Understanding fast English conversation (Advanced)
In order to be a great speaker, you first ought to be a great listener, but most of the non native speakers have a hard time to grasp fast and native English conversation, despite being all ears to it. How to do away with this impediment?
To resolve the issue, it is vital for us to foremost to do a ground check of the reasons behind it. Some of the prime reasons for incomplete comprehension of advanced spoken English are as follows:-
1) Fast English conversation involves usage of great deal of phrases, slangs, joined or reduced words.
2) Native English speakers speak faster and with different accent.
3) Pronounced English is often different from the one written.
For instance, the word "receipt" is pronounced as "receet" , "know" as "no", "laugh" as "laf" and so on.
4) Same letter sounds different while speaking.
For instance, in "love" , "o" sounds as "a" , whereas in "score" it sounds as "o".
Incomprehension of fast English conversation may bring embarrassment at times, thereby hindering our personal and professional growth prospects. To get rid of this, lets try to know some of the effective ways to "understand fast English conversation".
1) Consume video content in English
This is the foremost and best practice to understand fast English conversation. Earlier, I too had a hard time understanding fast or native English speakers, despite having good hold of spoken English. While watching Hollywood movies, I found it extremely difficult to understand most of the sentences. However, I kept on watching more movies along with subtitles and gradually noticed improvement in my understanding ability. Now, I can completely understand everything, without even having to pay much heed. If you do so, initially you might have to pay excess of attention, might also have to refer dictionary more often, but after a period of time on daily exposure you will get expert in it.
Here are some of the tips I want you to follow-
1. Spend daily at least 10 minutes watching English videos with subtitles, in case you don't have much time.
2. You can get a lot of videos on YouTube including motivational videos on TED Talks, news on BBC or CNN, animated videos, or anything that interests you.
3. Try to watch at least one Hollywood movie a week.
4. Listen to English songs on YouTube with lyrics and try to sing along it. Songs provide opportunities for repetition, making you familiar with the language used in it.
5. Listen to stories via audiobooks such as audible, story tel. It aids in building imagination and learning ability. But, you need to subscribe for it, although there is free trail for few days.
For free listening click on the site below. This facility is provided by audible.
Audible free audio book - https://stories.audible.com/start-listen
If you do all these things daily, you will notice drastic change in your comprehension skills within 3 months.
2) Practice English listening skills
In in order to see faster results, you must definitely try this out. To strengthen listening skills, it is imperative to practice listening activities consciously. it helps to improve pronunciation and understanding of language.
Here are some of my tips to do so -
1. Practice listening through sites. Some of the highly recommend free sites which I use to enhance my students' listening skills are -
British council -https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening
ESL video - https://www.eslvideo.com/
Ello - http://www.elllo.org/english/home.htm
These sites have audios and videos recordings related to different situations along with the transcript and quiz. Transcript includes the written version of the speech spoken in the recording. One can listen to the recordings as many number of times and answer the questions in the quiz given. If you are struggling, you can read the transcript and re listen to the recordings.
These sites provides audio recordings for different levels of comprehension ranging from beginner to advanced, which allows one to work on the exercises pertaining to his own level, which can be judged by taking a free level test provided within the sites.
2. Try speedy listening challenge. In this activity while watching videos on YouTube, you can speed up the pace of video through settings and check if you are able to understand what is being told in the video. In case you don't understand, rewind a slow down the speed of the video and try to listen again You may also write down what you listen for better understanding.
3) Boost your knowledge of English
When it comes to English our focus gets confined to only grammar, which is important. However, to have a command over spoken or English comprehension skills it is equally significant to be aware of the slangs, phrasal verbs, idioms, speech reductions or contractions which are used a lot in fast English conversations.
Here are some of the examples of each for better understanding –
• Speech contractions
I'll = I will
You'll = You will
We're = We were
• Speech reductions
Dunno = Don’t know
Coulda. = Could have
Kinda. =. Kind of
Gonna =. Going to
• Slangs
Epic (great or elegant)-. That book was epic.
Cool- Your hairstyle is so cool.
• Phrases
Hangout – I like to hangout with my friends on weekends.
Figure out- We will try to figure out the reasons for the spread of virus.
4) Indulge in reading
Now, you must be wondering, what role does reading play in understanding spoken English! Right? Well! English comprehension skills are linked to our English reading skills. While reading, our subconscious mind automatically picks up new words, phrases, slangs, speech reductions or contractions and we eventually get the hang of it.
Some of the tips for reading are -
1. Try to pick novels or story books for this purpose as they generally use more informal words and sentences, which are mostly used by native speakers.
2. Try to speak and read, as you do so, you know how you pronounce certain word or sentence. In case, if you don't get the meaning or pronunciation of any word, refer to a good dictionary like Cambridge dictionary. Thus, when others speak you will be able to comprehend better.
3. Don't get stuck or search the meaning of every new word or phrase. On reading a lot, you will eventually discover the commonly used words and can refer dictionary for their meanings.
4. Make it your habit to read at least two articles daily from English newspaper.
5) Know more about English grammar
At last, you can always refer to good grammar books to enhance your language comprehension skills. Working on grammar exercises makes us familiar with different sentence structures. Therefore, we can easily recognise common sentence structures which reading or listening.
Bonus tip
For better and faster results, devote at least one hour from your busy schedule and divide it into three parts with –
• 10 minutes of video from You tube
• 20 minutes listening skill practise from the above mentioned sites
• 30 minutes of reading
If you follow all these guidelines, you will definitely bring improvement in your English understanding skills.
In order to be a great speaker, you first ought to be a great listener, but most of the non native speakers have a hard time to grasp fast and native English conversation, despite being all ears to it. How to do away with this impediment?
To resolve the issue, it is vital for us to foremost to do a ground check of the reasons behind it. Some of the prime reasons for incomplete comprehension of advanced spoken English are as follows:-
1) Fast English conversation involves usage of great deal of phrases, slangs, joined or reduced words.
2) Native English speakers speak faster and with different accent.
3) Pronounced English is often different from the one written.
For instance, the word "receipt" is pronounced as "receet" , "know" as "no", "laugh" as "laf" and so on.
4) Same letter sounds different while speaking.
For instance, in "love" , "o" sounds as "a" , whereas in "score" it sounds as "o".
Incomprehension of fast English conversation may bring embarrassment at times, thereby hindering our personal and professional growth prospects. To get rid of this, lets try to know some of the effective ways to "understand fast English conversation".
1) Consume video content in English
This is the foremost and best practice to understand fast English conversation. Earlier, I too had a hard time understanding fast or native English speakers, despite having good hold of spoken English. While watching Hollywood movies, I found it extremely difficult to understand most of the sentences. However, I kept on watching more movies along with subtitles and gradually noticed improvement in my understanding ability. Now, I can completely understand everything, without even having to pay much heed. If you do so, initially you might have to pay excess of attention, might also have to refer dictionary more often, but after a period of time on daily exposure you will get expert in it.
Here are some of the tips I want you to follow-
1. Spend daily at least 10 minutes watching English videos with subtitles, in case you don't have much time.
2. You can get a lot of videos on YouTube including motivational videos on TED Talks, news on BBC or CNN, animated videos, or anything that interests you.
3. Try to watch at least one Hollywood movie a week.
4. Listen to English songs on YouTube with lyrics and try to sing along it. Songs provide opportunities for repetition, making you familiar with the language used in it.
5. Listen to stories via audiobooks such as audible, story tel. It aids in building imagination and learning ability. But, you need to subscribe for it, although there is free trail for few days.
For free listening click on the site below. This facility is provided by audible.
Audible free audio book - https://stories.audible.com/start-listen
If you do all these things daily, you will notice drastic change in your comprehension skills within 3 months.
2) Practice English listening skills
In in order to see faster results, you must definitely try this out. To strengthen listening skills, it is imperative to practice listening activities consciously. it helps to improve pronunciation and understanding of language.
Here are some of my tips to do so -
1. Practice listening through sites. Some of the highly recommend free sites which I use to enhance my students' listening skills are -
British council -https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening
ESL video - https://www.eslvideo.com/
Ello - http://www.elllo.org/english/home.htm
These sites have audios and videos recordings related to different situations along with the transcript and quiz. Transcript includes the written version of the speech spoken in the recording. One can listen to the recordings as many number of times and answer the questions in the quiz given. If you are struggling, you can read the transcript and re listen to the recordings.
These sites provides audio recordings for different levels of comprehension ranging from beginner to advanced, which allows one to work on the exercises pertaining to his own level, which can be judged by taking a free level test provided within the sites.
2. Try speedy listening challenge. In this activity while watching videos on YouTube, you can speed up the pace of video through settings and check if you are able to understand what is being told in the video. In case you don't understand, rewind a slow down the speed of the video and try to listen again You may also write down what you listen for better understanding.
3) Boost your knowledge of English
When it comes to English our focus gets confined to only grammar, which is important. However, to have a command over spoken or English comprehension skills it is equally significant to be aware of the slangs, phrasal verbs, idioms, speech reductions or contractions which are used a lot in fast English conversations.
Here are some of the examples of each for better understanding –
• Speech contractions
I'll = I will
You'll = You will
We're = We were
• Speech reductions
Dunno = Don’t know
Coulda. = Could have
Kinda. =. Kind of
Gonna =. Going to
• Slangs
Epic (great or elegant)-. That book was epic.
Cool- Your hairstyle is so cool.
• Phrases
Hangout – I like to hangout with my friends on weekends.
Figure out- We will try to figure out the reasons for the spread of virus.
4) Indulge in reading
Now, you must be wondering, what role does reading play in understanding spoken English! Right? Well! English comprehension skills are linked to our English reading skills. While reading, our subconscious mind automatically picks up new words, phrases, slangs, speech reductions or contractions and we eventually get the hang of it.
Some of the tips for reading are -
1. Try to pick novels or story books for this purpose as they generally use more informal words and sentences, which are mostly used by native speakers.
2. Try to speak and read, as you do so, you know how you pronounce certain word or sentence. In case, if you don't get the meaning or pronunciation of any word, refer to a good dictionary like Cambridge dictionary. Thus, when others speak you will be able to comprehend better.
3. Don't get stuck or search the meaning of every new word or phrase. On reading a lot, you will eventually discover the commonly used words and can refer dictionary for their meanings.
4. Make it your habit to read at least two articles daily from English newspaper.
5) Know more about English grammar
At last, you can always refer to good grammar books to enhance your language comprehension skills. Working on grammar exercises makes us familiar with different sentence structures. Therefore, we can easily recognise common sentence structures which reading or listening.
Bonus tip
For better and faster results, devote at least one hour from your busy schedule and divide it into three parts with –
• 10 minutes of video from You tube
• 20 minutes listening skill practise from the above mentioned sites
• 30 minutes of reading
If you follow all these guidelines, you will definitely bring improvement in your English understanding skills.
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