Students do not always know what to do with listening exercises: they usually think that this is a skill they either have or don't have. They also think that if they can understand what is being said, they have acquired the skill. However, there is much more that you can do when listening to the radio or a podcast. In this module we will try to help you improve your listening skills. Although practising is an essential part of acquiring listening skills, we will try to break down the process a little and explain how English works.

Look at this sentence from an Italian newspaper:

Sono tutti per Fernando Torres i titoli dei giornali inglesi all’i ndomani della qualificazione del Liverpool ai danni dell’I nter,anche se i toni sono meno trionfalistici e lo spazio più contenuto (massimo 2 pagine) rispetto alla gara di Anfield (quando i Reds vinsero 2-0), forse perché Oltremanica il passaggio del turno degli uomini di Benitez era dato quasi per scontato.(from: La Gazzetta).  

Now look at the English newspaper reporting on the same match:

There is no striker in Europe quite so deadly as Fernando Torres and, on the evidence of last night, possibly no manager as cunning as Rafael Benitez (from: The independent).

Listen to the sentences as well. You will find them below. Do you hear that they, apart from the language, have a different rhythm? That is because in Italian, every syllable (= part of a word: syl-la-ble) is pronounced, but in English it is not. Listen to the podcast called "Rhythm of English" to hear more about this.

So, as you will have heard, words in a sentence are not pronounced or stressed the same as words on their own. What we will try and do in this module is make you aware of those words that tend to slip your attention. In addition, we will also give you exercises that will help you work on your comprehension skills.

More information

For more information on how to practise listening skills, go to the following website: English listening.

The theory is a bit academic, but you will find some useful ideas to improve your listing skills.

What you should keep in mind is that you need not be able to understand everything when you are listening to someone. Even in Dutch you do not hear every word, but you use the context to understand what is said. So do not panic when you miss a word, just listen to the general idea!

Exercise 1

Click here to go to a website from Oxford University Press.

Print out a number of worksheets and do the assignments. Since you can access the files yourself, you can replay the fragments as often as you like, but also try to listen to the fragment in one go. When you have finished, you can check your answers in the key. If you have made many mistakes, listen to the abstract again and read along with the text.

Exercise 2

When you have completed the assignments, print out the transcript, if you have not done so already. Listen to the file again and underline the words that you hear clearly. In your notebook, make five columns and write down the underlined words in the correct column.

It should look like this: 

Now, do you see which words are given the most attention? This also means that there are words that do not get that much attention (or stress, as it’s also called) (among them the weak forms that were mentioned in podcast about the rhythm of the English language). Those are the ones you may easily miss when you listen to English.