Mastering auditory practices is instrumental to better communication. Without active listening, you won’t receive or interpret messages correctly, causing a breakdown in communication. So, for effective communication, we need to learn to listen first.
As a language learner, learning fundamental auditory practices, not only improves your listening skills but also helps you learn language faster. In this article, we provide insight into major auditory practices that can help you improve your results as a language learner.
Language Learning Apps
Language learning apps offer interactive, flexible, and personalized learning experiences. They leverage technology to create engaging and effective auditory practices for unlocking the mysteries of reading and listening in real-time. Apps like Duolingo incorporate listening exercises to improve comprehension and pronunciation by using gamified elements to keep learners motivated with features like progress tracking and rewards for consistent practice.
Most language learning apps use space repetition algorithms to ensure students can review and reinforce what they listened to. They also offer customizable settings, allowing users to adjust the difficulty level and focus on meeting their personal goals.
Focused Listening Exercises
While learning a language, focused listening is imperative to help comprehend the speaker and avoid misunderstandings and frustration. A good focused listening exercise emphasizes the importance of intonation, stress, and rhythm in language.
An example of a focused listening exercise is choosing a song with clear lyrics online, typing part of the lyrics, and leaving blank spaces for the student to fill out after listening to the song. Another good example is reading texts out loud and asking students to write down what they hear. This method is similar to a spelling bee.
Interactive Listening Activities
Interactive listening involves engaging in dynamic activities that require responding, analyzing, and using information that they hear. A popular interactive activity is role-playing, which is common among children learning something new in the classroom. In role-playing, they listen to a scenario and act out what they hear. Doing that enhances listening comprehension and builds fluency.
Another effective interactive listening activity is group discussions based on audio materials like podcasts or short stories. Learners listen to the audio and engage in discussions to summarize what they heard and debate various viewpoints.
Shadowing Practice
Shadowing practice is a language learning practice where the individual repeats an audio after hearing it. With shadowing practice, you’re essentially acting like an echo or a “shadow” to your voice. To do this, you start by listening to words and then saying them back out loud.
To get the most out of this technique, it’s advisable to listen carefully and understand the words before repeating them. If you have problems listening to the vocabulary, you can use a transcript to see the words as you’re repeating them.
Audio Materials
Authentic audio materials like news broadcasts and movies can help improve your language learning. For instance, the news goes straight to the point without including slang or colloquialisms. Most TV news stations read in standard dialect, so you can be sure that you’re listening to major vocabulary.
Movies can be a good option for language learning because they provide real-life context and help users understand how words and phrases are used. Movie subtitles also play a huge role in viewing interpretations and comparing them with the new language.
Effective Note-taking During Listening
Since comprehension is a key factor for effective communication. Students should learn how to take notes in language learning. A good example of a working note-taking technique is the Cornell method.
The Cornell method of note-taking involves dividing the page into three sections, the cue (or recall), column, the note-taking area, and the summary section. The cue column is typically at the left-hand side of the page (taking one-third of the width), the note-taking area is the largest section, occupying two-thirds of the page, and the summary section is at the bottom of the page.
Final Thoughts
Language learning is a process that requires setting clear goals and mastering balanced skill development. So, if you’re teaching a new language, ensure you emphasize on improving skills like reading and writing. It’s also important to practice the new language regularly by staying consistent and engaging in activities like role-playing.
