Listening Comprehension - The Core Language Skill
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2013
- Far too much emphasis is placed on speaking in language instruction. If the emphasis were placed on listening comprehension, people would end up speaking better.
Timelines:
1:05 Speaking is highly overrated.
2:06 Listening is the fundamental skill.
2:34 Listening is easy to organize.
5:32 Speaking and Listening reinforce each other.
6:03 Reading is a form of listening.
7:18 There is too much emphasis on speaking.
7:45 A possible solution for school system.
10:27 Step 1 in any language.
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It's pointless if one can speak a language fluently without being able to comprehend what's being said to them. You are 100% right about listening comprehension being a core activity when it comes to language learning.
That's my French story haha, currently very busy improving listening.
It's totally true. I've been listening English for 2 years. I'm able to understand almost 90% of a speech in spoken English. I've never studied grammar rules and the grammar is coming naturally in my brain and my writing is improving a lot due to my exposition in the language. Listening definitely is the KEY of learning any language that you want to.
Yes...language develop slowly inside in brain...
You also can get a good comprehension in the language by reading and exposing yourself
Collocations
How much time you listen a day?
did you only listen? did you read?
I’m native Spanish speaker and Japanese teacher. You are a master, really useful and realistic advices
"...especially when my wife plays the piano."
Shots fired!
Prior to visiting France, I felt skeptical about being able to learn to speak quickly although I felt 100% confident listening to the language and understanding everything, provided I knew all the words which I most often did. You are completely right, though. Within a couple of weeks I went from stumbling over myself to having full conversations with the people I met about everything we could think of. It was the most rewarding experience of my life, and it gave me motivation to work even more.
Hey :) I am wondering if you'd be willing to share your tips for learning to understand french in particular? Would be very appreciated :]
I would dare to say that there is a lot of damage caused on beginner students attending courses pushing them to speak the target language in a early stage when they are just starting to absorbe the language by listening and reading. And even worse, testing the beginners' speaking performance. They are made to skyp the most enjoyable stage which is listening to and reading some interesting stuff . Superb explanation, Master Kaufmann! Thousand Thanks! Sorry about my English mistakes. :-)
So true. Been “speaking” Italian for six months with my tutor, abastaza bene. But listening is a different matter. Going to focus on listening now.
Totally i agree with this, in my cases, i almost learn english by listening to a native english speaker , and the more time you spend in listening the fluency you become, also by listening you pick up the structure of th language, the grammar and so, Here is an advice that will help anyone wanna learn english by himself , if you spend at least two Hours a day listening to something that you can understand 60 to 70% of it, after 6 to 10 months you will find yourself able to speak english automatically, without thinking at all
I have such a hard time with listening comprehension, reading and speaking comes pretty easy because everything is structured in my mind. But damn, as soon as someone starts talking my mind stops working, I start trying to visualize how what they're saying would look like if it were written. bluuh,
Scias try to listen to stuff with the subs in english, after 2 months doing this from 2 to 3 hours a day you let me know.
Scias I'm the same, I have to picture the written words in my head, but it's too quick!!
Portuguese Class Amo português, francês e inglês Estou ouvindo dormindo. E vejo os idiomas evoluindo muito. Tanto na escrita quanto na fala.
I agree. I read for interest and to learn about the culture of the language I am learning.
I couldn't agree more, Steve! Also, being able to listen allows you to enjoy the culture much more.
I really agree with you.
A strong base of good listenning comprehension is the key for the next step of advence speaking.
For me no question about it.
I'm French and i see each time i improve my listenning for Spanish,Anglish and Russian my speaking improve after.
Hi Steve, your viewpoint about listening comprehension is the core language skill totally has been changed my English capability. As an introvert, I was stuck about the idea that if you don't have enough speaking that you cannot master any second language for a decade. but listening as the first approach is totally free me from the barrier, and my English skill improved so much since I listened to your podcast in the past year. Thank you so much, Steve!
Get the tune in radio app. I use that for French. You can listen to radio shows from around the world in your desired language. I'm also just watching french sitcoms.
Even when I live where the languages spoken, I focus on my listening comprehension. I also try to take advantage of every opportunity to speak.
I have heard of it, and would imagine that it is an effective classroom teaching model, very effective, excellent for schools!
You mentioned looking for resources in Korean. Korean drama is very popular including some in historical settings. One very sweet one to start with is entitled with the English word Pasta.
Steve, thanks a lot for your videos! Your secrets-tips are very great, interesting and useful, as well. I fully agree with you. And I know it exactly that daily practice is the best teacher!
Your videos are great!! I frequently watch them to stay motivated to improve my English and now, to learn French.
Merci Beaucoup!!
I've been dedicating my time in Listening and today i can feel the progress that i've made during this time. Listening is the key of learning any language that you want to.
I always look forward to your videos, keep them up. :-)
I am at the stage now where I am ready to start speaking, and am constantly improving my comprehension through listening and reading through lingQ and with books that my ex gave me. I'm studying French, and absolutely loving it thanks to how much fun the learning method that Steve recommends is.
Prime the pump.. This one was new for me. Glad to learn new expression s every day. Definitely listening is one of the most important skills, without any doubt. And now with Internet, CZcams, etc never was easier to learn another language. Keep on listening and reading even if you don't have many opportunities to speak. Greetings from Spain. Stay Safe
Another problem you get with audio materials aimed at children (e.g. audibooks in your target language) is the voice actors often put on silly comic voices, which has the impact of distorting the sound.
Thank you Steve. I first have doubts about your method but as I watch more and more of your videos. I finally took the decision of removing my production cards from my Mandarin deck, I noticed that not only does it make my reviews hard, it also doesn't make it fun because it's way more difficult to produce words/sentences than to just recognize them.
I think that the listening skill (in english and german) is the best ability that I have. I hope that the speaking will come, as you say.
Thank you very much for your videos, they are very motivating :).
You are it Bruno
how long you have been learning /listening?
Steve your videos are awesome please keep creating content about language learning!!!
I've just assessed my current ability in my target language as being:
1. Reading - 2/5
2. Writing - 2/5
3. Listening comprehension - 1/5
4. Speaking - 1/5
As a result, I've decided to put more emphasis on listening to podcasts & watching videos over the next 3 months to improve my listening comprehension.
And 3 years later:
1. Reading - 4/5
2. Writing - 4/5
3. Listening comprehension - 3.5 / 5
4. Speaking - 3/5.
I would rate myself somewhere between B2 / C1 level in my target language.
Sincerely thanks for your sharing,it’s impressive to know how the language learning works for polyglot!
It is absolutely correct that listening skill is the most important for learning a language
I always learn something new on this channel. Great video!
You are a brilliant teacher! God bless you and your family!
I love the end of this video! ^^ You should do more videos of trips while you are listening to an audio book ! It's relaxing.
Hi there. I have enjoyed your videos. I have a unique case. My second language is Spanish. I took 2 years in high school and fell in love with it. Over the past 11 or 12 years I have studied all sorts of materials, flash cards, tons of audio, researched every spanish learning product and tried most, watch TV in Spanish...but didnt always do it religiously until the past 3 or 4 years. Now i study and watch TV in Spanish literally every day and still have a passion for it. I understand about 85% of what is spoken to me and about 95% of what I read. I'm always complemented on my accent in Spanish and told it is very native sounding (usually tell me Puerto Rican). However, when it's my turn to speak I realize how little it seems I know. I find myself not able to pull the right words or the correct tense to use, etc. I completely understand that I need someone to be able to speak to routinely and that is about the only way to break out of my plateau that I've been on for what seems to be years now. I have made efforts to find people to practice with and frankly there are many Hispanics in my town but I have no luck finding someone to practice steadily with. Any other advice you can offer for me to become fluent? Thank you for your time.
Travis Mills There are lots of language exchange sites on the web. iTalki is one. You just have to talk more. Go for it.
Thanks. The fellow has such a rich and sonorous voice.
I'm american I speak English, French (depuis 4 ans) and Spanish (desde hace 3 años). Yesterday I started learning Russian. I love your videos!!
Steve you found the most interesting podcast available in Italian. I am trying to learn German because of the podcast about Frederich der große from Alessandro Barbero and the interest I get about this story!
Great video, Steve! They're always a pleasure to watch.
I'm learning Japanese and watched a lot of anime before I started learning the language. So naturally my listening skills is the strongest. I can read and write but I still find speaking difficult. I visited Tokyo in July; I could survive but could not carry a convo very far. I'm not sure if it's an input or output problem tho.
Do you think there's a "sweet spot" in the learning journey to transition into speaking? If so, when?
I think you are so right. When I "talk" to someone in Spanish (which I have been learning for many years), I am so concerned/worried about understanding them, that speaking becomes very secondary. Plus, most people do not want to hear you (not your specifically but in general :)); they just want to talk :). I rarely meet a person who does not like the sound of their voice and at least remotely interested in I whether I want to hear them or not (I mean in English, of course). Sorry for long comment.
I agree that comprehension is the most important of language skills. However listening is definitely not the only thing that helps build up comprehension.
All the language skills are coupled and reinforce each other. For example, it's a well known fact that if you need to memorize text you need to speak it aloud. Listening to it repeatedly or reciting in your head are inefficient.
It's not necessary to speak to anybody but reading and speaking aloud to oneself is not a foolish exercise.
Too many times people focus developing monologues, but CANNOT hear AND respond. Hearing and responding is a key indicator of how well you know a language. Just because you can give me a 10 minute monologue does not mean you know the language.
I think you may be a genuis.
The best French course I ever took was an online course in university called Basic French: Listening. There was no speaking involved (and we wrote our assignments in English), just a lot of training our ears to different sounds, and then watching videos with subtitles of real French content, and finding songs we liked. As a Canadian, this was my first exposure to French spoken by native speakers (all my teachers thus far had been anglophone), as well as the idea that language can be interesting because it's connected to culture. It was perhaps not long enough to make a huge difference in my comprehension, but it improved my pronunciation tremendously, which suggests to me that speaking well depends on having a good knowledge of what you are trying to reproduce.
Thank you Steve. Your speech is inspiring as always.
Hello Steve, I definitely agree with you. Listening comprehension is key. Infants learn their language by listening first longer before they absorb enough language to speak.
I am currently learning Japanese and I can cross reference and make connections with my first language. Japanese will be my third language. Hoping to learn way more languages than just 3.
good data. I know Castellano and Gaeilge at the intermediate level. Your input has helped me much focus my learning.
LISTENING AS A CORE OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.
thanks a lot steve I really like your videos ..I think also that listening is very important ...I studied english in algiers and i came here to barcelona in 2008 I speak arabic french spanish little catalan and english..according to me writing and reading i manage them well but speaking fluently is little bit difficult...since i am not with native speakers ...I will be happy to improove my speaking skill
My thoughts exactly! Had been thinking the same today, before I came across your video! I share your view, as being in a Dutch-speaking environment a lot of times I find myself in the situations when somebody is shouting something to me (in Dutch or a local dialect) from a distance or a neighbor, passing by, is commenting sth all of a sudden and expects my reaction. All goes well, when I am somehow prepared and I can recognize the context but it fails when I don't see the immediate relation.
thank you a lot steve ..i learnt a lot from your videos
Great video! Thank you! When it comes to a new language learning method, I believe that the whole concept of input versus output methods derives from one basic factor.
Whether the learner cares for the language and the culture versus he/she doesn't care for the language and especially the culture.
When a learner loves the culture and wants the culture to make their own, he/she just can't rush on and intrude with some foreign pronunciation.
The learner will be happy to absorb the new culture and the new world of the target language. Only after enough exposure to the language, he/she will try to speak.
When a learner doesn't appreciate and doesn't value the culture, then there is nothing to care about. They want to start speaking ASAP just to get stuff done.
I am sure that it is the key factor *and it has nothing to do with different styles/methods of learning.*
Agree
That makes a lot of sense Mary. It's funny, I live in Ireland and there is a minority language called Irish spoken by some in certain areas.
There are people of Irish heritage from America, people from France, Germany who love this, what they'd view as an authentic and traditional Irish culture. They purchase learning materials that use native speaker audio, they find a good book, they learn the phonetics of the language and they focus strongly on being able to understand real native speakers.
Now, what's remarkable in a way that relates perfectly to what you said, is that Irish is taught in schools here but there's no widespread love for it, the majority of teachers have not mastered the phonetics and yet they are teachers of it. Similarly to the situation Steve mentioned about French in Canada, after ten years and despite passing all their tests, nobody can speak the language. Nobody can turn on the radio and listen and understand to native speakers after ten years.
But, these people who were very interested in the culture of Ireland, the west in particular, can often, after a few years of learning from quality dialectal learning material and lots of native speaker input, understand a lot of the language, and speak fluently too in many cases with much more correct pronunciation than the majority of Irish people who went through the school system.
There is an Irish language movement in the Republic, mostly centred in Dublin (as everything tends to be in the most centralised country in Europe), but many of these speakers were not driven by a love for the native Irish of the Gaeltachts or traditional Irish culture. They tend to speak the language with their own accent, without following the basic rules of the Irish phonetic system (broad/slender consonant distinctions, lenitions, and they replace both tapped broad r's and slender r's with an English r.) Their Irish sounds identical to English to foreign ears more or less.
I just think the difference between the learned Irish of the people who loved the culture and wanted the culture of the dialect they were learning as their own, and the anglicised speech of speakers of urban Irish, who are in a sense disconnected from or not interested in the native dialects, is fascinating.
Well said.
MANY THANKS FOR SO USEFUL AND ENJOYABLE VIDEO
not speaking well is frustrating but not being able to understand is even more frustrating. at least if you understand spoken and written speech you don't need to ask for clarification or the meaning
I use you videos to listening! Thanks a lot for the tips!
You are totally delightful happy holidays
I only noticed that I was improving my english comprehension when I started to watch videos in english and listen to the language is as it is spoken , before I could type a little bit and talk to someone by text, but I couldn't understand people when they were talking :)
the last barrier now is the vocabulary
Listening language improve every things in mind ,listening clear language doubts..,listening make us confident in life
I found your tips very helpful .
many thanks .
I'll check the site for French versions. Thanks. I've read the Holmes stories many, many times in English. Great winter reading.
Wow! The landscape of Canada is gorgeous!
This really sounds for a good audiobook for someone who is still in the intermediate stages of learning! He speaks so clearly, and not to quickly at all! Where can one buy it? I guess online, huh? Who was the reader again?
You know what I'd really really like to see, a video where you literally film your method, film yourself studying and upload it. I've seen similar videos and O'd really like t
I'd really like to see yours. That would be fascinating!
thank you very much for your amazing videos. scholarly explained. Félicitations a vous! Pozdrav,Salutazioni, salutations, Xairetismata, greetings, Vyszlat de Paris!
This, Steve, is one of best 10 minutes of non target language listening anyone learning can spend time listening to.
As an aside, your little fire side chats have been the impetus toward me finally, after a decade flopping around in classes, becoming functional in my first second language: Spanish. Gracias de million!
GREAT VIDEO...!
That's totally me, I can speak ok and generally get my question/point across but when a fluent speaker replies, if they don't say what I expect to hear them I'm goosed. I definitely need to work on my comprehension. I'm learning Irish and Spanish.
Quite informative. Vielen danke.
hey Steve, thank you so much for these videos. I know it would be a lot of work, but would you consider adding CC for Chinese or Japanese? I watch your videos sometimes with my international friends, and they sometimes don't understand everything.
Is that Italian audio book available on LingQ? Great vids as always! If not where is it available?
I wish there were more extensive learning resources that were aimed at listening to and understanding spoken language right at the start, with say the first fifty or hundred words. With twenty nouns, ten adjectives, ten nouns plus a handful of articles, conjunctions, pronouns. It would be so useful to listen to and test one's self those right from the start.
I totally agree. The method you advocate is the best way to learn a language without wasting time.
Hello. Are you Armenian?
@@iberius9937 Hello. Yes, I am
As a young child, I learned another language next to English since I have multilingual parents. I could read in this language and watch movies just as well however, I can barely speak the language.
You need to read and acquire words, watching TV even with sub-titles is not how I would learn languages. Come over to LingQ to see how it is done.
Although I have yet to meet a language learner who acquired the ability to understand a foreign language spoken by a native speaker at native speeds and was really unable to effectively reciprocate and have a two way conversation, I have definitely met people who grew up in a household where two languages were spoken and yet they only spoke one but could understand both. This rather fascinates me. I suspect it has something to do with the differences of how adults learn a language using textbooks vs how kids learn it on the street. As an adult, I have to consciously study grammar and have a basic understanding of the rules for common sentence patterns just to achieve passive understanding of spoken language. Even if I don't really need that, I believe I do, and I study the grammar enough that I get those basics. But kids don't necessarily it seems. It seems that if they don't speak it and get that practice and the feedback from their peers that goes with it, they don't achieve the ability to speak it effectively. Anyway. I'm going to go listen to some Japanese. Interesting topic.
I think it's more a matter of will. Very often people who understand a second language and never speak it, or just not very motivated to do so. Obviously the language learner is.
I don't read aloud. I think it depends on what we like to do.
thank you so much,me too I will do the same.
Steve , I'm Brazilian .I can read and listen in english very well . For example, I understood your video perfectly.But I very shy and i can't speak at all. It's terrible.
How can I overcome this ?
By the way, i love yours videos.
I have the same problem ;/
Antonio Colangelo yah..podcasts really helps me.
comment on videos and chat as much as you can with people in the beginning, because you are less shy when you know you can use a dictionary in case you feel stuck. after breaking the ice this way, you are going to find it easier to speak; and if you don't know a word, you can always describe it in a few words... for example you don't know the word "zipper" : that kind of thing you pull so you can close bags or clothes, how is it called? also, talking face to face helps a lot because you can use body language, and explain with your hands a lot. in the beginning, that helps, too.
Nevermind “english
keep your own languages
Firstly you have to lose your shyness of speaking the language. Making mistakes is the part of the process in being fluently in the foreign language. I'm Brazilian too
I understand your point and I do agree. However, depending on the content that you are listening to, it may or may not be appropriate. For example, I am studying Thai and I watch my wive’s soap operas for Thai speed and exposure. I don’t get a lot out of it. Do you believe any exposure is inportant? Should context and knowledge be taken into account when finding a language to listen to? It is difficult to find an appropriate place to begin.
Good stuff! mr
I'm currently listening to that Pinocchio audiobook you recommended. Would you advise making note of the words I'm unfamiliar with or just soaking in the language and trying to train my ear?
"Reading is a form of listening" - that's it!
I have added a short video where I read in Arabic to the video that will show up later today. I hope it encourages your learners.
I follow advice from both you and Benny haha, different approaches but you're both successful. Does anyone know of any good French stuff I can listen to? I have no idea what or how to get a hold of podcasts (are). Thanks
No, that is the problem of finding comprehensible input appropriate to the learner's level in the target language. It's not possible for Steve, or anyone, to address every issue and make full recommendations in every context, but even so, if you watch the video again, you'll see that he does actually mention the necessity of starting off with "beginner" material. Check out Steve's interview with Stephen Krashen for more detail.
Steve is right about french in Canada I grew up with it. It wasn't fun learning, more or less just memorizing verb conjugation. Topics were boring.Though now I can like pick up some words but it's so bad I don't really understand what is going on. There are french immersion schools, from most part the kids do remember french but after highschool if they don't keep talking in French they forget like on of my friends.
"Emphasis on comprehension": I totally completely agree
Listening to different podcasts or tv shows/movies can really help you (because you hear different voices/people).
It is clear and unquestionable listening is the most important skill to "work out", since then children do this before anything else in their childhood. But, my question is, when you reach a upper intermediate level how do remember vocabulary? Steven says that he does not spend more than 5% of his studying time checking vocabulary out, so how can we do this? I am a intermediate to upper intermediate studying English and a begginer French studying and I need to make this study more effective and more enjoyable.
Ever heard of TPRS? It's a method that is very popular in some teaching circles that focus on storytelling. The teacher weaves a story around the students in the class with a lot of repetition and students participate by acting out what they hear. It is very comprehension-based. It emphasizes the importance of comprehensible input and its proponents believe that speaking follows comprehension and shouldn't be emphasized.
Steve, thanks for the videos! They are really helpful.
And where do you find so much material to listen in swedish? I've thought about podcasts, but I dont really know what I can find 'stuff' in swedish.
Thanks already!
Diogo Farias You can find some in our library at LingQ and can ask on our forum. Audible has some Swedish material. I bought a lot of Swedish audio books. My favourites were history books by Hermann Lindqvist.
Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Thanks once again. I'll take a look at it.
I've watched loads of your videos and a question came up: what you call passive and active. As I've noticed so far, you like enjoying the audios and books and just let the language 'get inside'. I can understand almost everything in german, but when it comes to write things down I have a huge difficulty. Would you have a tip for that kind of situation too? I need for my exams (at law school). It would be really nice to know your opinion about it.
You have to start writing, more and more. You can have your writing corrected, but mostly you just have to write a lot.
Hi Steve, I do many listening comprehension and my question is :if I can understand 80% of a podcast should I continue to listen to it or go to another content.
spent the last 6 years in Japan, now living in Thailand and have learnt to read in Thai, but ironically going back on my kanji (was up to 600) again because I could never read it, only hiragana.
I am one of those people you speak about who can speak, read and write fairly well in my target language, but can quite easily get stumped when it comes to listening comprehension! I can get paranoid and a bit embarrassed about it too tbh because when I speak it comes out pretty good so that gives a native speaker the green light to speak to me fast and then I'm lost! haha - I really want to find some good resources that are understandable yet challenging for me to listen to (in Bahasa Indonesia - any advice or links anyone???). I'm at an upper beginner level I guess whereby I can have a very simple conversation but still have a lot of vocab to learn...
I listen to japanese everyday. My vocab is growing but most part I don't understand what's being said but when I do I'm quite surprised I understand and excited to learn more words. I do have audio that follows a book which I listen to but it's very boring. I listen to audio from that book time to time but I mainly watch&listen to japanese tv. Also reading and listening to NHKEasy website for learners(news is current day news as well). Hopefully in the long run this pays off.
That's interesting! The part about not running into a lot of people who understand but can't speak. I would think that that would be more common. Doesn't understanding come before production? I tend to run into that more but it may be because they're not language learners intentionally trying to acquire another language but rather they're more so people from bilingual families but are themselves "not bilingual" because they don't feel comfortable speaking their other language. Or they don't understand how to construct sentences in it or can't find the words, but they can understand it well enough.
me queda la inquietud de como escoger los audios que vas a escuchar.
puede pasar que de un audio solo entiendas un 20%, en ese caso como solo escuchas pero no estas leyendo ; por ejemplo cuando escuchas mientras vas al trabajo, serviría igualmente hacer ese ejercicio de escucha aunque no entiendas la gran mayoría?
In Québec it's the same thing, kids learn English for about 10 years and their level is really basic or even not good at all and they still pass their exams.
totally agree
Wow, I love the audio; what a beautiful language! Who is the narrator in the audio; I love his vocal! Can you give me the name of the audio? Thanks sir!
Steve Kaufman
I think speaking (or writing just general output) is good for practicing grammar and recalling it but other than that I find it not as important as other skills
Mr. Kaufmann how long on average did it take you to learn French? Do you think it would takee more time to master french without visiting France?
where can you find these audio books...more so what can you recommand
Related question... You say you often listen repeatedly to the same text... which seems to contradict the idea of only choosing ENGAGING material that you really enjoy. The FIRST time through interesting text is interesting. Second and third passes are no longer interesting. How do you resolve this? Thanks much ... and p.s. I'm now a premium lingq member and am enjoying all the wonderful content and capabilities.