The Secret to Advanced English Listening Skills

Today I want to show you probably

the most important secret that will help you improve

your English listening skills.

Let's do it. (upbeat music)

Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy,

and this YouTube channel, English Speaking Success.

Here to help you become a confident speaker of English.

Now, being a confident English speaker

also needs you to improve your listening skills.

That's what we we're doing today.

Good listening skills depend on expectations.

So first of all, when we listen,

we use the context

to help expect what someone will say.

We then also use expectations

to guess the sounds we will hear.

Okay, so for example, if someone,

maybe a husband, wife, partner,

walks out of your house in the morning with a bag,

you probably expect them to say something like.

And you will expect to hear the sounds,

something like, "I am going to work." (chuckles)

Now, the funny thing is most people don't speak like that.

Probably only a Roman emperor would say,

"I am going to work," (chuckles)

thousands of years ago.

But what would people like you and me actually say?

What do you expect to hear?

Probably, "I'm going to work."

Now, you know from the previous video

I've done on contractions, that I am will become I'm.

I'm going, to will become tuh,

I'm going to work.

Because here to, well, did you know the word to

has two pronunciations?

It can be to, which is the strong form

when we stress the word, but it can also be tuh.

And we call this the weak form, tuh,

which is when the word is unstressed.

And that is 90% of the time.

Most of the time we say tuh, because it's not stressed.

"I'm going tuh work." That's what you would actually hear.

Once you know that, ha-ha, things start to change,

your expectations start to change.

Now, here's the secret.

There are around 40 words, more or less,

in English that have both a weak form and a strong form,

both forms, and these will include some verbs, pronouns,

prepositions, conjunctions, and even articles.

The other words that are normally stressed

in English are the big words.

Your nouns, adjectives, adverbs, most verbs,

these are stressed.

The key thing here, right, is that these 40 words

that can be weak or strong

are some of the most frequently-used words in English.

We use them all the time, and if you know the weak form,

when it's unstressed, and the strong form,

when it's stressed, then this is gonna help improve

your listening skills dramatically.

It's all connected with understanding

and being able to hear stressed words and unstressed words.

When I started teaching this to my students

years ago when I began teaching,

it was an absolute game changer.

So as I said, there are lots of words,

but in this video, I'm gonna focus on eight

of the most common words, the weak and the strong form,

and to help you hear the difference

and when to expect the weak or the strong form.

It's really gonna, boom, boost your listening skills.

Are you ready? (chuckles) Let's do it.

(icon whooshes)

Okay, let's begin with the first word, you.

We use this all the time. Look at this phrase.

What do you expect to hear?

Maybe, "You look great."

We're emphasizing every word and that's possible.

However, most of the time we would say, "You look great.

You look great."

Because the weak form of you is yuh, yuh.

And we're not stressing it. We're stressing look great.

"You look great."

The thing is, don't try to hear the yuh sound.

Focus on the stressed word.

For example, "You look great, you look amazing,

you look bored."

Can you hear the stress on the adjectives?

That's where you should focus.

But be aware, therefore, you

is the weak form 'cause it's unstressed.

Number two, are.

Look at this phrase. What do you expect to hear?

Now, probably we don't say, "Are they here?"

again, stressing every word.

Probably we would say, "Are they here?

Are they here?"

So the weak form of ah, unstressed is ah, ah,

the schwa sound.

"Are they here?"

So again, don't try and listen to the uh,

focus on the stressed word.

"Are they here? Are they ready?

Are they late?"

Got it? Next one.

The next word, do.

Now look at this phrase.

Tell me, what do you expect to hear?

"Do they know?"

That's right because do, in the weak unstressed form,

is duh, duh.

"Do they know?"

Now remember, just before we looked at the word you,

can be yuh.

So what do you expect to hear now?

"Do you know?"

Can you hear that? "Duh yuh know."

Stress on the know. "Do you know?"

Right, for example, "Do you know his name?

Do you know his name?"

Okay, now do notice that we can emphasize the do or the you,

but that will change the meaning a little bit, right?

So if we say, "Do you know?" just means, do you know, right?

(chuckles) "Do you know," that means I don't know.

"And what about you? Do you know, do you know?"

Can you hear? "Do you know, do you know?"

Emphasizing the do, strong form.

"Do you know?

Really? I don't believe you."

That's what I mean.

"Do you know know? I don't believe you know?"

Okay, so when you hear the strong form, the stressed word,

there may be a slightly different meaning,

but most of the time, as I said, 90% of the time

do and you will be unstressed.

"Do you know?"

Next, this is a simple one,

it's a very common modal verb about ability.

The strong form is can,

and the weak unstressed form is kun, kun.

So when we ask questions, actually, we say, "Can you swim?

Can you swim?"

Notice, "Kun yuh swim?" Stress on the swim.

"Can you swim?"

It's almost like we're eating it.

We've swallowed the can and the U, right?

"Can you swim? I can swim.

I can swim a little. I can swim a bit.

I can swim, I can, I can swim.

I can swim a bit."

Of course, pronunciation and listening are tied in,

but our focus here is just to get

the listening skills improved, right?

Good. "Can you speak English?"

Nice. Next one.

Okay, here, what time is it?

"It's 5 to 2," tuh 2.

Because the T-O here is not stressed.

It's the weak form tuh, tuh.

Again, it uses the schwa.

Most weak forms use the schwa.

"It's 5 to 2." That's what you should be listening for.

Now, remember, everything we've said so far,

look at this phrase.

What do you expect to hear?

"Do you want to go?"

Duh yuh want tuh go?

"Do you want to go?"

Right, again, notice we can change the stress,

but the meaning will change a little bit.

So generally I would say, you know,

"I'm going to the cinema, do you want to go?

Do you want to go? I don't want to go to the cinema.

Do you want to go," stressing the you.

Or, "Do you want to go? Really?

I mean, you say yes, but I'm not sure I believe you.

Do you want to go?" stressing the do, okay,

using the strong form.

Right, excellent. Good.

Next one, one of my favorite words, for,

sounds like four, F-O-R.

Look at this phrase. What do you expect to hear?

"This is for you. This is for you."

We are stressing the you, so that's strong.

But the four is unstressed, so we use the weak form.

Again, the lovely schwa is here.

Fuh, fuh, fuh.

"This is for you.

Okay, great. This is fuh me.

It's fuh you, it's fuh me,

it's fuh him, fuh, fuh.

So easy to do and easy to pick up on.

Again, remember, you are not trying

to hear the unstressed fuh.

Your focus is on the stressed word after it.

It's fuh me, it's fuh him, it's fuh her.

Boom. Great, next one.

Here is one of the most popular English dishes. (chuckles)

And it is...

Well, I'll tell you what it's not.

It's not fish and chips. (chuckles) It's fish un chips.

Here, the and is not stressed.

It's a weak form, un, un.

Fish un chips. Fish un chips.

And because we use this and so much,

especially with two nouns or two adjectives,

you're gonna be listening for the un.

So for example, you and, you and me,

you un me, you un me.

"She's tall and beautiful. She's tall and beautiful."

Let me slow it down.

She's tall un beautiful. She's tall un beautiful."

Focus on the stress words,

but be aware of the unstressed un.

Next one, last but not least is ah, ah,

which, when it's unstressed is just the schwa.

Uh, uh, uh. (chuckles)

"I'm uh teacher," right?

So you're not gonna hear people say, "I'm a teacher.

I'm uh teacher, uh teacher, uh doctor.

She's uh doctor."

You can hear the stress on the doctor.

"She's uh doctor. He's uh banker."

But just be aware, the ah, weak form,

unstressed, uh, schwa.

Naked, there it is. (chuckles)

There you are, eight weak forms, the most common words

that you are using in English, helping you be aware

that we usually use the weak form when it's unstressed.

Get your focus on the stressed word,

but be aware of these weak forms.

At a later stage, you can start using these

in your pronunciation to sound like a native speaker

or a proficient speaker.

But today, just start being aware of them

as you listen to English, and notice.

Listen and notice.

Oh, next I've got a couple of tips to help you

with your general listening skills.

(icon whooshes)

Okay, tip number one, focus on gist.

Gist. What on earth is gist?

Gist means the general meaning.

The overall meaning, right?

So when you're listening to English on a film,

conversation, podcast, don't try to understand

every word or every detail.

Focus on understanding the general meaning.

Listen for the stressed words, dum, dum, dum.

Be aware of the unstressed words,

like the eight weak forms we've listened to today.

But just focus on getting the overall meaning.

Later, you can go back if you want and analyze the text,

but always try and get the overall meaning.

Focus on the gist.

Tip number two is to do what I call meditation listening.

Now, if you've ever done meditation,

basically you close your eyes, you relax,

and first you're just gonna listen to the sounds around you.

(birds chirping)

And I can hear my computer humming and the birds singing.

And then you play something in English,

eyes closed, and you just focus on the sound.

Don't worry too much about the meaning,

just listen to the sounds.

And because you are in the moment,

now you're totally focused on the sounds,

and you'll start to hear the rhythm,

the stress, the weak forms.

You'll start to notice all of these things.

Just do it for a minute or two minutes,

or as long as you like.

And your goal is just to relax and hear the sounds.

Don't worry about understanding everything.

Remember tip number one.

Have a go. Try it with anything.

Podcasts are very, very good.

If you like, I have actually some,

what I call visualizations,

which is perfect for meditation listening.

They're on my website in the vocabulary vault,

which used to be called the library.

And they are just me talking you through a meditation.

You can hear the sounds, improve your vocabulary.

They are awesome, even if I say so myself.

There's a link below you can click.

Go to the website, check it out if you want.

That's it. (image whooshes)

So there you have it,

the secret to advanced listening skills,

these eight weak forms.

Remember, the important thing is not just knowing this,

it's doing, right?

So go and download the PDF, go through these again,

remind yourselves, and start to listen

and start to notice the stress and the unstressed,

the strong and the weak forms as you are listening.

If you are a kind of a peaceful person,

go and try some meditation listenings as well.

There's a link below also to the vocabulary vault.

You can check it out, and just practice listening.

The more you do it, the better you're going to get at it.

If you've liked this video, gimme a Like, do subscribe,

and turn on notifications for future videos.

And thank you so much for listening to me today.

I look forward to seeing you in the next video.

Take care, my friend. Speak to you soon.

Bye-bye. (upbeat music)