. I know it's difficult at first when you start to listen to different records in your target language. People there speak fast and non-understandable. But, some time later you start to catch some separated familiar words. Then - phrase. That adds to speeches more sense. After several months you can find that the task you found difficult later became easier. That's it. That's how it works

Dear team. From the lesson above: The are two questions. First of all. Gabriella: Thanks for having me! Is that mean 'thanks for inviting me' ??? Because the sentence 'thanks for inviting me' it's more simply and clearly. The second question: Presenter: I get you ... What's the different from 'i get you' and 'I got it' ?? Because the presenter had got the 'idea of Gabriella' not the Gabriella her self. Thank you very much for your explanation and answer.

Hi fahri, Yes, 'thanks for having me' means 'thanks for inviting me' or 'thanks for having me as a guest'. About 'I get you', the meaning is similar to 'I got it' or 'I get what you mean'. Even though the object is 'you' (as you pointed out), it doesn't literally mean that. Both of these phrases are quite common. You're right that they may not be the simplest and clearest things to say, but in reality speakers don't always choose the simplest and clearest options, so it's good to learn various ways to say something. Best wishes, Jonathan The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you very much sir. Your answer is very clear

Good topic!!

I work to listening to more audio in English for improvement my listening skill

Hello BRIGITTE49124,

I'm afraid our audio content is not working due to a temporary technical problem. We are working to resolve it as quickly as we can, and apologize for the inconvenience.

Please check again in a few hours or tomorrow.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team