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 ...
When I listen to some of the audio, I change the speed to slow, this way I can get the pronunciation a little bit better.
How could you manage to listen to the texts? I have tried but couldn't find how
Everyday I try to listen to podcast, music, videos on youtube... that's help me a lot to improve my listening skill day by day. And this method of summarise will help me a lot
Useing the summarizing strategy to handle the conversation, is a beneficial and important skill, it matters the skill that you have to concentrate on listening meanwhile summarizing the conversation, so combine the listening, speaking and summarizing skills. So I need to continually practice.
My secret to overcome listening difficulties is to listen as much as I can to conversations with the language that I am learnig,from natives,vedios ,and podcast and also I use the summerization technique if I didn't get the person in front of me,so I am wrong he/she could repeat it what they said.
How this record help you? - I'm really exited with my journey in the new level and this recording help me in give new a way in the conversational and this a way comfortable and new for me.
what is listening skill ?
Listening skills contribute to your ability to accurately receive information when communicating with others. These skills are an important part of effective communication in the workplace. Developing good listening habits can help to ensure you understand the information correctly, interpret messages accurately and optimise your conversations and communications for efficiency.
Hello! I'm an English teacher and this audio would be really helpful for my students. I'm new to the website; is there any way I can download this and other audio tracks? Thank you and have a great week!
Hello catlima.21,
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Happy New Year!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team