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Mistakes When Listening

The document discusses 5 common mistakes made when practicing listening skills in English. 1) Listening to audio that is too easy or difficult, which does not improve skills. 2) Always listening with a transcript, which prevents training to understand without text. 3) Trying too hard to understand every word, which causes missing other words. 4) Giving up too early after only one listen, without allowing repetition to increase understanding. 5) Only doing "passive listening" without focus, when active listening with exercises is more effective.

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olga barragan
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104 views3 pages

Mistakes When Listening

The document discusses 5 common mistakes made when practicing listening skills in English. 1) Listening to audio that is too easy or difficult, which does not improve skills. 2) Always listening with a transcript, which prevents training to understand without text. 3) Trying too hard to understand every word, which causes missing other words. 4) Giving up too early after only one listen, without allowing repetition to increase understanding. 5) Only doing "passive listening" without focus, when active listening with exercises is more effective.

Uploaded by

olga barragan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mistake #1 – Listening to audios that are too easy or too hard

In some audio lessons designed for English learners, the speakers talk suuuuuuuper
sloooooowly. Or they only use extremely simple vocabulary.

If you practice listening to audio like this, you'll understand almost everything. This can
make you feel good at the time… but later, when you listen to natural spoken English,
it will be very difficult!

On the other hand, if you try listening to audios that are too fast or too advanced, you’ll
understand very little - for example, less than 25%. This can make you get frustrated
and bored, and then it's easy to give up and stop trying

Mistake #2 – Always listening with the text

This seems like a good idea, but it can actually be a disadvantage!

If you always read the transcript while listening, you’re training yourself to be
dependent on seeing the written words.

Remember, you won’t have the text available when listening to a real live English
speaker. This means it's essential to practice listening WITHOUT reading the text.

Yes, it's more difficult. Yes, there will be words and phrases you won't understand.

But the only way to improve is to practice and do your best!

I suggest listening to each audio at least three times:

 Once trying to understand the general idea


 Once (or twice) trying to understand more specific details
 Once with the transcript

Mistake #3 - Trying too hard to understand every word

Yes, it’s your goal to understand everything… but here’s what often happens,
unfortunately:
 You start listening.
 You hear a word or expression you don’t understand, and you start
thinking and worrying about that word, or trying to figure it out.
 The speaker has continued while you’ve been thinking about what you didn’t
understand. Now more words and sentences have passed by and you
didn’t hear them at all.
 You worry even more because you're having difficulty following the
speaker, and now it’s even harder to understand because you feel nervous
and insecure.

Obviously, this process is not good!

Here’s what you should do instead:

If you hear a word you don’t recognize, just let it go.

Accept that you’re not perfect, and continue to pay attention so that you can still
accompany the speaker and understand most of what he/she is saying.

I know it's hard, but try not to be a "perfectionist." Getting upset when you miss a word
or expression will only make it more difficult to concentrate and understand.

Let's be realistic - when we are learning something or developing our abilities, of


course we won't do everything 100% right all the time. Making mistakes and not
understanding words is completely normal; it's a natural part of the learning process!

So please don't "beat yourself up" (get frustrated or annoyed at yourself) when you
don't catch every single word while listening.

Just relax and keep doing your best. Be happy about what you CAN understand,
and continue practicing - and over time, you'll find that you understand more and more.

Mistake #4 - Giving up too early

Many students practice listening like this...

 Listen to an audio once and understand about 50%


 Think “I’m not very good at listening” and stop practicing

That’s missing out on a huge opportunity!

When you listen for the very first time, it's normal not to understand everything.

But if you stop after just ONE try, you're making a big mistake - because when you
listen to the same audio multiple times, you’ll understand more and moreeach time.

Now that you're familiar with about 50% of the audio, you have that understanding as a
base, a foundation. So the second time you listen, you'll pick up a little bit more and
increase your understanding to 60%. Listening a third and fourth time can boost your
understanding to 80% or higher, which is really good.

That's why you must listen at least four times:

 Once to understand the general idea


 Once to understand specific details
 Once to understand specific words
 Once with the complete transcript

Could you imagine an athlete training for the Olympics, who tries to do an exercise
ONCE and then gives up, saying it's too hard? That would be crazy! He or she would
never improve, and certainly wouldn't make it to the Olympics.

In the same way, you need patience, persistence, and repetition to improve your
listening abilities.

Mistake #5 - Only doing "passive listening"

Some teachers claim you can learn English only by listening. They say, “Just listen
more!” as if that will magically get you to fluency.

I agree that most students do need to practice more listening. However, listening
practice is most effective when it is active, not passive.

Passive listening is “just listening” – maybe while you’re distracted or while you’re
doing something else at the same time (driving, exercising, etc.) I’m NOT saying this is
bad. In fact, you should listen to English as much as you can!

But active listening is even better. “Active listening” means doing exercises and
having a specific focus or goal while you’re listening.

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