English is one of the most spoken languages all over the world. There a flee over 7.5 billion speakers in the world and that is 1 in every 4 world citizen. Since learning English as a second language has become important thus this number is increasing rapidly. As this language is spoken in every country the distinct also differs from region to region and therefore most of the people face problem in communicating and understanding fast or native English speakers. Don’t worry we have found the solution how to understand what you hear in English.
How to Understand What You Hear in English
Its said that there are 160 distinct English dialects throughout the world. There are a large array of different accents within in primarily English speaking countries, like the US and England and there are a large array of foreign English accents.
Since English dialects are different throughout the world, hence English learners face problem in comprehending fast and native English speakers.
The ideas mentioned below will help you a lot to understand what you hear in English.
1. Listen to stressed words in a sentence
Listen to stressed words in a sentence because every rhythm of English is composed of stressed and unstressed sounds and syllables. When you listen to stressed words in a sentence, it means you emphasize important words in a sentence.
Those important words are longer, louder and higher in pitch and the native speakers are really good at emphasizing and stressing these important words. When communicating they stress those important words and it’s really easy to understand what they are saying.
In the same way, when you are speaking if you stress and emphasize the important words in your sentence, this can be a kind of clue for your listeners to understand what you are saying in English.
2. Listen to the native speakers
The best way to improve your English is spending more time with native English speakers and communicating with them. If you are living in a country where you don’t find native speakers then listen to English documentaries every day. Doing so will make you familiarize with the accent of native speakers and will make you able to understand what you hear in English.
3. Learn Common expressions and slangs in English
English native speakers use expressions and slangs in communicating with each other. In fact, a very important factor for any English learner is to be able to use typical expressions, this makes your English sound more natural and less like a robot. Knowing common expression in English not only makes you understand what you hear but also makes you sound like a native English speaker.
4. Improve your vocabulary
Do you have a good vocabulary power? If you have a good vocabulary power and know a lot of words in English this will help you in four modules: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Moreover, if you know the meaning of a word then it will be easy for you to understand when you hear that word, hence improve your vocabulary and learn new words every day.
5. Don’t think just listen
Thinking and listening at a time will make you confused because you can’t understand two conversations at time one in your head and the one you are listening to. Just let the information come to you and what you need to do is just focus of stressed or emphasized words in a sentence to understand as mentioned above.
6. Watch English movies with no subtitles
Watching English movies with subtitles will be easy for you to understand but when you listen to it without subtitles it becomes difficult to understand. If you have observed when you read a passage in English, you comprehend the understand the meaning of sentences but when you listen to it you don’t get the meaning, hence make it your habit to watch movies without subtitles and make it your habit. Initially, it will be difficult for you to understand but little by little you will get more and more.
7. Listen to audio or video and write the script
Play an audio or video and listen to it many times then write down whatever you hear in that, when completed compare your script with the subtitles and find out what is missing and rectify those mistakes. Practice whatever was missing, doing so will make you know the exact pronunciation of words and you will understand later when you hear those words.
8. Close your eyes and listen
It’s said that when a human being loses one sense the other sense becomes better. Practice it play documentaries in English and listen to it with closed eyes and check out the difference, you might understand it better with closed eyes.
9. Use the slow button on the player
When listening to any audio in English or watching a video on YouTube and the speakers speak so fast and you don’t understand what they say, fortunately, there is a solution for it, you can use the speed button to make it slow and understand what the speaker says.
10. Home practice
Learning a language starts from listening. If you observe when a child is born at a home, he doesn’t understand what we say to him. He listens and listens until he becomes able to understand and speak. Moreover, a good listener is a good speaker, hence if you want to understand what you hear and speak fluently then listen and listen and practice it every day until you become a good listener and always understand what you hear.
Conclusion:
Was the article helpful? I hope the tips mentioned here will help you to understand what you hear. Also if you have any idea about how to understand what you hear in English, please feel free to write them in the comment section below.