Even in my native language (Japanese), I'm bad at listening...
Maybe this is because my lack of attention.
The contents of this article are also for the old me.
1. Shadowing
The first step is practice shadowing.
As I mentioned in my other articles, in shadowing, you speak sentences like a shadow just after a model speaker read scripts.
There are a lot of techniques for listening practices, including dictation, I personally recommend shadowing.
The reasons for shadowing are ①It will help you improve your English skill ②It doesn't take time and ③You can do it anywhere, anytime.
In terms of ①Improving your English skill, Hamada (2019) Shadowing: What is It? How to Use it. Where Will it go? is a good example that mention the effect of shadowing for listening ability.
If you are also interested in IELTS speaking, please check this article!
■Please also see this!■
Secondly, unlike dictation, you need not write words and sentences, you can be exposed to a lot of inputs efficiently.
Finally, all you need is just your smartphone to do shadowing!!
Even when you don't feel motivated to study, you don't have to prepare your writing utensils, you can start it easily!
In the next section, I will explain about 'Intensive listening' and 'Extensive listening'.
2. Shadowing for 'Intensive listening'
The next step is shadowing for 'Intensive listening'!
Listening study can be divided into 2 main methods and one is 'Intensive listening' and the other is 'Extensive listening'.
In this part, I'll talk about shadowing for 'Intensive listening'.
'Intensive listening' is a language-focused learning method and the purpose is to understand grammar and vocabulary in scripts.
I think the best material for 'Intensive listening' is the exercise books you have finished.
The 3 steps for shadowing for 'Intensive listening' are
①to completely understand the scripts in your native language ②to read aloud the scripts while listening to it ③to do shadowing the scripts without looking at the scripts.
This strategy is based on a learning strategy whose steps are 1⃣listening while reading 2⃣listening after reading and 3⃣just listening for graded readers (Newton & Nation, 2021).
However, the second step is skipped because you have already understood the scripts in your language.
I strongly recommend this shadowing learning!!!
Being able to utter the scripts means being able to listen to and understand the scripts.
Let's continue shadowing until you can do it without the transcripts!!
3. Shadowing for 'Extensive listening'
The final step is shadowing for 'Extensive listening'.
Unlike 'Intensive listening', 'Extensive listening' puts emphasis on meaning of the scripts.
The aims of 'Extensive listening' are ①for a large amount of input and ②maintaining your motivation.
'Extensive listening' works to make up for the lack of input of 'Intensive listening'.
If you want to improve your listening skill, of course, the best way is to listen a lot!
The other purpose of 'Extensive listening' is to maintain your motivation.
Usually, people don't like to listen to teaching materials they are not interested in, which leads to decreasing their motivation to learn.
Therefore, you should listen to materials you like for continuous listening practices.
The steps of extensive listening shadowing are ①to find scripts you like and you can understand and ②continue shadowing until you can do it without looking ate the script.
The first step, to find scripts you like and you can understand is really important.
According to van Zeeland and Schmitt (2013), to understand a script enough, you need to know about 95% of the vocabulary.
This means to enjoy listening without stress, the level of the scripts is 'comprehensible' or 'too easy' for you!!
If you are not familiar with a language and can't understand it, it is a waste of time to input in the language.
My recommendations for shadowing for 'Extensive listening' are
BBC 6 minute English and
English Go! Listening Practice with British English by James
Both of the programs are spoken in
British English, which is used in IELTS listening exam.
In
BBC 6 minute English, you can choose one topic from various topics about the world and learn it in 6 minutes. You can see the script well, so this is really helpful for shadowing.
In English Go! Listening Practice with British English, a British man, James, talks about interesting topics such as British cultures. There is not script, but he talks slowly and use simple expressions, so you can enjoy it!
Please try these English learning programs for step 2: continue shadowing until you can do it without looking ate the script.
You can enjoy listening and
improve your listening skill!
It takes time, but you can definitely feel your progress!
Please tell me English learning programs you like!!
4. Summary
・In this article, I introduced some tips for learning IELTS listening.
・The strategies are ①Shadowing ②shadowing for 'Intensive listening' ③shadowing for 'Extensive listening'.
Reference list
BBC Learning English (2021). 6 Minute English.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english
Hamada, Y. (2019). Shadowing: What is it? How to use it. Where will it go? RELC Journal, 50(3), 386–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688218771380
James. (2020). English Go! Listening Practice with British English [Audio podcast]
https://open.spotify.com/show/5bQw4gCHtxld5nCtQTOivf?si=peC0_6_ASNOICOpJ7_zYdw
Newton, J. M., & Nation, I. S. P. (2021). Teaching ESL/EFL listening and speaking (Second edition). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
van Zeeland, H., & Schmitt, N. (2013). Lexical coverage in l1 and l2 listening comprehension: The same or different from reading comprehension? Applied Linguistics, 34(4), 457–479. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams074
Good luck with the exam :)
