8 ways to improve English listening skills and understand native speakers

Summary

In this informative video, Lucy offers eight practical strategies to enhance English listening skills. She emphasizes using YouTube's subtitle feature with accurate transcriptions, listening to various accents and dialects, engaging with native speakers for practice, and utilizing the platform's speed adjustment tools. Lucy also recommends watching British TV shows and movies, learning conversational fillers for processing time, and combining audiobooks with reading to improve pronunciation and spelling. Lastly, she suggests creating personalized transcription exercises for focused listening practice, highlighting the effectiveness of these methods for language learners.

Takeaways

• 😀 Use YouTube's subtitle system wisely, ensuring to watch videos with accurate, manually written subtitles for better English learning.
• 🌐 Identify trustworthy subtitles by avoiding 'auto-generated' ones, as they may contain errors and misspellings.
• 🗣️ Listen to a variety of accents and dialects to improve understanding of diverse English usage, including different slang and phrases.
• 💬 Engage with native speakers, asking for repetition and explanations to enhance listening and speaking skills.
• 📚 Utilize platforms like italki for affordable one-on-one lessons with native and non-native teachers to practice conversation and listening.
• 🎥 Take advantage of YouTube's slow-down function to make fast speech easier to understand and learn from.
• 🎬 Watch English movies and TV shows, starting with beginner level content and progressing to more advanced material to improve listening skills.
• 🕒 Learn conversational fillers and interjections to buy time while processing what is being said in English conversations.
• 📚 Listen while reading to connect written words with their spoken forms, improving pronunciation, listening, and spelling.
• 🎧 Use platforms like Audible for audiobooks to practice listening to English narration and find narrators that suit your preferences.
• 📝 Create your own transcription exercises from interesting content to make the practice less tedious and more relevant to your interests.

Q & A

What is the first method Lucy suggests to improve English listening skills?

Lucy suggests taking advantage of YouTube's subtitle system, but ensuring they are properly written by a human for correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Why does Lucy pay for someone to write her video subtitles instead of using YouTube's auto-generated subtitles?

Lucy pays for human-written subtitles to ensure correct spelling and grammar, proper punctuation, and to avoid missing words or misinterpretations that can occur with auto-generated subtitles.

How can viewers tell if a YouTube video's subtitles are auto-generated or manually written?

Viewers can identify auto-generated subtitles by the term 'auto-generated' that appears, indicating that YouTube's AI system created the subtitles.

What is the second method Lucy recommends for improving listening skills?

The second method is to listen to a variety of accents and dialects to understand different sounds, common phrases, and slang words used in English.

What is a significant aspect of British English that Lucy highlights?

Lucy highlights the diversity of British English, with different parts of England having distinct dialects and slang.

How does Lucy suggest finding native speakers for language practice?

Lucy recommends using online platforms like italki, which offers one-to-one video lessons with both native and non-native teachers at affordable rates.

What is the language challenge offered by italki?

The language challenge on italki involves setting a language goal and taking classes to earn vouchers, coupons, and entries into a prize draw, with potential prizes of up to 500 italki credits.

What is the slowdown function on YouTube and how can it help language learners?

The slowdown function allows users to slow down video playback speed, which can be beneficial for language learners to better understand native speech by slowing it down to a more manageable pace.

Why does Lucy recommend watching English movies and TV shows?

Watching English movies and TV shows helps learners develop an understanding of the language, including accents, and provides exposure to everyday language use.

What are some phrases Lucy suggests to buy more time while processing speech?

Lucy suggests using fillers or interjections, such as 'ooh', and phrases like 'I know' and 'I understand' to buy more time while processing what someone has said.

How does Lucy recommend using audiobooks to improve listening skills?

Lucy recommends listening to audiobooks while reading the actual book to connect written words with spoken words, improve pronunciation, and enhance listening and spelling skills.

What is the final method Lucy suggests for improving listening skills?

The final method is creating your own transcription exercises using content that is personally interesting, which helps make the exercise less boring and more effective.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Enhancing English Listening Skills with YouTube Subtitles

In the first paragraph, Lucy introduces the topic of improving English listening skills and emphasizes the importance of utilizing YouTube's subtitle feature. She advises viewers to follow vloggers who provide accurate, manually written subtitles to learn correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Lucy also explains why she pays for custom subtitles on her own channel, ensuring that viewers have a reliable reference for language learning. The paragraph highlights the imperfections of auto-generated subtitles and the benefits of watching videos with trustworthy subtitles to enhance vocabulary acquisition.

05:03

🎓 Diversifying Listening Experiences with Accents and Dialects

The second paragraph focuses on the significance of listening to a variety of accents and dialects to understand the diversity of English, particularly within England. Lucy mentions the differences between northern and southern slang as an example. She also teases an upcoming resource that will help learners with this aspect of language acquisition. The paragraph underscores the importance of exposure to different sounds, phrases, and slang to become a more versatile listener.

10:06

🗣️ Engaging with Native Speakers for Language Practice

In this paragraph, Lucy discusses the benefits of interacting with native English speakers to improve listening and speaking skills. She suggests using italki, an online platform that connects students with both native and non-native teachers for one-on-one video lessons. Lucy highlights italki's affordability and flexibility, and she provides a special offer for new users to receive $10 worth of italki credits after their first purchase. Additionally, she mentions the italki language challenge, where participants can earn prizes by taking classes and setting language goals.

15:10

🎬 Utilizing YouTube's Slowdown Function for Better Comprehension

Lucy introduces YouTube's slowdown function as a tool for language learners to make native speech easier to understand. She explains how slowing down the playback speed can help with comprehension, especially when dealing with fast talkers. The paragraph also touches on the importance of using subtitles in conjunction with the slowdown feature for an even more effective learning experience.

📺 Watching English Movies and TV Shows for Language Exposure

The fifth paragraph centers around the common advice of watching English movies and TV shows to improve listening skills. Lucy acknowledges the challenges of finding content at the right level and the accessibility issues due to geographical restrictions. She promises to share her recommendations for British TV shows in a forthcoming video, categorized by difficulty levels, to assist viewers in selecting appropriate materials for their language learning journey.

🕒 Learning Time-Buying Responses in English Conversations

Lucy discusses the strategy of using time-buying responses in English conversations to give learners a moment to process what they've heard. She mentions that avoiding awkward silences and filler noises, and instead using natural fillers or interjections, can help in understanding and participating in conversations. The paragraph also refers to previous videos where she and other teachers have provided examples of such phrases.

📚 Listening While Reading to Improve Language Skills

In this paragraph, Lucy extols the virtues of listening while reading as an effective method for connecting written and spoken words, improving pronunciation, and aiding spelling comprehension. She recommends using Audible, an audiobook platform, to find narrators and books that suit one's preferences and learning needs. The paragraph also mentions a free trial offer for Audible and encourages learners to take advantage of this resource.

📝 Creating Personalized Transcription Exercises for Enhanced Listening

The final paragraph suggests creating personalized transcription exercises as an engaging way to practice listening skills. Lucy explains that by choosing topics of personal interest and transcribing audio without visual or textual aids, learners can make the exercise more enjoyable and relevant. She emphasizes the effectiveness of this method, as it is commonly used in language examinations worldwide.

👋 Conclusion and Invitation to Connect

In the concluding paragraph, Lucy summarizes the lesson and encourages viewers to apply her advice for improving English listening skills. She invites learners to share their own tips in the comments section and to connect with her on social media platforms. Lucy also reminds viewers of the italki offer and the language challenge, and she promotes her personal vlogging channel where she shares fully subtitled videos of her life on a farm.

Keywords

💡Listening Skills

Listening skills refer to the ability to understand and interpret spoken language. In the context of the video, improving English listening skills is the main theme, with the host providing various strategies to enhance these skills for non-native speakers.

💡YouTube Subtitles

YouTube subtitles are text versions of the dialogue or narration in a video, which can be particularly useful for language learners. The video emphasizes the importance of using accurate subtitles for learning correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, as opposed to relying on auto-generated ones which may contain errors.

💡Vloggers

Vloggers are video bloggers who regularly create content documenting their daily lives or specific interests. The script suggests following vloggers who add their own subtitles to learn everyday English and to understand the nuances of spoken language.

💡Accents and Dialects

Accents and dialects refer to different ways of pronouncing a language and using regional vocabulary or slang. The video stresses the importance of being exposed to a variety of accents and dialects to improve listening comprehension and understanding of diverse English-speaking cultures.

💡Repetition

Repetition is a technique used in language learning where learners ask native speakers to repeat phrases or words to better understand and memorize them. The video encourages learners to interact with native speakers and to not hesitate to ask for repetition to improve listening skills.

💡iTalki

iTalki is an online platform that connects language learners with teachers from around the world for one-on-one lessons. The video mentions iTalki as a resource for finding affordable, qualified teachers to practice conversation and listening skills.

💡Playback Speed

Playback speed is the rate at which audio or video content is played back. The video suggests using YouTube's slowdown function to listen to native speakers at a slower pace, which can make understanding faster speech easier for language learners.

💡English Movies and TV Shows

Watching English-language media is a common suggestion for improving listening skills. The video discusses the challenges of finding media at the right level of difficulty and promises upcoming recommendations for British TV shows suitable for different learning stages.

💡Fillers and Interjections

Fillers and interjections are words or sounds used to fill pauses in a conversation, giving the speaker time to think. The video advises using these to buy time when processing what has been said in a conversation, thus improving listening and response time.

💡Audiobooks

Audiobooks are recordings of texts being read aloud. The video recommends listening to audiobooks while reading the text to connect written and spoken words, improve pronunciation, and enhance listening skills. Audible is mentioned as a platform for accessing a wide selection of audiobooks.

💡Transcription Exercises

Transcription exercises involve listening to a piece of audio and writing down what is heard. The video suggests creating personalized transcription exercises using content of personal interest to make the practice more engaging and effective for improving listening skills.

Highlights

Improve English listening skills by utilizing YouTube's subtitle system with correct spelling and grammar.

Avoid auto-generated subtitles; seek vloggers with accurate, manually written subtitles for better learning.

Watch vlogs documenting everyday life for exposure to daily English vocabulary.

Listen to a variety of accents and dialects to understand diverse British English.

Speak with natives, ask for repetition and explanations to enhance understanding.

Use italki for affordable one-on-one video lessons with native and non-native teachers.

Take advantage of YouTube's slow down function to make native speech easier to understand.

Watch English movies and TV shows to improve listening, with recommendations coming in a future video.

Learn conversational fillers and interjections to buy time while processing speech.

Combine listening with reading by using audiobooks to improve pronunciation and spelling.

Try Audible for a wide selection of audiobooks and the ability to adjust narration speed.

Create your own transcription exercises with topics of personal interest to make practice less tedious.

Engage in blind listening exercises to improve listening comprehension without visual cues.

Join italki's language challenge to set language goals and earn prizes.

Follow the instructor on social media for more English learning content and personal vlogs.

The importance of accurate subtitles for learning correct sentence structure and punctuation.

The significance of understanding regional slang and phrases within British English.

How italki's platform allows for browsing teacher rates to find the most affordable option.

The benefits of using specific phrases to show understanding and process information during conversations.

Transcripts

Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy today I am going to

teach you eight ways in which you can improve your listening skills, your

English listening skills. Now number one is take advantage of YouTube's subtitle

system but make sure you understand and use it properly so in order to improve

your daily English, the English that you'll use every day. I want you to find

vloggers and kind of daily youtubers that document their everyday life who

actually add their own subtitles or vloggers that don't rely on the

auto-generated subtitles. Nowadays YouTube has some very very good subtitle

software but it's never perfect when I post a video YouTube analyzes what I say

and it posts what it thinks I've said as auto-generated subtitles. However, for

every single video I do pay for someone else to actually write the subtitles and

there are a couple of reasons why I do this. Number one, I want correct spelling

and grammar YouTube software doesn't add in the correct punctuation and kind of

commas and quotation marks and things like that and that's important for you

to learn. It's important for you to see where a sentence starts and ends and

where there might be pauses. Also sometimes the software just completely

misses out words, it misspells things, it misunderstands what I've said. Sometimes

it puts very rude things in place of what I've actually said so I choose to

buy my own subtitles and a lot of creators do this and a lot of vloggers

do this and it's very very useful. Kn fact on my own vlogging channel where

I've been documenting my life, my personal life on the farm in rural

England, I do write the subtitles for you so you know that what I'm saying on

screen is what is also written on screen. How can you tell if the subtitles are

trustworthy or not? Well one indicator is the term

'auto-generated' which will come up if YouTube's AI system has developed the

software if you follow some vloggers that speak a native level of English

watch their videos with subtitles every week or every day you will pick up on so

much vocabulary vocabulary that we use as natives in our daily lives

number two is listen to a variety of accents and dialects now I don't just

say accents I say dialects because different parts of my country England

have different dialects so northern slang is very different to southern

slang in fact British English is so unbelievably diverse so for example

something as simple for me as a can of coke well up north they might say a tin

of coke when that would sound ridiculous for me so to ensure that you understand

everything that you listen to or almost everything that you listen to because

let's face it everything would be quite the challenge because even I don't

understand everything that I hear you do need to listen to a variety of accents

and dialects the different sounds that they produce the different common

phrases that they use and the different slang words as well are really really

important and I have something in the pipeline that will massively help you

with this I'm going to talk about it more towards the end of this video

number three is of course speak with natives listen

to natives and speak to them but more than that it's ask for repetition and

ask for explanation so you want to speak with natives ask them to repeat things

and ask them to explain and justify things a lot of students ask me how they

can find well priced native teachers or native level teachers just because

someone isn't native doesn't mean that they're not an excellent teacher and

this segment is sponsored by a come and that I do genuinely highly recommend

and it's a talkie I talkie is a huge online database of both native and

non-native teachers who will give one-to-one video lessons with you 24

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tutor the teachers set their own rates and you can browse all of them and find

the rate that's best for you and it's also really good if you just want to

practice conversation and listening to someone talk and asking for them to

correct your responses because not only do they have qualified teachers they

also have community teachers who are there to practice conversation with you

now they've given me an offer to pass on to you you can get $10 worth of I

talking credits in your student wallet 48 hours after making your first

purchase of any amount all you've got to do is click on the link in the

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money than that also if you are at home and you'll find yourself with a bit of

extra spare time for an extra motivational push you can also sign up

to their language challenge this is where you take itoki classes and win

prizes along the way this challenge starts on the 9th of April and lasts

until the 24th of May what do you have to do is set yourself a language goal

and then you can earn vouchers coupons and entries into a huge prize drawer or

you can earn prizes of up to 500 a talkie credits so once you've signed up

to a talkie using the link down below check out the language challenge page

set yourself a goal and start earning those prizes right let's move on to way

number 4 now this is a really simple way of making native speech easier to

understand it's so simple I can't believe that

people still aren't taking advantage of it do you know about YouTube's slowdown

function now when I look at videos that are explaining something technical like

how to use my new washing machine or why Mike Hoover isn't sucking sometimes I

find the person takes ages to get to the point or to explain something so I speed

them up I click on the little cog and then I click on playback speed and I put

them at one point two five times speed or one point five if I'm feeling really

energetic however the slowdown function would be

really really useful for language learners you can slow down speech to

three-quarters of the natural pace 0.75 speed if you're watching a video and

you're interested in what that person is saying but they are just speaking too

quickly try that 0.75 speed now 0.5 tends to be too slow the person sounds

drunk or deranged 0.75 for a very fast talker can actually be really really

helpful even for me as a native speaker there are some people that just go a

little more and I find it hard to follow so if there's a vlogger or a narrator or

a presenter that you have shunned in the past because they speak too quickly try

watching them on YouTube try slowing them down and let me know what you think

what would be even better is if they had their subtitles added as well so you can

watch them in slow speed without subtitles and then watch them again with

subtitles but more about that later on now number five this is a really common

listening tip but I'm going to talk about it because I've got something

extra to add it is watch English movies and TV shows now we all know this this

is one of the first tips that teachers will give you but it can be really

really hard and really daunting to try and work out which TV show and which

film is going to be at your level it's so annoying to finally find something

that you want to watch after reading loads of

and then you just can't understand it it's also really annoying when your

computer or your network won't allow you to access certain films and TV shows

because of where you live because your country is not allowed to view that

specific website I have got a video coming next week on my recommendations

for British TV shows and I start with beginner level and move to pre

intermediate intermediate and advanced I cover all the bases and they're all

shows that will help you develop a British English accent and help you

understand it as well I'll also talk about the variety of

British English accents as well now when this video is live I will link it in the

description box so check that out because I want to help you find

something that you can actually watch and understand and then you can move up

through the levels number six is learn responses that will buy you more time

because when we are listening to what someone is saying in a language that is

not our first language we do need that little bit of extra time to process what

they're trying to say I have a couple of tricks and phrases that will buy you

more time things that you can say without seeming like a strange person

going because that is what a lot of English learners do it's a natural thing

to want to fill the gap by just making one noise like

and you also don't want to just fill it with silence because that can be awkward

that person might think that you've not heard them when really you've just not

understood them what you want to do is fill the conversation with fillers or

interjections and I've made various videos on this topic I did a great one

with Harry from real English with real teachers on interjections things like

ooh

I will link that down below and also last week I did post a video on

different ways to say I know and I understand because those are very

commonly used in conversation whilst you're processing what someone has said

or you're just showing that you've understood and acknowledged what they've

said again I will link that I think both of those videos would be really really

useful they will give you phrases that you can use to buy more time whilst

you're processing speech number seven is listen whilst you read listen whilst you

read now I talked about this a lot in my videos because it really really works

I'm always talking about listening to audiobooks as you read the actual book

and I'm not just saying this for fun this is genuinely such a good method it

trains your brain to connect written words with spoken words it helps improve

your pronunciation it helps improve your listening it helps improve your spelling

as well the way a word is spelt in English doesn't necessarily give you any

indication as to how it's pronounced in English and the way a word is pronounced

in English doesn't really help you work out how that word is spelt this is why

English seems like such a hard language to understand when you're listening to

it and such a hard language to pronounce because you look at word and you just

have no idea how it should be pronounced if you take a book that you have already

read in English or a book that you would like to read in English and read that

book as you are listening to that same audiobook version your problems will be

solved now it's important to find a narrator you like and this is why I

always recommend audible audible is an amazing platform of audiobooks they have

the most incredible selection and you can also listen to quite lengthy samples

so you can work out if you like the narrator's accent if you like the speed

at which they speak you can also slow them down and you can speed them up if

you feel like you need to and the best part is you can get one free audio book

that's a 30-day free trial or an audible and you just have to click on the link

in the description box to sign up and there I've put some recommendations for

great books as well audiobooks to listen to and they're written book counterparts

it's a great method that's why I talk about it all the time now the last tip

number 8 is to create your own transcription exercises you know those

annoying horrible listening tests where you have to fill in a gap right what you

hear unfortunately they work however we want

to do something that's relevant for us don't we so if you find something that

is particularly interesting to you have you are interested in photography and

it's about cameras maybe you're interested in wildlife or skateboarding

I have no idea but everybody has their thing don't they I personally love

cooking and gardening well if you find something that's very very interesting

to you create your own listing exercise because it won't be so boring and

painful this exercise is all about listening blindly meaning that you are

not looking at any visuals so you don't see their mouth moving you don't see

their emotion nothing and you definitely definitely don't look at any subtitles

take one sentence or if you're feeling more advanced you can take a couple of

sentences and listen to it once then you can listen to it for a second time and

then you have to write down exactly what you've heard or what you think you've

heard after that you can listen to it one more time and you can look at the

transcription or the subtitles make sure they are accurate and there you have it

you've created your own transcription exercise using something that is

relevant and interesting to you the reason why these sorts of exercises are

included in so many different examinations

by so many different prestigious examination boards across the globe it's

because they really really work so if you can get into the habit of every time

you're listening to something interesting and you know there are

reliable transcriptions or subtitles available to you if you do this and make

it a habit you really really will learn so much and you'll get so used to

analyzing things from a listening perspective right that's it for today's

lesson I hope you enjoyed it and I definitely hope you take some of my

advice please feel free to add any more advice so we can all learn from each

other in the comments section and don't forget to check out I talk e you can

click on the link down below and get your ten dollars worth of I talk e

credits and you can start the language challenge don't forget to connect with

me on all of my social media I've got my Facebook I've got my Instagram and I've

got my Twitter and I've got my personal channel with fully subtitled vlogs of my

life here on a farm I do lots of cooking I do lots of walking I do lots of

chatting and just organizing my home it's meant to be relaxing for you and

I've had quite positive feedback so far so I hope you enjoy it as well I will

see you soon for another lesson