I hope you find this useful! HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING/SPEAKING

Powerful Listening and Excellent Speaking

1. Practice “Narrow Listening”

“Narrow listening” means listening to many things about the same topic. This method is more powerful
than trying to listen to many different kinds of things. Students who listen to similar things learn
faster and speak better than students who listen to different kinds of things.

For example, you can choose one speaker and find many things by him. Listen to all of his podcasts,
audio books, and speeches. This is powerful because all speakers have favorite vocabulary
and grammar. They naturally repeat these many times. By listening to many things by the same
person, you automatically get a lot of vocabulary repetition. You learn faster and deeper!
Another example is to choose one topic to focus on. For example, you could read an easy book, listen
to the same audio book, listen to a podcast about the book, and watch the movie.
A.J. did this with his class in San Francisco. The class read “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
Then we listened to the audio book. Then we watched (and listened to) the movie. Then we listened
to interviews with actors in the movie. His students learned a lot of vocabulary in a short time,
and their speaking improved very quickly.

2. Divide Your Listening Time

Which is better: to listen for two hours without a break, or to divide that time during the day? Well,
dividing your listening time is best.
By dividing your time throughout the day, you remember more and learn faster. So its much better
to listen 30 minutes in the morning, then 30 minutes in the car or train, then 30 minutes coming
home from work, then 30 minutes before sleep. In fact, this is the exact schedule we recommend
to our students!

3. Use an iPod or MP3 Player

iPods are fantastic. You can put a big listening library on one. Then you can carry your English lessons
everywhere. You can learn English while walking, while shopping, in the car, in a train, while
cooking,.......
With an iPod or MP3 player, you don’t have to worry about CDs. Also, you can find a lot of English
listening on the internet. You can find lessons, stories, podcasts, TV shows, interviews, and audio
books. Simply download the audio, put it on your iPod.. and learn English anywhere!
LearnRealEnglish.Com

4. Listen To Movies

Movies are great for learning English BUT you must use them correctly. Don’t watch all of an
English movie. You will not understand it, and therefore you will not learn anything.
Only watch one scene or segment per week (maybe 2-3 minutes). Follow this method:
a) First, watch the scene with subtitles in your language. This will help you understand the general
meaning.
b) Second, watch the scene with English subtitles. Pause. Use a dictionary to find new words you
don’t understand. Write the new sentences in a notebook.
c) Listen to the scene a few times, with English subtitles. Do not pause.
d) Listen to the scene a few times, without subtitles.
e) Repeat a) - d) everyday for one week.
On the second week, go to the next scene/segment and repeat again. It will take you a long time to
finish a movie. That’s OK, because you will improve your listening and speaking VERY FAST. This
method is powerful-- use it!

5. Read and Listen at the Same Time

Listening and Reading together are very powerful. While you listen to something, also read it. This
will improve your pronunciation.
Reading while listening also helps you understand more difficult material. Read and listen to learn
faster. After you do this a few times, put away the text and just listen. You will understand a lot
more and you will improve faster. Always try to find both audio and text materials.
To start, you can read our blog and listen to our podcast at:
Audio & Text
http://www.LearnRealEnglish.com
Another great idea is to get both a book and its audio book (ie. the above example of “Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory”).