Is it a good idea to try practicing listening skills by listening to music in English
I heard such a recommendation to practice your listening skills by listening to music. But it's really difficult to recognize words in songs. Will it be effectively?
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I think listening to music is a great way to learn English because you hear a lot of repeated vocabulary and learn how to use it in different contexts. Music lyrics hold a lot of figures of speech and this can help you understand underlying meanings of literature and you'll also learn to "read between the lines". I am actually thinking about using music in my lessons! If you're worried about not hearing every word, choose a genre or artist that you find is easy to understand. For example, if you're a beginner level English speaker, you would listen to a fast rapper like Eminem, as he would be hard to understand. But you may enjoy listening to Giveon, who is a slower RnB singer that articulates his words a lot more. I hope that helps!
It can be good if you can read the lyrics. Films, series and podcasts are much more useful though.
Listening to American music has been helpful for a lot of foreigners in learning English. However, some have turned to watching popular TV shows or movies.
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- Jerusha DhevpalTefl certified ESL Teacher
Absolutely. Listening to English music is a great way to practice as many of the lyrics are repeated. This is a great way to memorize English words and phrases.
The best way to improve your listening skills is only effectively possible by watching movies because in movies the words are accurately pronounced and you can understand them better.
- Jose GrullonConversational English and Spanish. Native Spanish speaker and a lot of years speaking English.
It is highly recommendable to use any audiovisual means to help you improve your listening skills in another language. You can use music, movies, online lessons... anything! One of the advantages is that, as you are learning, you can use subtitles to help guide you into what specific phrases mean and their pronunciation. Over time, you might want to try to listen to songs, talks, news, etc., without using subtitles. This way you will be able to know if your skills have improved.
Definitely especially with music being a mode of relaxation it enhances your learning experience.
I would suggest you to watch webseries rather than listening to music, because as you said it's difficult to recognise words in songs because some songs are rap songs, some are melody etc. They all have different pace and rhythm. When you are watching webseries you are going to observe a normal conversation, which is much easier and correct.
It is one of many ways to improve your listening skills. Another one I recommend is listening to podcasts, or watching a movie/tv without subtitles and test your knowledge of the language.
Indeed it is . Yet you can use video lyrics while listening
Yes it's helpful but also difficult sometimes. İ would advise you to listen as you go through the lyrics.
