Common Misconceptions About Developing Listening Skills In A Second Language

Listening is an important skill when it comes to language learning and there are actually a lot of misconceptions around this skill and if you get caught up in any of these, you will seriously derail your progress in your new language.

Listening really is the key to learning a language and it is important you are doing it right, so I will go through some of the misconceptions and explain why they are wrong and what you should be doing instead. 

Thinking Listening Is Not That Important Is A Huge Misconception

One of the craziest misconceptions I have heard form language learners is that listening Is not that important and you can develop your listening skills from just speaking the language.

I mean, there is some truth to that, it is not a complete lie, but really if you want to get good at listening, you need to a lot of it.

I am huge believer in immersion, which means spending a lot of time with the language just taking it all in and listening. Focusing on other areas can be important too, but initially, you need to just grow your understanding and that all revolves around increasing your listening ability.

If you look at the school system for teaching, they don’t do this and as we all know …you leave school not knowing how to even ask a simple question in the language you spent 5 years learning!

You are forced to learn the rules and vocabulary and somehow sort of slap them together into a written and oral test …which lets be real, we just memorised stuff and as soon as the exam was over, forgot it.

Just listening is the total opposite of this and the results speaks for themselves. Listening a lot will improve your listening and it will help you understand more of the language. It is hugely important for your overall progress. Never forget this.

(You can read more about – How Important Is Listening In Language Learning?)

There Are A Lot Of Misconceptions Around Passive Listening

Passive listening is when you have something on in the background and you are not really paying attention to it.

It is a pretty controversial topic in language learning and there are a lot misconceptions around it.

Some people swear by it and say it has helped them, other claim it is pointless.

One of the issues is that is hard to prove. We do know for sure that you can’t just do this alone and see results. You can’t just play the radio in the background and pick up the language, you actually have to interact with it and be more active ….but there could well be something going on that we are not too sure about.

There is a theory that as long as we actively study the language, passive listening will help. Our brain will connect what we have learned to what we are hearing subconsciously and it will help somehow.

If I am honest, I am sceptical about it. I do think passive listening does no harm and I also think it can be useful to get your brain use to the sounds and rhythm of the language when you are just starting out, after this I don’t think it really does much. I believe your brain just filters it out.

So, maybe I believe a misconception here. Who knows, it too hard to know for sure, but maybe it’s something you want to try and decide if you think it is having an effect on your listening or not.    

(You can read more about – Is Passive Language Listening Helpful?)

Thinking You Can Listen To Anything Is A Misconception

A well placed misconception I see is “just listen” and maybe I am even guilty of this at times, although I try not to be.

Listening to anything is better than nothing …but also, listening to anything may as well be nothing.

If listening was all you needed, we could just turn on Spanish radio and listen and we would all be fluent after a while, but this isn’t how it works. You need to understand what you are listening to …or least comprehend some of it.

The more we can understand, the more we can make sense of things and actually decode what is going on. This will allow us to turn a load of funny foreign sounds into an actually meaningful language.

I am a big believer in listening to lots …but it is vital that you can partially understand what you are listening to. Do not fall for the misconception that you can just listen to anything and it will work.

Comprehensible input is king when it comes to listening! 

(You can read more about – What Is Comprehensible Input In Language Learning?)

Believing You Need To Understand Everything Is A Misconception

A massive misconception with new learners is that they believe they need to understand everything before you can listen to anything.

This is the worst mindset you can have as this alone will really block your progress. The reality is that you need to listen, so that you can understand everything …not understand everything, then listen.

You are never really going to totally understand everything, there are always going to be little grey spots and that is okay. This will even happen in your own language, but it’s just that it is extremely rare …and this is because you have spent years listening to things so have pretty much heard 99.99% of things.

You need to do this in your new language. You need to listen and listen and eventually you will have heard everything so many times over that you will just understand pretty much everything.

If you go away and try and learn all the words before you even start listening …you will fail miserably and get nowhere.

Start listening today. Do not wait. It is okay if you don’t understand everything, so long as you understand the bulk of what is happening, you are comprehending the material and you will be learning from it.

Thinking Subtitles Only Help With Reading Is A Misconception

There are a lot of people who believe that using subtitles is cheating and really all it does is help your reading and does nothing for your listening.

There is some truth to this, but this doesn’t meaning subtitles are a bad thing and it is certainly not cheating to use them.

In the beginning when you are starting to listen, subtitles can be a huge help. Seeing the words can help you really associate the words with the sounds you are hearing and you will find that you generally understand more, which is exactly what you want.

However, there is a point where they become a hindrance and you start relying on it. At this point it is doing more for your reading skills than listening, but so long as you can wean yourself off subtitles and focus more on listening alone, you will be fine and this isn’t something you really need to worry about too much. 

Thinking That Listening To The Same Material Repeatedly Is A Waste Of Time Is A Misconception

Some people are always on a quest to find new things to listen to and watch and it doesn’t need to be like this. It can actually be very beneficial to re-watch things.

You will find that when you listen to the material the second time round, you will pick up on a lot more. You will now have context from hearing it all before, so this can help your brain notice a few more things that it didn’t the first time round.

I am a big fan of repeating things in my study. I find it is extremely powerful and the more I listen to something, the easier it gets and the more clear the meaning is.

There are also some people who just take a small amount of material, and they just go over it hundreds of times. This is called “narrow listening” and can have equal, if not better results than focusing on a wide selection of material.

You will have already covered everything before when you repeat something, which is perfect as it is giving your brain the repetition it needs to get comfortable with things.

Just listen to your material as many times you feel comfortable, some things you may only listen to a few times, and other things you may repeat constantly. 

Also, just think about all those pop songs you know from being a kid …I can still recite a lot of spice girl songs, word for word, simply as they were constantly on the radio when I was kid. You can’t underestimate the power of repetition.

Conclusion  

As you can now see, there are a lot of misconceptions around listening to your new language.

It can be very easy to fall for these and this will mean you are now no longer studying effectively and you will see no progress. If you have been told any of these misconceptions, or believe them yourself, you need to change your mindset immediately and start doing things properly.

If you put the proper effort into listening, you will see results in your language skills. Listening really is the best way to build your understanding of a new language.  

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Listening In A Language You Are Learning)