Advice for listening

I did a survey on Facebook to see what people found the most difficult aspect of learning English and a lot of people said listening. (You can visit my Facebook page here.) So, I've put together a list of websites, apps and YouTube channels which I think are good for listening practice.

​Easy to Intermediate:
British English:
Speak English with Mister Duncan (YouTube)
British Council Learn English (YouTube, website, apps)
Easy English (YouTube)
BBC Learning English (YouTube, website, app)
English with Lucy (YouTube)
Real English (YouTube)

American English:
VOA Learning English (YouTube, website)
English Class 101 (YouTube)

British and American:
Simple English Videos (YouTube, website)

For advanced learners:
Ted Talks (YouTube, website)

TV, films and Netflix
Another way to practise listening is watching films or TV shows in English. However, I only recommend this if you have some knowledge of English already. I don't think it's good for lower-level learners because it's too difficult. For those students, I think the videos above might be better. It's important to find something that is the right level. I listened to Polish radio for two years without getting any better because it was the wrong level for me!

Subtitles
If you do want to learn by watching movies or Netflix, should you watch with or without subtitles? I would say, start with subtitles in your own language. When you get better, change to English subtitles. Then when you are really good, you can listen without subtitles altogether. Another suggestion is to watch it all the way through with subtitles, and then to watch just a few minutes again without them. Of course, you could watch the whole thing twice, but that might be boring!

Why videos?
The main advantage of these videos is that they are short. It's easier to find time for these than for a whole film and you can watch them two or three times without getting bored or forgetting to really listen. If I watch something with subtitles, I concentrate hard for about ten minutes and I listen carefully as well as reading the words. After a while though, I realise that I'm just reading and not listening at all! If this happens to you, maybe try a short video!

​If you would like more tips for how to improve your listening, have a look at this post.


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