How to REALLY Improve Your English Listening Skills | English Learning Podcast

追加: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Speak Up English.

[00:00:06]My name is Benjamin, and I am so incredibly happy to be your host today.

[00:00:13]Thank you for joining me, and for choosing to spend your valuable time practicing your English.

[00:00:19]Whether you are taking a walk in the park, driving your car to work, making breakfast in your kitchen, or just relaxing on your comfortable sofa, I am very glad you are here.

[00:00:32]This is your safe, relaxing space to learn.

[00:00:36]There is no pressure, no exams, and no stress.

[00:00:41]Just sit back, take a deep breath, and let the English language flow naturally into your ears.

[00:00:50]Today, we are going to talk about something incredibly important.

[00:00:55]We are going to talk about listening skills.

[00:00:58]How can you get better at listening? How can you use listening to truly learn and acquire the English language?

[00:01:06]Listening and reading are the absolute keys to learning any language.

[00:01:12]You have to get the language inside of you.

[00:01:15]It has to come from the outside world, and you have to get your brain used to the sounds, the rhythm, and the melody of a new language.

[00:01:25]Reading is fantastic because it helps you acquire more vocabulary words, but listening is what truly gets your brain used to the language in real life.

[00:01:36]Listening comprehension is a tremendously important skill.

[00:01:41]Why? Because we all want to speak. We all want to have conversations.

[00:01:47]But, if you are speaking to someone and you cannot understand what the other person is saying, the conversation becomes very uncomfortable very quickly.

[00:01:58]You cannot have a meaningful conversation if you do not understand the other person.

[00:02:04]So, how do we use listening to get better?

[00:02:09]Let's break it down into a few simple, practical tips that you can start using today.

[00:02:15]First of all, many students think that to practice listening, they need to sit down in a quiet room, close the door, and do nothing but listen.

[00:02:25]But, for many people, that is impossible.

[00:02:29]If you sit down in a comfortable chair and say, "I am going to spend exactly 30 minutes listening to this English podcast."

[00:02:38]What usually happens?

[00:02:40]Your mind starts to wander.

[00:02:43]You start thinking about what you will eat for dinner, or about a problem at work.

[00:02:48]If you have dedicated, quiet study time, it is usually better to use that time for reading or learning new vocabulary.

[00:02:57]So, where does listening come in?

[00:03:01]Listening has a tremendous advantage. We can do it absolutely wherever we are.

[00:03:08]You can put on your headphones, or use your earbuds.

[00:03:12]You can listen first thing in the morning when you wake up.

[00:03:16]You can listen while you do a 7-minute exercise routine.

[00:03:20]You can listen while you make your breakfast. You can listen while you are cleaning the garage, washing the dishes, or driving your car.

[00:03:29]You have all this dead time during the day.

[00:03:33]Use it to expose your brain to English.

[00:03:37]When I tell students to listen while washing the dishes, they often ask, "But Benjamin, if I am doing other things, I am not focusing 100%."

[00:03:48]Is that bad?

[00:03:50]Listen to me carefully.

[00:03:52]It is impossible to focus 100% of the time while listening.

[00:03:58]You have to accept imperfection in language learning.

[00:04:02]When you speak, you are going to make mistakes, and when you listen, there will be lots of areas you do not understand.

[00:04:10]There will also be moments when you completely lose focus. Your mind will wander off somewhere else.

[00:04:17]And you know what? That is completely fine.

[00:04:22]As long as you notice that your mind wandered, and you bring your attention back to the audio, you are doing great.

[00:04:29]Let's say you are in the car for 30 minutes listening to this podcast.

[00:04:34]Maybe you only truly focus on my words for half of that time.

[00:04:39]Do not worry about the exact percentage.

[00:04:42]Even if you are only paying attention 50% of the time, you are still exposing your brain to the language. You are still getting used to the sounds.

[00:04:53]Now, there is one very important rule.

[00:04:57]You cannot continue to listen to English if you do not understand anything at all.

[00:05:02]If you listen to a podcast and you only understand 5%, that is very inefficient.

[00:05:09]It just sounds like pure noise.

[00:05:12]So, what should you do?

[00:05:15]If you listen to something and you don't understand it, you need to read it.

[00:05:19]Find the transcript or the subtitles.

[00:05:23]Read the text, look up the words you do not know in a dictionary, and try to understand the general meaning.

[00:05:31]After you read it, then you listen to the audio again.

[00:05:35]Sometimes, even after reading the text, you will listen to the audio and you still won't understand perfectly.

[00:05:43]Do not let that bother you.

[00:05:46]Do not get frustrated.

[00:05:48]From personal experience, I can tell you that what initially sounds like just noise will slowly become clear.

[00:05:57]By using a process of reading, looking up words, and listening again, eventually, more and more of the language becomes comprehensible.

[00:06:07]It takes time, but it works like magic.

[00:06:11]Here is a very common mistake students make. They find one audio lesson, and they listen to it over and over and over again in one sitting.

[00:06:22]They try to master that one specific lesson perfectly.

[00:06:26]Please, do not do this.

[00:06:29]Your brain requires two things to learn.

[00:06:32]Repetition and novelty.

[00:06:35]Novelty means something new and fresh.

[00:06:39]If you listen to the exact same audio 50 times in a row, your brain gets bored.

[00:06:44]After a while, the brain stops paying attention, and you are learning less and less.

[00:06:51]You should listen to an audio lesson a few times, maybe two or three times, and then move on to the next item.

[00:06:59]Keep pushing yourself forward.

[00:07:02]Even if you only understood 30% of the first lesson, move on to lesson two.

[00:07:09]It is all about exposure.

[00:07:11]You must maintain a healthy balance between repeating old things and exposing your brain to new, challenging material.

[00:07:20]Keep moving forward.

[00:07:23]This leads us to a beautiful part of language learning.

[00:07:27]The power of noticing.

[00:07:29]Because you are constantly moving forward to new material, eventually, you will come back to review old material.

[00:07:37]You might listen to a short English story that you have heard 30 times before over the past few months.

[00:07:45]You know the story completely.

[00:07:47]But suddenly, on the 31st time you listen to it, you will notice a specific grammar structure, a verb pattern, or a preposition that you had never really noticed before.

[00:08:00]You knew the grammar rule vaguely in your head, but suddenly, you truly hear it and understand how it is used naturally.

[00:08:10]Give yourself a chance to notice things gradually.

[00:08:14]You do not have to notice everything on the first try.

[00:08:17]The process of language acquisition is gradual.

[00:08:22]If you listen and don't understand, don't get frustrated.

[00:08:26]If you listen and read and still don't understand, don't get frustrated. It is completely normal.

[00:08:35]Finally, let's talk about watching movies and series on platforms like Netflix.

[00:08:41]Watching a movie is a form of listening, but you are watching the images and listening at the same time.

[00:08:48]This is fantastic, and it is very rewarding.

[00:08:52]It is fun.

[00:08:54]When you watch a series with the same group of actors, you almost feel as if you are participating with their family.

[00:09:02]You get a great sense of the culture.

[00:09:04]However, treat movies and TV series as a fun reward.

[00:09:10]To truly master the language, you have to develop the ability to listen without seeing what is going on.

[00:09:17]You need to train your brain with pure audio, like podcasts and eventually audiobooks.

[00:09:24]When you listen to an audiobook, just hearing the words conjures up the images and the meaning directly in your mind.

[00:09:32]You are automatically converting the English sounds into meaning without translating.

[00:09:38]As you build up to that level of listening comprehension, you are preparing yourself to become truly fluent in the language.

[00:09:47]Great job today, everyone.

[00:09:50]I hope this episode showed you that improving your listening skills does not have to be stressful.

[00:09:57]Treat listening not only as a primary goal in your learning, but as a fun everyday habit to help your brain become fully accustomed to the beautiful English language.

[00:10:09]Listen while you walk, listen while you clean, and most importantly, be patient with yourself.

[00:10:18]The results will come gradually.

[00:10:21]If you enjoyed this podcast and found these tips helpful, please give this video a like. Share it with a friend who is also learning, and subscribe to the channel to keep growing your English skills with me.

[00:10:35]Thank you so much for listening today.

[00:10:37]Have a wonderful week. Take care of yourselves, and remember, just keep going.