What's the best way to help students practice listening skills?
Hello fellow Tutors! In my experience as a language learner (French and Russian), I find that I can write, read, and speak pretty well. But I am VERY bad at listening. :( I know that my time learning languages has helped me become a better English teacher, because I can better empathize with English students. My question is: how do you best help students improve their listening skills? I think it is best to practice conversation. And a student should also listen to English being spoken in an audio, before a tutor asks the student questions about what he or she heard. But what are your thoughts on this? How have you helped students practice listening? Thanks a lot, and happy teaching! Christian B
19 answers from our tutors
Best answer
HI Christian! Hope you are doing well! You can suggest them watching Disney movies in English if they are kids. To adults, you can refer any English movie. Movies bring a sort of interest. So, they will pay a good attention to dialogues, it will improve their listening and understanding.
Listening skills are essential for students to communicate effectively and learn from others. There are many ways to help students practice listening skills, but here are some general tips. Model good listening behavior by paying attention, making eye contact, nodding, and paraphrasing what the speaker said. • Use a variety of activities that involve listening, such as games, podcasts, videos, songs, stories, and discussions. Teach students about the different types of listening, such as active listening, critical listening, and empathic listening, and when to use them. Give students feedback on their listening skills and encourage them to reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement. • Provide opportunities for students to practice listening in different contexts and with different speakers, such as peers, teachers, experts, and native speakers.
Hello! As a tutor. you should design an activities that encourage active listening. For example, ask the student to take notes about important context they might hear while watching a video lessons. Aside from that, you can also use a variety of strategies like multiple choice questions, dictations activities, and even true or false statements. Always remember that combining variety of strategies can effectively help students improve their listening skills.
Check your English level for free
Take our quick and free test to find out your current level of English
Start test
- Ricardo CamachoEnglish teacher for more than 10 years with experience teaching students of all ages.
One of the best advices I can give you is to give a real approach to your students, like letting them watch the news, series, movies or anything a native speaker would watch, this way, you are going to push them in a good way to get used to how a native speaker sound, this will help them to understand better and improve their listening skills
Improving listening requires more listening. >>repetitive listening<< Use one piece of audio and repeat it over and over to the point of memorization. >>podcast listening<< Listen to podcasts like 6 minute English, Stuff you should know, TED Talks, or other 10 minutes podcasts in your own fields of interest. >>eavesdropping<< Listen to English speakers while they’re talking. >>conversation<< Because conversations need you to actively listen, you will naturally develop your listening skills. These are a few tips for improving your listening.
- John Kenmuir(AKA John Connor) Cambridge certified teacher since 1998, former IELTS speaking examiner
It's important for students to work at pronunciation and intonation. Often the phonemes we use in English aren't familiar and the students can't hear them. Learning to reproduce these sounds can accelerate their learning process. I'd also suggest giving students an effective learning strategy for when they're practicing on their own. Students will listen passively to podcasts, tv shows, music, etc, without actively doing anything. A better approach is to listen to a short sample and take notes about what they hear, or write down questions they can answer as they listen a second time. If you're watching tv, watch 5 minutes of the show. Then rewind it and listen again, but repeat what the characters are saying as they speak. These activities force the brain to work as the students listen, rather than just receiving the input and doing nothing. The focus, attention and effort students make will pay excellent dividends.
- KELICENative English Speaker Ready to Talk With You.
In my opinion, I strongly believe being interactive and asking relevant questions in relation to whatever topic is being discussed enhances the individual's listening skills. If they are aware that questions will be asked, they tend to be more focused on what is being said. The more they practice being focused, their listening skills are boosted.
Listening to audio is a great way to improve your listening skills but try and visualize what is being said since this is a great way to remember what you have listened to. When trying to listen to a teacher: 1) Do your best to maintain eye contact. 2) Take notes as you go along. 3) Do not interrupt but save questions or ask the teacher to repeat what was said when you didn't hear or understand it the first time. 4) Again, try and visualize what your teacher is saying.
Active listening helps to encourage students to actively listen to audio or video recordings by taking notes and summarising what they heard or answering questions about the content. And also pair work and group work encourage students to practise listening skills through pair work or group work were they can interact and communicate each other.
Practicing conversation I find is the best way, take it easy with the student. Starting off slowly and gradually accommodating them as you see fit as the teacher, also with feedback from the student. At times it is not just listening only, accents, pronunciation also play a role. If we can pay attention to these two particularly I feel we can make progress. Conversation and audio files over time can be helpful.
An excellent way to learn how listen effectively is for the student to listen to their teacher and to repeat some aural comprehension. The teacher will start with one word, the student repeats, then two words, the student repeats, the three words and so on until the student doesn't remember all of the words in the sentence. And repeat, with a new set. This really assists in listening skills.
Other student questions
- What strategy do you use to get the student to schedule another class?
could get your strategies?
Best answer
provide homework or practice exercises, then follow-up with an email or a message and then invite them to book another class
Best answer
Using games and songs makes learning enjoyable and helps with vocabulary and pronunciation.
Best answer
I prioritize an open-door policy, allowing my students to feel at ease when they want to discuss questions or concerns with me. I think this availability really helps to build trust and enhance our student-teacher relationship:)
