How Can You Improve Your Listening Skills In A Second Language?

Listening is a very important part of language learning and it is probably the one thing you will do the most of, so it is going to be essential to get as good as possible at this skill.

Really the secret is to listen to as much as you can in the language, but I will go through some ways you can do this more effectively and actually get the most out of the time you spend listening.

Listening More Will Help To Improve Your Listening Skills

It may sound stupid or maybe too simple …but the way you get better at listening, is to do more listening.

If you are struggling to hear everything in your new language you just need to sit down and listen to more of it.

The more you hear, the more comfortable your brain will become with it. You will start to get used to the patterns of speech and the general speed of things, even if you can’t really understand anything it still helps.

Of course simply saying “go and listen to more stuff” isn’t the most helpful advice. That will certainly have some effect, but I will go through some things below that will help you get the most out of this, but the fundamental principle throughout will be to simply do more listening to your target language.

(You can read more about – How Much Listening Do You Need To Do When Learning A Language?)

Listen To Simpler Material In The Language

A lot of the difficulty with listening is that it is too hard to “hear” as everything is so fast and there may be unknown words and complex grammar being used and this is basically just too advanced for us.

To make this easier, and more importantly, make it easier for us to hear, we should listen to simpler material.

This really means material that is designed specifically for learners of that language, or kids stuff. This type of material is going to be a lot slower and will use simpler language.

This can make a huge difference and you will find you can actually follow along and hear everything. This can be a great place to train your ears and when you start feeling comfortable here, you can move on to more difficult material, where hopefully by this time you will not feel so lost when you are trying to follow along. 

Use Subtitles To Help With Your Listening

When we think of subtitles, we think of reading and it is true, it will help with this a lot.

However, when you are still quite new to a language, subtitles can be very powerful. I think it is very important to specify that I’m talking about subtitles that match the language. If you are listening to French, the subtitles should also be in French.

If you are listening to French and reading in English …this isn’t going to help with anything. Your brain will just ignore the French that it doesn’t really understand and focus on the English, which it is comfortable with.

If your subtitles and language match, you will suddenly notice you can hear a lot more of the language. Words that where maybe too fast for you to process, can now be heard, simply as you have been prompted by the subtitles at the same time.

This is fine to do at the start, but you shouldn’t always rely on the subtitles, because at some point it does just become a reading activity and your listening ability doesn’t really increase. Just try and use it when you really need to, but as I said, in the beginning it is really helpful.

Repeat The Material You Are Listening Too

As I have already mentioned, listening to a lot of the language is really going to help and actually listening to the same things over and over again can be very beneficial.

It can maybe get a little boring, but hopefully you are listening something you enjoy and can repeat it a few times.

Every time you go over it, you will be doing two things. Firstly you are giving your brain something it has already processed before which allows it to strengthen its understanding through repetition. Then secondly you are going to start picking up on things you may be missed the first time round.

You will have some general understanding and context after listening to it before and now when you do it again, this context will help you pick up more things within the audio.

How many times you listen to something really comes down to you. Some people don’t do this at all, others maybe a few times and a few people just listen to the same thing over and over again until they pretty much have it memorised.

Repetition is very powerful in language learning, so don’t shy away from this.  

Use Shadowing To Help Improve Your Listening Skills In A Second Language

Shadowing is when you try and repeat what you are hearing. You listen to an audio and then try to copy it.

You can do this at the same time as the audio is playing, or listen to it and then repeat it after.

This may sound like it is helping your speaking skills more, which it will certainly help, but it will also help your listening.

You really have to focus to hear what is being said and then you have to actively process that information and regurgitate it. This whole process can really pump up your ability to listen.

The next time you listen to this same audio it will just sound so much clearer than before and this is a lot to do with how closely you listened to it, but also because you have actively spoken the same words. Your brain is able to hear things more clearly, when it has done the same thing itself before.

Hopefully whatever you are shadowing is full of very common words, as you will then be able to notice these throughout whatever else you listen to in the language.

(You can read more about – Is Shadowing Useful For Language Learning?)

Increasing Your Vocabulary Will Help Increase Your Listening Skills

If you want to get better at listening, simply learning more words can help with this.

A lot of the time listening in a new language is hard because the sounds are new …which really means we haven’t heard the words before. 

This is exactly why I said that we need to spend more time listening at the start of this article. The more we listen, the more words we will hear. They will stop being random sounds and start to become recognisable.

However, if you really want to increase this ability to recognise words, learn more words.

It a very strange phenomenon, but the words you know in a language will stand out so clearly after you have learned them. When I started learning Japanese I only knew a handful of words, less than 100, but I still watched some anime to increase general comfort with hearing the language.

It was like listening to white noise at times, all the sounds where just stuck together and I understood nothing …then as clear day, I would hear a word I had already learned.

It was so noticeable that it was almost shocking. Just learn more words, it will help you hear more.  

(You can read more about – What Is The Best Way To Learn New Vocabulary When Learning A Language?)

Slow Down The Speed Of The Audio You Are Listening Too

Often it can be difficult to hear in the language due to the speed of the speech and if you are listening to a recording you can slow this down to try and make it easier to hear.

You can change it to something like x0.25 speed and try to listen to it again. Personally I don’t like this, it sounds weird to me, but I know it does help a lot of people.

I would rather just find audio where someone is actually speaking more slowly. I find this easier to listen to compared to just slowing down a fast audio.

Just give it a try and see what you think. It might work for you and help you hear more.

Passive Listening Can Help Increase Your Listening Skills

Passive listening is an interesting concept and there is a lot of debate around it. This is when you have something playing in the background and you are not really listening to it.

The idea is that you may not be listening, but your subconscious is. I am very unsure about this. I can really see it from both sides of the argument, but honestly I don’t think it’s that helpful. I don’t do it myself.

However, if you are very knew to the language, the time you have spent listening to the language can probably be measured in minutes, which is basically nothing. I think passive listening here can be of some help.

The reality is that you are not going to understand anything in the beginning, so active listening can be difficult. It can be good to just have something playing passively that helps you get used to the general rhythm and tempo of the language and I did this with Japanese and I think it did help get me used to the sounds and it made active listening a little less jarring as I was kind of use to how thing should flow.

It certainly does no harm to passively listen, so if you are just doing something in silence, why not put something on and see how you feel about it.

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

Listen To Audio Where Only One Person Is Speaking To Help With Your Listening

I really believe it can be very helpful for listening skills to just listen to one person speak. When someone is just sat on their own and speaking, they will be a lot slower and clearer and it is easier to hear. 

As soon as there is two native speakers or more together …the language gets much harder to hear. The speed increases, the slang and colloquiums enter the chat and basically you will find words gets merged or there is mumbling or over excitement and basically the conversation becomes much more challenging to listen to. 

If you can find some youtube videos of just one person sat in front of the camera and speaking …this can be an excellent resource for your listening immersion and can really help build up your skills before you start listening to two or more people interact.

Find A Language Parent

Leading on from just listening to one person speak …is to find one person and listen to them a lot.

If you can find some youtube creator who sits there alone talking to the camera …and makes hundreds of these types videos …they are your perfect language parent.

It can seem kind of strange to just listen to only one person in the language, but you can really build up your knowledge from this one person. You will get very very familiar and comfortable with their patterns of speech in terms of accent, speed, flow and even their vocabulary.

If you can find someone like this in the language you are learning it can be real gold mine. Then when you feel you are doing well, you can move to watch other sort of content and get to hear other people speak.

If I had to start a new language from zero, this is what I would do. It can be hard to find these kinds of people in certain language, but if you can …take advantage and make them your language parent.

(You can read more about – What Strategies Can You Use To Overcome Anxiety Or Nervousness When Listening To A Second Language?)

Conclusion

As you can now see, there are plenty of ways you can increase your listening skills in a new language.

Really you just need to listen to as much as possible. The more hours you put in, the more you will advance in the language, it is that simple, but of course using the tricks I have mentioned above will supercharge your listening abilities and you will start to make progress in no time.

Just stick with it. Listening really is your key to understanding the language. 

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