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Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Understanding the spoken English

Any advice on how to improve my understanding of the spoken English?
My writing skills are OK and I do not have trouble understanding the written English,
but when it comes to day to day conversations you can only ask people to repeat
what they are saying once or twice. At least on TV I can turn the close captioning on... Emotion: smile
Thanks.
  

Top answer

There is no secret except practice. One thing that is important is to attach some task to your listening practice. Record the TV show or use sound recordings and try to write down extracts verbatim, for instance.

— Mister Micawber

  • There is no secret except practice.
  • One thing that is important is to attach some task to your listening practice.
  • Record the TV show or use sound recordings and try to write down extracts verbatim, for instance.
  • Good listening textbooks provide authentic recordings and interesting tasks.
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6 Answers
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There is no secret except practice. One thing that is important is to attach some task to your listening practice. Record the TV show or use sound recordings and try to write down extracts verbatim, for instance. Good listening textbooks provide authentic recordings and interesting tasks.
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Hello Guest

You might:

1. Record radio broadcasts in English, and replay them till you
roughly understand the sense.

2. Buy an audio-book (maybe a classic novel or a children's book). Listen
to the recording till you're pretty certain you understand the sense. Then
compare your understanding with the text.

3. Record tv programmes in Engli
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I'm sorry, Mr M., I appear to be tailgating. I didn't see you there.

MrP
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The more ideas the merrier, Mr. P.
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Thanks for the advice.
Is listening to the TV with the caption on a bad habit?

Alice
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It's not a "bad habit" (as bad habits go!), but it is distracting you from listening more intensely. By dividing your attention between listening and reading, you are getting less listening practice than you could otherwise. I'd say don't use the captions; they are hardly ever exactly what's being said anyway.

By the same line of reasoning, radio is even better than television.
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