3 Keys to Improve Your Listening Comprehension, and More Listening Practice

The Anglo-Link channel on YouTube has a 20-minute video with helpful tips for improving your ability to listen to and understand native speakers of English. There are also videos in which you can listen to common short expressions (things Americans say) and practice writing them.

My suggestion: Find a time when you have at least 20 minutes to sit down and play the video with helpful listening tips. Have a pencil and paper ready to take notes, and click on the link below. You'll probably want to listen to it more than once (if you can't listen again right away, listen again in 2 to 3 days):

LINK: Tips for Improving Listening Comprehension

Then click below to try some quick listening and writing (transcription) exercises. Fifteen short sentences are read, two times each. After you hear a sentence the first time, pause the video and try to write down what you heard. Listen to the sentence a second time, pause the video again, and check what you wrote. When you start the video again after hearing the sentence the second time, the answer will appear on the video. Then continue with the next sentence.

LINK: Transcription Exercise (listen and write practice)

Click on the link below for a third video from this channel, and practice some common English expressions. Listen and repeat, or have pen and paper ready so you can try writing down the expressions you hear (35 sentences in total).

LINK: Practice Listening and Repeating Common Daily Expressions

Daily Dictation Practice Videos

A teacher who calls himself Coach Shane has a YouTube channel for daily dictation practice. Dictation means somebody says or reads something for you to try to write down. I must point out that in his first video he misuses the verb "dictate" a little bit. To dictate is to say or speak some words that you want someone else to write down. Coach Shane tells you to listen, then do your best to "dictate" the sentence, but he should be telling you to listen, then do your best to write down what you hear. The action of writing down what you hear is called "transcription," not dictation.

My suggestion: The nice thing about Coach Shane's videos is that you don't just listen to the teacher say things (although he does have very clear pronunciation). He plays recordings of different voices saying things--cartoons, newscasters reading headlines, actors' lines from movies or television shows, etc. In one video, you listen to a sentence several times and try to write down what you hear, without seeing the actual words. In the very next video, Coach Shane reveals the answer--what you should have written down. He then explains the changes that happen when the written sentence is spoken out loud, like vowel reductions, strong sounds that "win" over weak sounds in English, or what sounds Americans connect in casual conversation. He also explains the context of what you heard--maybe it was a famous line from an American movie, or a news headline about an important world event.

LINK: Click on this link to the first video-- 

Or click on this sample video: