Supercharge Your Listening Skills with YouTube Shorts

YouTube shorts have several advantages. Unlike standard videos, shorts do not have adverts. Shorts usually don’t contain sponsored content either, and they are simple. This makes them an excellent way to improve your ability to understand a specific accent or someone speaking quickly.

How to find Shorts on YouTube

To find a Short, simply go to YouTube on your desktop or phone. On a desktop, Shorts can be found near the top of the sidebar menu. On your smartphone application, you can find Shorts at the bottom of the screen, next to the home button. If there is a YouTube channel that you already like, it will have a Shorts tab on the channel page.

Advantages of using Shorts for learning

No adverts

YouTube shorts don’t have adverts at the beginning or end. Unlike standard videos, Shorts also don’t stop for adverts while they are playing. If a Short does contain sponsored content, then it is a part of the video. So, Shorts help you to use your study time efficiently.

Replay automatically

YouTube Shorts also replay from the beginning automatically when they end. Many creators edit their shorts so that the content flows from the end to the beginning. Unlike standard videos, many shorts are intended to be watched multiple times in a row. Watching a short video multiple times is an excellent practice.

Subtitles

YouTube Shorts often have text that helps you to understand the video. Some Shorts have subtitles in the video. If a Short does not have subtitles, you can use the auto-generated captions in the video settings. But I don’t recommend doing this because auto-generated subtitles are often wrong. I recommend using Shorts with a Tutor.

How to use YouTube Shorts in your lessons

Your tutor can help you use YouTube Shorts. With my students, I ask them for an accent they need help understanding. For example, Irish accents can be quite difficult to understand for learners. Next, I look for a Short with Irish speakers that are about something my student is interested in.

In the lesson, your tutor can do a quick speaking activity to help prepare you to listen to the Short. In my lessons, I also prepare a transcript of the video. Together, we watch the video several times while looking at the transcript until a student could hear every word. We then watch it again without the transcript. This way, even a beginner can listen to and understand English spoken at normal speed, even in a difficult accent.

Now you will be able to ask your tutor about any unfamiliar words or grammar. I try to pick Shorts that contain grammar points that I think my students need to work on. This way, our lessons can be friendly, collaborative, and fun.