Secrets to ADVANCED English Listening Skills [5 Powerful Tips] - Finally Understand Native Speakers

[Music] hello this is jack from tofluency.com  thank you for watching this video thank you  

for passing by the channel and today we are  going to talk about how you can improve your  

English listening how you can understand native  English speakers when they talk so we're going  

to cover things like why listening is such an  important skill why this is such a vital part  

of your English learning journey we're also  going to talk about the two reasons why you  

might be struggling in this area where you might  be having problems listening to people then we're  

going to talk about how you can improve your  listening skills the methods that work and then  

at the end I have a question for you and I need  your feedback so please stick around until the  

end now before we get into all of this I would  like to thank our sponsor for today's video and  

it is italki now italki is a platform where you  can take English lessons online but the the key  

parts why talkie I think is being able to connect  with a teacher who's going to be right for you so  

if you go to the link in the description click on  that you'll be able to learn more about the offer  

that I talking has at the moment which is going to  give you ten dollars in credits after your first  

purchase but you can also learn more about the  teachers on the platform and the key part to this  

is finding a teacher who's going to be right for  you so if you want to focus on business English  

you can find English teachers in this area or if  you want to work on your pronunciation you can  

find teachers who will do this for you so again  just click the link in the description to learn  

more about this platform and know that everything  is done online so you can find lessons online  

and you can take the lessons online to go to the  description and check it out now let's talk about  

listening listening for me is probably the most  important skill when it comes to learning English  

now there are four skills listening speed King  reading writing those are the four skills to our  

input to our outputs so thinking about listening  I think it is the most important skill because it  

allows you to understand people when they talk and  when you're having a conversation you can control  

what you say but you can't control what the other  person says I mean you can insert ways by asking  

them certain questions but the type of vocabulary  and grammar they use is up to them but when you  

speak you can use basic phrases to explain what  you mean but in order to understand the other  

person you need to understand exactly what they're  saying so listen is a vital component of your  

English learning journey and also just think about  try to understand TV shows movies music podcasts  

anything that you listen to you want to be able to  understand this so it's important that you work on  

this skill and that's what this video is going to  be about now here's something that you might find  

interesting or surprising native speakers struggle  to understand everything that they hear I'm gonna  

give you some examples when I listen to the radio  I find it very difficult to understand what people  

are saying in songs now some songs are easier  than others but I find it very very difficult  

to understand popular songs for example maroon 5  what lovers do okay I can't play this song because  

of copyright but part of the chorus I had no idea  what he was saying and it's actually wishing for  

you I had no idea I thought he was swearing I  thought he was saying something else so with  

lyrics I find it very hard to understand the same  with certain movies so when I'm watching a movie  

at home I have to turn the volume up really  loud in order to understand what people are  

saying it's difficult I remember watching Dunkirk  and I couldn't understand what they were saying  

because they speak quietly or they speak quickly  there's music and other things in the background  

and sometimes the audio quality isn't very good  now native speakers especially struggle when it  

comes to understanding people on the telephone  I've seen some comments recently on the channel  

telling me that people find this difficult and  it is hard when people are talking on the phone  

it's not always easy to understand what they're  saying so know that everyone struggles in this  

area but what you want to do is to improve so  that you can understand a lot more than you can  

now but know that you're never going to understand  everything that you hear so don't feel down don't  

feel disappointed if you watch a movie and you  don't understand what people are saying so let's  

now talk about the two main reasons why you don't  understand what someone is saying the first one  

is just not knowing the words or the grammar so  if somebody say something using a word you don't  

understand then you're not going to understand  this person I know that sounds simple but a lot of  

people think that they just need to get listening  practice in order to understand everything but you  

need to know the language in order to understand  people when they use it for example if I say is  

cracking Flags out there it's cracking Flags out  there you probably don't know what this means now  

this is actually a term used in Lancashire England  to say it's really hot outside it's cracking flags  

but you wouldn't know what that meant because of  the idiom the vocabulary being used so in order  

to understand people you need to improve your  vocabulary now the second reason isn't because  

of the vocab Lou but you just can't comprehend  what that person is saying so if you saw the  

sentence written down you would understand it  when this person is saying it they're saying  

it in a way that you just can't understand  you can't comprehend what they're saying for  

example if somebody says I'm going to want to go  soon I'm going to want to go soon you can follow  

that but if they say it like this I'm gonna want  to go soon I'm going to want to go soon then you  

might not be able to understand this because this  person is using relaxed pronunciation and they're  

linking the words together and go wanna go soon  I'm gonna want to go soon another reason is that  

somebody uses an accent that you're not used to so  they use in different sounds that you just don't  

really understand because their accent is too  difficult for you or you're not used to their  

accent for example when I say water in America  people don't tend to understand me some people do  

but if I'm in a restaurant and it's quite loud and  I say can ever water they don't really understand  

that because here they say water water and if  I say water then they don't understand the way  

I'm saying water therefore knowing the vocabulary  that people use and the vote couple it up people  

are going to use when you speak to them and also  getting used to the way that English is spoken  

is going to help you in this area it's going to  help you improve your listening skills and help  

you understand people when they speak so with that  in mind let's now go through the ways that you're  

going to improve your listening the first tip is  to learn words and phrases learn the vocabulary  

king glitch now I know this is probably obvious  to you but it's still important it's still vital  

that you do this now there are many ways you can  learn new vocabulary it could be through input it  

could be through the repetition of sentences and  what I'm going to do is instead of explaining that  

here I'll link to a video I made on a technique  that you can use so that you can internalize and  

acquire new vocabulary in the most efficient way  so I'll link to that video in the description but  

know that you are going to have to commit to  this to learning new words and phrases so you  

can understand when people talk the next tip and  I think the most important part of this lesson  

is this ABL ABL always be listening always be  listening to English listen as much as possible  

now there are ways to make this more efficient  and we're going to talk about those soon but  

again if you just take one thing from this video  it's to be listening as much as possible now when  

I started learning Spanish at university it was  really difficult for me to practice my listening  

because I didn't have access to unlimited Spanish  audio and I couldn't listen on the go but these  

days as you know you have access to unlimited  amount of audio the audio that you want to have  

as well and you can do this from anywhere if you  have a smartphone and some earbuds so listen as  

much as possible and listen while doing other  things I'm sure you're doing a bit of this  

already but maybe you can do a little bit more  so think about listening to English before you  

go to bed or while sleeping listen to English on  the train when you're commuting when you're doing  

the housework when you're out walking maybe while  you're at work but anytime that you can listen to  

English do it and while listening to anything  in English is going to help I want you now to  

think about what types of things you're going  to listen to to make it more effective because  

our time is limited and even though that we're  listening to English as much as possible we want  

to make this as efficient as possible so I think  there are three main things to think about when it  

comes to selecting the audio for you you want to  find something that is enjoyable you want to find  

something that is specific to you and something  that is comprehensible let's talk about the first  

one enjoyable so find something that you're going  to enjoy because when you have access to unlimited  

audio you don't have to listen to something  that's in your class that's like a typical English  

listening exercise you can listen to anything you  want make it enjoyable make it fun and interesting  

because if you enjoy listening to it you're going  to listen to it more and you're also going to  

be more open to acquiring the language that you  listen to this is such a key parts of it make it  

fun make it enjoyable the next one is specific and  you can think about this in a few ways maybe it's  

about the language that you're listening to so  going back to a recent lesson Sarah who was living  

in Spain wanted to learn financial English because  she wanted to work in the stock market in New York  

City so in this case Sarah should find podcasts  that are related to stocks and finance and the  

markets in general so find audio that is specific  to you now it can also mean about your level when  

we go into the resources later I'll mention graded  readers and I think these are a great resource but  

find something that is related to your level  and speaking of which what I think is one of  

the most important parts is to find something that  is comprehensible and this just means that you can  

understand a general meaning of what is happening  and this is based on the input hypothesis by  

stephen krashen and here is a quote on this from  Wikipedia acquisition of language is a natural  

intuitive and subconscious process of which  individuals need not be aware what is unaware  

of the process as it is happening and when the  new knowledge is acquired the acquirer generally  

does not realize that he or she possesses any new  knowledge according to question both adults and  

children can subconsciously acquire language and  either written or oral language can be acquired  

the process is similar to the process that  children undergo when learning their native  

language and here's an important part acquisition  requires meaningful interaction in the target  

language during which the acquirer is focused on  meaning rather than form so it's saying that it's  

important to understand the general meaning  of what you're listening to I love that last  

part focus on meaning rather than form and this  just means being able to understand what you're  

listening to not focusing on the grammar and the  little parts of vocabulary and try to focus on the  

language instead you're focusing on the general  meaning and it's important that you can comprehend  

and understand the general meaning of what you're  listening to this way you will better acquire  

language and also better understand when native  speakers speak and this should help you find  

the right type of audio for you because if you  focus on doing this and doing this correctly then  

you're going to find audio that is specific to you  that is comprehensible and also remember make it  

enjoyable too so for example graded readers are a  fantastic resource here graded readers with audio  

versions so look for graded readers for your level  because these are books that have been adapted  

with you in mind they have taken a book and they  have adapted it so that it is more comprehensible  

for your level if you're an intermediate speaker  you can find graded readers at the intermediate  

level if you're advanced you can find them at  the advanced level but obviously we're looking  

for audio so search for graded readers level  intermediate with audio okay another good example  

of a resource that is comprehensible is a TV show  that you already know maybe a TV show that you've  

already seen in your native language because if  you know the general story of why it's happening  

is going to help you so much more when it comes  to learning English so for me when I was really  

focused on learning Spanish I watched friends in  Spanish because I had seen the episodes in English  

many times before and I knew that the story  of an episode I knew what was going to happen  

so when people were speaking I could understand  the general meaning of what they were saying and  

therefore I acquired much more Spanish than if I  just watched a TV show that I've never seen before  

so think about TV shows that you've seen before  movies from a book that you have read or anything  

that you've just seen in the past that allows you  to understand the general meaning another example  

is to listen to the news when you already know  the stories so maybe you read the stories in your  

native language but then listen to them when you  are on YouTube for example and then you already  

know the language that's been used the vocabulary  that might come up it just helps you understand  

what is going on so be strict here take your time  with this and find resources that you're going to  

enjoy that are specific to you and so that are  comprehensible and then you're going to listen  

as much as possible to these and you're going to  see a big difference you're going to acquire new  

language and you're going to get used to the way  that people speak now talking about getting used  

to the way that people speak that's my next tip  it's to learn things like relaxed pronunciation  

linking words stress and intonation and to  get better at this because if you can produce  

this type of speech then you'll be much better  understanding it when you hear it and at this  

point I just want to share some of the answers  that I got when I asked this question I asked  

what do you find most difficult about listening  in English and the two top comments were linking  

sounds and reduction it's really hard to listen to  and then what seems most difficult for me are some  

words that are not pronounced entirely because of  the accent so it's a bit confusing sometimes so  

the two top answers already understood this that a  big problem when it comes to understanding English  

is linking words reductions stress and intonation  like I talked about before so once you know the  

vocabulary it's all about getting used to the way  that people speak listening as much as possible  

is going to help you with this but also working  on these forms linking words etc that's going  

to help you to now I have a full course on this  inside the to fluency program and if you don't  

know what this program is again I'll leave a link  in the description so you can learn more about it  

but I just want to give you an example here now  look at this sentence pass it to me pass it to me  

saying this slowly I'm sure you can understand it  but if I say this at my natural pace and I link it  

together and I also change a vowel sound it might  be a bit more difficult so listen to this pass it  

to me pass it to me now what you can notice here  is I just link it all together pass it to me  

there's no pause things just get linked together  and also notice that two changes to the schwa to  

sit - me too me too me too so this happens a lot  in English so it's important to know about this  

area and also for you to practice this too because  again if you can make these types of sentences if  

you can produce these sentences where you're using  the schwa sounds and linking things together then  

you'll better understand when people do this -  and again if you want to full tutorial on this  

then join the - fluency program now one of the  best ways to get listening practice - and just to  

put all of this together is to have conversations  in English and again most people think that when  

they get speaking practice it's all about them  practicing their speaking but a huge part of this  

is acquiring language from listening to people so  when you're having a conversation you can listen  

to the way that people speak and I think this  is the best type of context to get it's the best  

listening practice to get because it's such strong  context and you really focused and switched on  

here okay because you're having that conversation  and you need to understand what the other person  

is saying and also you'll get in everyday English  when you're having these conversations you're  

getting the everyday English that you want to  learn so definitely make some time to get natural  

practice when it comes to speaking and again check  out itoki there's a link in the description for  

you where you can find a teacher who is right for  you but you can also find friends to practice with  

or get language exchanges so there it is we've  covered a lot in this lesson before I summarize  

it here is the question for you what resource do  you recommend for other English learners so tell  

me your level and tell me the resource that you  love when it comes to getting audio in English  

leave links in the description tell me where you  find it tell me what podcasts you like listening  

to what TV shows are best just so that other  people can find resources here and I'll also  

link to my favorite resources on my website  if you go to to fluency comm slash listening  

then I'll leave my favorite resources for you  now in summary listening is such a vital skill  

it's important that you practice this and there  are two main reasons why you can't understand  

people because of a lack of vocabulary or because  you just can't understand what people are saying  

when they say it then get lots of listening  practice fine things are specific to you and  

comprehensible get speaking practice too and then  work on your pronunciation okay so thank you so  

much for watching this video if you have found it  useful then please like it and then share it with  

your friends and then while you're here check out  another one of my lessons I'll be on your screen  

now oh and if you new subscribe and turn on the  notification bell okay thanks for watching bye bye