quarta-feira, 14 de março de 2012

Fluency in the listening

Fluency in the listening. 

Today we are going to speak about the importance of the listening, and much more than this, the listening fluency. Yes, you have read right, there is a kind of fluency in the listening ability.
The listening ability is when the native speaker do not need to change or modify the way he talks, in other words is when the listening ability has accommodated in your brain, and you can understand nearly every single word the native speaks to you, as I like to say: speak is easier than listening, because when you are speaking you have the total control of your knowledge, in other words you can easily choose what you want and can speak, when you have the word in the conversation you can build the conversation according to what you know, but you have no control over what the other person wants to say.
Ok, supposing you are already convinced that the listening is the most difficult (and one of the most important) ability in the process of learning a language, so how to overcome it?
Well, unfortunately I have no magic formula to do this, but the only scientific way is by being exposed to the language as much as you can, even if you cannot travel to other countries you can "listen fluently",just by following my step-by-step:

1st step: choose the material for you to listen, it can be either a podcast or even fairly tales (my favourite way to train the listening), this moment is the crucial moment, some people tend to choose one or two audios, but you need at least 7 audios per week, that is you should listen at least 1 everyday, or even repeat one twice. You must be exposed to the foreign audio from half to 2 hours a day, if you are really determined (or what I recommend, you should be obsessed) in your mission you will for sure find time to do it, you can do on the way home, in the gym, before sleeping, just after waking up, that is, it is up to you, but the fact is that you should no, you MUST listen something at least 30 minutes every day.

Data about the 1st step: listen even without understanding any single word, the language needs time to accommodate in your mind, you will notice that after a time of exposure your ear will be able to differ the sounds easily, and you will be able to understand some things, but when I say the language needs time it does not mean magic, you have to follow to the next step. 

2nd step: attend to a course, remember that even listening every day, you have to study the language either by yourself, with a teacher or at a language centre, at least twice a week, this is the form you will learn the vocabulary, the structure and even sometimes the necessary grammar points that will help you to improve your abilities.

3rd step: when you are able to understand over 40% choose a story, preferably a fairy tale, and tell it to someone ( to the teacher, to a friend, to a native speaker, or to yourself in the lack of one of the previous), the act of telling the tale will reinforce your listening ability and will improve quite a lot your speaking ability, you have to to this at least twice a week.

4th step- DO EVERYTHING YOU HAVE JUST LEARNT, some people like to learn new tips, but instead of putting in practice they keep with their old and useless habits, and after continue complaining about how difficult is learning a foreign language.

Keep in touch!
Best wishes,
Jimmy Mello

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