Listening strategies #1 - a podcast by Alan Palmer

Hello everybody,

I’m back from my holidays in France.

Today I want to talk about when people speak fast and what you can do to help understand what is spoken.

I think listening is the most difficult skill of the four skills in language learning

For example:

With writing, we have the chance to decide what we want to write and spend time on this.
With speaking, we have the chance to decide what we say
With reading, we usually have the chance to read the text many times if we want to.

I don’t mean that the other skills are easy, they are often very difficult. What I mean is that with listening to conversational speech we often have no control over it.

To explain more details:

 Often the speaker has an accent
 We cannot control the speed of the words (unless we deliberately ask the speaker to slow down – and very often we can’t do that)
 Maybe the speaker is using slang or expressions – sometimes dialect words
 Maybe more than one person is speaking at the same time, for example at a dinner table
 Maybe the subjects being discussed are cultural, social or political – and these subjects can be difficult even in our own language.

So, what can we do to make it easier to understand spoken language?

I have some ideas that can help sometimes.

Listen for key words (important words that help understand what is being discussed)
Listen for small pauses when people think a bit more what they want to say
Listen carefully to the stressed words (this is useful in English because English words have stress on the pronunciation
If you don’t understand something and it is possible to ask for more information, then ask a question. Instead of “could you say that again please?” , say “oh, was I correct in thinking you said this…….?”


If you listen to English radio, then be careful not to listen to something very complex or you will think you understand nothing, when it is mostly because the radio speaker is using vocabulary that you don’t yet know.

The most important thing to remember is not to worry –keep relaxed. The reason I say this is because I know from experience that many people can communicate well with very few words - providing people are relaxed and friendly.

To demonstrate, I’ll read a text very fast and then show you why it is perhaps difficult

From today’s “Daily Mail”

Teenager Holly Herdman clearly hadn't heard that it's not a great idea to mention you're having a party on a social networking site. And it is especially unwise if you have been left in charge of the house while your parents are away. What she claimed was intended as a drink with a few friends ended with a mob of teenage youths running riot through a small market town.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1047373/Couple-say-sorry-neighbours-newspaper-advert-daughter-holds-party-leaves-street-like-war-zone.html

Key words: Teenager Holly Herdman not a great idea - having a party -social networking site- unwise left in charge parents away – claimed –drink with a few friends – ended up – mob of youths – running riot – through town
If you listen again now to a slower version, you can see that the language is complex and only 70 words.

Many news items use lots of descriptive words and the language puts a lot of information in a few sentences. This is difficult to understand if it is spoken fast as much information is there.

So, knowing more about why listening is difficult helps us to think of ways we can improve our listening skills

Be good, be happy

Further episodes of Alan Palmer's Language Chat podcasts

Further podcasts by Alan Palmer

Website of Alan Palmer