English listening skills play a prominent role if you want to improve your English communication skills.
What is the best strategy to learn a new language?
Everyone learns his mother tongue by listening to people around him. A child starts speaking his mother tongue before going to school because he listens to everyone attentively.
Even an illiterate person learns to speak his native language by listening to other people carefully.
What are English Listening Skills
When we talk about English listening skills, we’re talking about the ability to understand spoken English. It’s an important skill for effective communication, enabling individuals to understand spoken language in different situations, like conversations, lectures, presentations, movies, and more.
The Importance of Listening Skills
“One of the most sincere forms of respect is listening to what another has to say.” –Bryant H. McGill
The importance of listening skills can be understood from the fact that you cannot execute or implement an idea unless you understand it. To understand an idea, you need to listen to the speaker attentively. Moreover, it is one of the best traits of great managers, leaders, salespeople, business tycoons, and other successful people.
Listening is not limited to understanding and implementing an idea. Listening is about being respectful to the speaker.
Let me explain. Imagine you are talking to your father. He is nodding frequently while doing a job on his computer. You share with him a difficult situation that you are going through at your office. It took you about ten minutes to explain the situation and hardship you are suffering.
When you ask for a solution, you find out that he did not even listen to a word you said to him. Will not you feel disrespected?
Once you understand the fact that the importance of listening skills is not limited to understanding a person but respecting the person, you strive to become a better listener.
Movies to Improve Your Listening Skills
We all love watching movies. So, watching movies should be one of the best platforms for English listening practice.
Interestingly, I never told anybody to watch movies to improve my English.
I still remember one of my students who had been watching three movies a day for three months.
He came to me and said, “I have been watching English movies for three months, and there is no improvement.”
He was depressed. One of his friends told him to watch English movies to learn English. Later, I came to know that his friend was never good at speaking or understanding English.
Have you ever considered why you fail to improve your listening skills despite watching movies?
When you watch a video, you are engrossed in different flavors of the film like action, romance, comedy, etc. and learning takes a back seat.
Actors, actresses, villains, and other characters are your center of attention, not the way they use their language.
If you like an action movie, your whole concentration would be on the fight scenes, and likewise, some people would love watching romance.
Hence, watching movies to improve listening skills may not be a good idea for everyone. Moreover, movies are meant for entertainment not to teach you English.
I am not saying you should not watch English movies to improve your English. You may watch English movies of those genres that you don’t like much.
Imagine, you love watching action movies, and you are completely engrossed in action scenes. You forget about improving your listening skills. However, if you watch a thriller or comedy movie, you can focus on improving your listening skills.
In a nutshell, you can watch any English movie with subtitles to improve your English listening skills except your favorite movies or genre.
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English Listening Practice for Beginners
You might love to watch English movies to improve your English listening skills as a beginner.
However, in movies, you often listen to the native pronunciation of Americans and English people which is difficult to understand for a beginner.
Hence, you should deliberately listen to speakers who speak English slowly. Here is a video where you can understand the speakers easily:
You can listen to the actual conversations of anchors, celebrities, politicians, authors, business tycoons, and other famous to learn and improve your English communication skills.
Additionally, a beginner also needs continuity or momentum to learn anything. When you fail to understand English movies, you might want to give up easily.
In my opinion, you should start with talk shows, debates, and interviews.
- Prof. Sumita Roy
- Osho
- Satguru
- Mukesh Ambani
- Chetan Bhagat
- Gaur Gopal Das
- Subah Jain
- Ashish Vidyarthi
- Smriti Irani
- Dan Lok
You can listen to the speakers mentioned below if you are an advanced learner:
- Barack Obama
- Oprah Winfrey
- Arnab Goswami
- Simerjeet Singh
- Shiv Khera
- Shashi Tharoor
- Brian Tracy
- Grant Cardone
- Anand Mahindra
- Les Brown
- Robin Sharma
You can also listen to speakers from your country that are good at speaking English.
You may also like to read Discover 10 Reasons to Learn English
I recommend watching two YouTube channels namely Listening Time and English Listening Practice to improve your English listening abilities as a beginner. Next, you can also watch THE IELTS LISTENING TEST to improve your listening skills to the next level.
Moreover, you may also watch Ted Talks to improve your listening skills. You can browse ELLO to understand and improve your American accent.
Also, check one more resource to improve your listening skills.
English Listening Practice Audio – One of the Best Options
You can listen to audiobooks using Audible.
The best thing is you get your first audiobook FREE. Afterward, you need to pay a very nominal amount.
You can also listen to these audiobooks on your mobile, smart TV, laptop, and other devices with an internet connection.
The Right Strategy to Improve Your Listening Skills
Once you can understand people from your country who are good at speaking English, you can start watching motivational speakers. You can also watch English debate shows, talk shows, interviews, speeches, and other programs.
Next, you may watch English movies also to improve your English.
Please make sure that watch a genre that you don’t like much (with subtitles) so that you can focus on improving your English.
How to Improve English Listening Skills – Conclusion
Here are three great options to improve English listening skills.
1. You can listen to audiobooks during your commuting hours.
2. You can watch talk shows, debates, speeches, and interviews to understand the real English conversation.
3. you can also watch suggested YouTube channels to comprehend the English language better.
But, please take care that you watch English movies of that genre that you don’t like much.
Remember, mastering listening skills is crucial to learning any language proficiently.
About Yogesh
Yogesh helps professionals speak English confidently using a simple and proven process. He is also a bestselling author on Amazon. When he started his career as a chartered accountant, every company rejected him because he could not speak English fluently. If you want to improve your English speaking abilities or other career skills You are most welcome to join his online courses and read his books or blogs.
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