Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
When I was in high school, my English score was always at the upper-middle level. The CET 4 and CET 6 in the university also scored high in reading and writing, but my listening was poor. Other students made 5 mistakes in listening, and I made 11 mistakes.
Over time, I have become a bit of a psychological "learned helplessness". After experiencing setbacks, I attribute uncontrollable negative results to my own inability, and often feel very helpless.
Afterwards, I asked some people who are good at speaking English, and they basically answered English movies. I am convinced by this statement, because I hardly watch any TV movies in English, nor do I listen to English songs.
So, I frantically downloaded British and American dramas online, and saved Modern Family, Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, etc. on my computer.
I planned to start with comedy, so I chose "The Big Bang Theory" directly. After watching it for a while, I found that my listening level had hardly improved. I was again confused and didn't know why.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
Why Watching Movies Can't Improve English Listening
In my spare time today, I saw a video shared by a person in an English-learning APP, explaining why watching movies alone cannot improve English listening.
First of all, when we watch English movies, the subtitles may be in English, or in bilingual or Chinese. Our eyes observe this picture, while our ears listen to English, and even read Chinese to translate.
So think about it, do you think that the eyes receive the content of the picture faster or the plot received by the subtitles is faster?
The answer is obvious, we first accept the content of the picture with our eyes, and then read the subtitles after understanding it with our minds.
However, under the premise of poor English listening, our reaction speed cannot keep up with the spoken speed of British and American dramas, and our energy is all on understanding the development of the plot.
So the common situation is to let oneself quickly keep up with the plot, choosing not to "listen" but to watch the subtitles directly. This actually improves our fast English reading ability, not listening ability.
Second, listening and hearing are completely different meanings. To give the simplest example, in our student days, many classmates, including myself, liked to listen to songs while reading and doing questions. At this time, we just listened instead of listening, because our minds were on books. .
But when you enter the workplace, the leader assigns you tasks, and you listen with all your heart, for fear of missing any details. This is listening.
So the difference between listening and hearing is that listening is mindful, and hearing is not mindful. Listening is concentrating, hearing is inattentive.
I believe that many times, when we watch a movie, before we can understand the meaning, we have already switched to the next picture to let our eyes and brain digest the new content.
In a hurry, I didn't digest the previous content at all, and new content came. It was really like the song "One wave has not yet subsided, another wave is attacking, violent storms".
While watching English subtitles, you only "hear" English, not listen.
In the final analysis, watching movies is actually a form of entertainment, not an effective way to practice English listening.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
Two misunderstandings of listening practice
So besides that, what are the reasons why we can't practice English listening well?
One of the most important reasons for my personal conclusion is pseudo-diligence.
When I practiced listening, I started to listen to VOA in slow speed, and I listened to it on the way to and from get off work.
While listening to the listening, I was interrupted by the station broadcast on the bus and the next station. In fact, this is a very bad training method.
Hearing requires concentration to avoid frequent interruptions of external sounds, because once attention is interrupted, it takes a while to fully recover.
You think that you can make full use of your trivial time to practice listening every day, but it is almost ineffective. It just seems to be listening to "hearing", but it has not substantially improved. Therefore, when practicing listening, it is very important to choose the right place.
The second is to listen mechanically and repeatedly without breaking through.
Let's imagine, when we were students, why the teacher asked us to do wrong questions, because we have fully understood and absorbed the correct questions, and doing it again will not help except to improve the speed.
It’s like when you are in the exam room, you still won’t know the questions you don’t know, but the questions you know are done faster and finished ahead of time, but the overall score remains the same.
Many people "go through the motions" when they practice listening. After listening to the content three times, and listening to it again the next day, it is still the same as new. Words that cannot be understood still cannot be understood, and sentence patterns that cannot be understood are still “translated”.
In fact, efforts without breakthrough progress are hooligans.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
Effective ways to practice listening
Since watching movies can't improve listening, why do those oral speakers and teachers highly recommend it?
They recommend watching movies, not for you to read Chinese and English subtitles to digest the content, but really to "listen." Listen to their voice intonation, listen to what professional vocabulary they use in what scene, and integrate it into a context. , constantly infiltrating, constantly repeating, and constantly improving, this is the essence of listening.
I have recently read the video of basic voice training, and I have re-recited the fourth and sixth level words. At the same time, I have practiced listening. I have gained some tangible gains and share them with you.
First, the first step in effective listening practice: master the standard pronunciation of words.
After learning English for many years, my speaking and listening still haven't improved. The most fundamental reason is the inaccurate pronunciation of words.
Many people don't understand phonetic symbols at all, or even read phonetic symbols. They don't know what plosives, fricatives, unvoiced consonants, and voiced consonants are. After practicing for many years, they are still Chinglish (Chinese-style English).
Some people even joked that they can only understand English spoken by Chinese people who are similar to their own level.
Like when we learn Chinese, we can't understand the babbling of children because their pronunciation is different from our standard pronunciation. So the same is true for learning English.
We not only have to learn the correct standard pronunciation of each word, but also know how to read a sentence together, know where to rise, where to drop, which to emphasize, and which to weak.
You will find that you understand exactly the words you can recognize or pronounce correctly. If you don't know the standard pronunciation made by others, naturally you can't match the number, and you can't understand it.
Therefore, in order to improve your listening level, you should first figure out the principle of pronunciation and intonation before practicing.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
The second step of effective listening: Familiarize yourself with sentence structure.
When we listen to a sentence, especially if the sentence is a little longer, the second monk can't figure it out.
But when I read the original text of listening, I found that all the words in it are known, and even many of them are words that we have mastered for a long time.
Why is this happening? The reason is that you do not have a deep understanding and mastery of the structure of sentences, that is, sentence patterns.
A long sentence is placed in reading or writing, maybe you can understand it, because you see it with your eyes, you have enough reaction time, you can ponder it carefully, and you can read it again if you don’t understand it, but listening is a moment. process.
If you are not able to deeply grasp the sentence patterns, such as attributive clauses, predicative clauses, apposition clauses, object clauses, etc. After a long sentence, if you cannot clearly distinguish the subject, verb and object, it is impossible to understand the sentence.
Reading ability is also a prerequisite for improving listening skills.
You won't understand until you hear a sentence and know which words are "modifiers" and which are the stem of the sentence.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
The third step of effective listening: distinguish between content words and function words
If a person speaks without punctuation, he speaks in one go, and he hears every word clearly, and you need to react for a while to understand the meaning of his expression.
This requires us to learn to listen to content words and function words when listening.
Content words are words with actual meaning, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and quantifiers; function words are articles, prepositions, and interjections.
Usually content words are emphasized in spoken language, while function words are weakly read. You have never heard a person who speaks English emphasizes prepositions. Listening to the stressed pronunciation in listening will help you to refine key information.
The key information is found, and the meaning is naturally understood.
The fourth step of effective listening: follow-up
The problem of many people is that they just concentrate on listening, and they don't follow along or strengthen them, which is bound to be ineffective.
The listening materials are all classic selections. During the follow-up process, we have strengthened our speaking and listening skills.
Every time you finish listening to a sentence, you have to read it along, and then go back and listen carefully, listening carefully to the tone of the other person's voice. Look at the difference between yourself and the spoken language in the material, correct it in time, and imitate it repeatedly until it is very standard.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
Effective Listening Step 5: Retell
After listening to a piece of material, an effective method is to repeat the original text.
We know that the best way to learn is by application, and effective retelling is one type of application. By "processing" the original text and repeating it in your own words, you can train your oral expression skills, and at the same time deepen and evaluate your own understanding of listening materials.
You can listen to the complete material for the first time to understand the scene and environment in which the material occurs, and what topics are being discussed.
Listen to it a second time, listen carefully to the narrative structure of the material, and summarize it logically.
Listen to the details for the third time to understand the emotions and viewpoints.
After listening to it three times, and trying to repeat it by yourself, you will understand your mastery and know how to improve it.
Can watching movies improve English listening? Learn how to practice listening effectively, 6 steps to help you solve it
The sixth step of effective listening: Overcome nervousness.
We should not listen to listening or practice speaking in order to understand listening, but to improve speaking.
There is a phenomenon in psychology called the Wallenda effect, which refers to the mentality of always worrying about gains and losses in order to achieve a goal. Too much success to focus on the things themselves.
You pay too much attention to some things, but it will lead to nervousness and poor performance.
When I started listening to listening, I was as nervous as I was in the exam room, for fear that I would miss something if I didn’t understand, which made me too focused and didn’t understand. Often after I understand a sentence, I run away.
Therefore, everyone regards listening as listening to a person speaking, and it is good to maintain a relaxed and serious attitude. Remember too much.