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I. ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE LISTENING
- Listen to English Pop Songs
- Listen to TV News Reports
- Listen to films
- Listen to Radio
- Listen to TV Programmes or Videos
II. SKILLS TO BETTER LISTENING
In this series of handouts, we provide opportunities and activities to help you improve different aspects of your English language skills. The following are some hints for improving listening in your daily life and on campus and some strategies for listening.
After all, patience and persistence are the keys to better listening. Keep trying !
I. ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE LISTENING
There are many kinds of listening. It is important to expose yourself to these various kinds of listening because you can familiarise yourself with different vocabulary, speed, accents, pronunciation and even grammar structures in different contexts.
Find cassettes/CDs which have the lyrics enclosed. Alternatively, the PolyU ELC (Resource Area) has song lyrics.
- Write a summary -Test your listening by comparing the original lyrics with your summary. Try to listen to songs in English again and again without referring to the words until you understand as much as possible. The primary aim of this activity is to listen for main ideas. Don’t be bothered by the details. After this, write a summary of the main ideas. Compare the original lyrics with what you have written down. If you were unsuccessful, what caused your misunderstanding?
- Sing along with the melody- Read the words and sing along with the cassette. This can be done alone or with a karaoke. You should listen very carefully for the pronunciation of words.
- Do a cloze exercise - Ask a friend to remove some words from a song. Listen to the song and try to fill in the words that have been left out.
- Dictate lyrics -Don’t look at the lyrics before you play a song. Try to dictate the lyrics while you are listening to the song. Play back as many times as you like until you can catch the words. This will help you to listen intensively for details.
Videotape some English TV news reports. If you are in Hong Kong, here is a schedule.
| Pearl Channel | World Channel |
| CBS Evening News 7:30 am (Mon-Sun) | The World This Week 7:25 p.m. (Sat) |
| News Review 8:30 am (Sun) | Main News and Weather Report 7:30pm(Mon-Sun) |
| Main News and Weather Report 7:30pm (Mon-Sun) | Late News 11:30 pm (Mon-Sun) |
| News Round-up 12:00am (Mon-Sun) |
- Approach other materials in advance- Before you start to listen to the news in English, try these activities which will help you to prepare yourself for listening:
- watch the Chinese news television reports before you switch to the English ones,
- read a newspaper in your own language (Just look at the headlines if you think it is very time-consuming to go through every detail in the newspaper),
- read a newspaper in English (Just look at the headlines if you think it is very time-consuming to go through every detail in the newspaper), and
- discuss the latest news with friends.
Since you have read, heard or talked about the news before watching, you may find it easier to understand the English news reports.
- Predications- Before listening, choose one or two topics (e.g. sports, fashion, education, politics, pop stars, social problems ) that interest you. Predict what you are going to hear. Then listen to your selected items and check your prediction.
- Keep a diary- After listening, keep a diary of the vocabulary from the topic(s) you chose above on television every day. In this way, you can develop a large vocabulary on a particular topic. You will know which words will appear in a certain context.
- Record the news- Sometimes you find it hard to follow the fast speech in news report especially if you are an elementary English learner. If this is the case, record the news so that you have chances to hear it again.
Collect film reviews from English magazines or newspapers. Obtain the book or script of a film to read before or after the film. If you are in Hong Kong, films with scripts or activities are available in the PolyU English Language Centre. These include:
| Back to Future II | Sleepless in Seattle |
| Ghost | Gone with the Wind |
| Dances with Wolves | To kill a Mocking Bird |
| Casablanca | When Harry Met Sally |
| Four Weddings and a Funeral |
- Read film reviews-Read film reviews before you go to a movie. The reviews will help you to understand the main ideas of a movie.
- Make a gap-filling exercise- If a script of the film is available, ask a friend to remove some words from the script. Fill in the blanks while watching the film. This will help you to listen to details and individual words.
- Cover the subtitles- When you watch a film on television, cover the subtitles with a piece of paper for a few minutes at a time and try to predict what is going to happen. You should make use of what you have heard to practise prediction.
- Read the novel of the film- Read the novel of the film before or after viewing. This can help with understanding cultural differences, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and increase general understanding.
Listen
to TV Programmes or Videos
Search for English language TV programmes or videos. Videotape the TV programmes for repeated reviewing.
Special Recommendations:
Star TV-Channel V
Best of Go West 11:00am (Sat): The V-jay David Woo will tell you a lot about idiomatic English.
World Channel
Yan Can Cook 6:30 pm (Sat.)
Pearl Channel
City Life 8:00 pm (Thurs.)
- Follow instructions without looking at the screen - When you watch a cooking programme or an aerobics programme, follow the instructions without looking at the screen. Try to compare what you have done with the video to see whether you get the same kind of food or perform the exercises correctly.
- Cover the subtitles- When you watch a programme on television, cover the subtitles with a piece of paper for a few minutes at a time and try to predict what is going to happen. You should make use of what you have heard to predict what the programme is about.
- Watch the Chinese version in advance- Record the English television programmes you like, and ask your friends to record the Chinese version of the same programmes with the help of the Nicam system. After watching the Chinese version, go to the English version. You will notice how the Chinese is expressed in English.
Tune in to any English language radio programmes that are available. If you are in Hong Kong, you can listen to these programmes. Record programmes so that you can play them back for intensive listening.
Special Recommendations:
World News: broadcast daily at 0000, 0300, 0600, 0700,0800,0900,1200,1700, 2100, and 2300.
East Asia Today :Current Affairs at 23:10
Newsdesk: an half-hour programme including World News and dispatches from overseas and UK at 0100, 0400, 1100, 1800, and 2200.
Special Recommendations:
Hong Kong Today (0700 Sat. only)
Teentime (2100 Mon-Fri)
- Listen to fast speech- Listen to phone-in programmes so as to understand fast speech. Your objective should be to get the main ideas.
- Approach other resources in advance- Read the newspaper headlines or watch the news on television before you listen to a radio news programme. These pre-listening exercises equip you with relevant knowledge to assist you in understanding the radio news.
- Listen to colloquial expressions- Listen to phone-in programmes and pay attention to the colloquial expressions. Mark them down for your own reference. Use them in your daily conversations.
- Write a summary- Write a summary of one or two news items while you are listening to the radio. Then get a copy of newspaper to check the details.
II. SKILLS TO BETTER LISTENING
- Making predictions: Before you start your
listening, try predicting what you will hear. Training yourself to be one step ahead of
the speakers enables you to be familiar with a particular topic quickly. Although you may
not get the exact words, you have the framework of the topic.
How to predict
- Use your background knowledge. What do you already know about the topic ?
- Think of questions that listening materials might provide answers for.
- Create a spidergram which shows everything you know about a particular topic.
- Pay attention to voice emphasis People usually speak with stress. The position of stress is a good indicator of key points. Recognising stress can help you to tell the more important points from the less important ones.
- Pay attention to signposts Speakers frequently speak with signposts. They are words, phrases or questions which signal what you are going to hear for the next stage.
Some examples of signposts are:
To introduce a new point: “right, Okay, good, now, well”
To list points : “first, first of all, for a start, second, another, also, then, next, finally, last”
To explain: “In other words, that is, I mean, look at it this way”
To signal important points: “the important/central point, I would like to stress, You have to remember that, the fact is that, so you see that, in fact, what I am saying is that”
To express result: “so, therefore, as a result”
To give an example: “for instance, for example, take the case of , imagine, like, such as”
To show contrast: “but, however, on the other side”
To sum up at the end: “In conclusion, In short, In brief, summing up, so you see , the result is that”
- Pay attention to repetition People often
repeat or rephrase what they have said for various reasons. Listeners can use these
opportunities to catch the meaning a second time.
- Pay attention to clues Understanding
spoken words actually goes beyond the literal words. In order to guarantee successful
listening, an intelligent listener will make use of relevant clues which go along with the
speech. These clues include:
- Who said the words? If the speaker is a politician for example, you can probably make predictions about what will be said.
- Where did you hear the words? In different contexts, people use different words to suit the context. The language that a news reporter uses in a news report is not the same as the language which he uses in his daily life.
- Did the speaker’s tone change? A change in tone may imply a change in meaning.
Obviously, you will not be able to use all these opportunities for listening. However, you should choose a few of your favourite opportunities. Then try to practise all the skills of listening. Relax and keep listening!
Ellis, G. & Sinclair, B. (1989). Learning to Learn English Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Geddes, M. (1989). How to Listen The Bath Press. Avon. Great Britain.
Lynch, T. (1990). Study Listening Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Last revised: September 1998
Copyright©1998 ELC, HKPU. All rights reserved.