Master Listening Skills: Game-Changing Strategies That Work

All right. Hello everyone. Welcome to the listening and reading comprehension section of your course. Today we are going to f focus on listening comprehension quick tips and warm-ups to get you ready. Here's the overview of this video and the next how to improve your listening listening to body language and getting lots of key information from listening from this body language and then some warm-ups to practice. And we're also going to talk about reading comprehension in the next video. But the main thing to understand is that listening and reading are two skills of English that you're going to be receiving information. However, the way that you approach comprehending in each skill is going to be a little bit different. So, we're going to flesh out those and as successive lessons and we're going to practice. So, let's move forward. How to improve your listening. The most important thing that you can do is not listen and read subtitles the first time you go. That's right. In order to improve your listening, you need to first listen without any kind of crutch, without any kind of subtitles, lyrics, transcriptions, whatever it is. Listen first, purely listening. Why? Why would I say that you cannot have any kind of reading? Because honestly, sometimes when you listen to something in the language that you're learning, you don't understand a thing you just heard. And that's okay. You need to give yourself the opportunity to listen like a native. That means no crutches. These are crutches here. So if you hurt your ankle or your leg, maybe you'll be on crutch crutches for a bit. But everybody knows that if you stay on crutches, you will never walk like normal again. So you need to practice. You need to give yourself that time to practice without subtitles, without lyrics, without transcripts, without a dictionary. Take it in first. Give yourself the opportunity to listen first because if you always use crutches, you'll never have the confidence to go without these crutches. All right, so let's get into it. So, there's four steps that I want you to do and I'm expecting you to do as we do the listening section of listening comprehension. First, you need to listen to the entire section of the video without reading the subtitles. Second, listen and then read. This will help you to understand exactly what you missed the first time around. Then take notes. Listen again and take notes. And then I want you to be able to summarize in your own words. Let's break this down a little bit more. The first time that you listen, I'm not expecting you to do nothing. I want you to take in information. I want you to take in the context. I want you to look at the body language. I want you to see who is speaking and what are they talking about a little bit more specific than what the topic is because you can get the topic from the video title. I want you to listen to what they are saying. What is their stance on the issue? What are they talking about specifically? The second step, I want you to listen and read. I want you to identify key points. All right? I want you to listen specifically. Okay? Where are the transitions at? Where are the topic changes at? What are they what are they doing here? The third time around, I want you to listen and take notes. This is where you start to write down those key words. This is where you identify the specific main points because again, this is the third time you've heard it by this point. And the fourth, if you only stop at taking notes and you don't review those notes and you don't internalize that message, then you've really not listened. You need to be able to explain what you heard in your own words. Pretend like you're explaining the video to a kid. Maybe the kid who hasn't seen the video. If they say, "What did that say? What is this about?" Explain it. Explain what they said and the progress progression of what they said. Now, if you don't have time to do all four steps, you can combine step two and three. However, I will point out that you should not skip the first step and you should not skip the fourth step. Both of those are integral to your growing your listening. All right. So what are we striving for? What is great listening? Great listening takes in paral language. Paral language is a combination of body language, facial expressions, inonation, the stress on words. They're they're things that communicate meaning. Guys, 70% of communication happens through paral language. That is impressive. So you need to really pay attention. If you are only focusing on words, phrases, and grammar, the mechanics of what they're saying, then you're missing the meaning of what they're saying. This is imperative that you focus on paral language. And that is what step one allows you to do. It allows you to take in the context, take in the body language, take in the facial expressions, all of that. And we're going to practice some of these today. You need to remember keywords. That's part of great listening is remembering keywords. Do not note entire sentences. When you're taking notes, do not write the entire sentence. Doing so, you're going to miss one, you're going to miss this the language that happens right after while you're writing. But two, you're missing the point. You've got to be able to summarize on the fly. You've got to be able to write down the key words and key phrases, the main ideas. The only full sentence that you should have in your notes is the main idea. Honestly, you should not have anything beyond keywords and phrases in the rest of your notes. Identify the main idea. Great listening, you've got to be able to pinpoint what that idea is. And we're going to practice this a lot in the next section. So, hang tight for that. Display appropriate paral language while you're listening. Now, this is important if you are actively engaging with the speaker. If you are listening to someone in real life, you've got to be able to take in their par language and give off your own. You've got to show that you are listening. So, you need to have facial expressions. Nod your head yes or shake your head no. Have eye contact. Move your hands as you express yourself. If you are stonefaced, like as if you're looking at your phone and you just don't have any facial expression, you're not communicating very much what you mean or what you think about what you are hearing. So, it's very important that you also have paral language. And I know in this course we're going to be watching videos and listening to music, but you can practice this paral language as you listen to videos. And it might feel a little awkward. I I understand that. But practicing pair language is going to help you to put them together, integrate your skills from the beginning, and you will be mastering them as you go very quickly. All right, the first listening for you I have is listening to Mr. Navaro. Now remember, the first time you listen, I want you to identify who is speaking and what is he talking about. All right, give it a listen. I look at behaviors to do an assessment. What is this person transmitting in relations to any stimuli? My further questioning comes from my observing these behaviors. The first thing I look at is I look at the hair. Does it look healthy? Does it look wellgroomed? The forehead is very interesting because a lot of times we reveal stress. A lot of the things that we have gone through life are often etched in the forehead. I look at the eyes to see if they're red or not enough sleep. This small area here between the eyes called the gloella. It's one of the first areas that reveals information to us. Most often when we don't like something, we do that bunny nose of I don't like. We don't really know what our lips look like and we tend to compress them. When something bothers us, when something really bothers us, we tend to suck them in the mandibula and look at the cheeks. We may do something like this. We'll we'll rub our tongue against the inside of the cheek. But when we try to hide it, then it tells me that this person is trying to do some perception management. And if they are, I want to know why. At the neck, I want to see if there's any head tilt. Because head tilt, the person is more relaxed. The minute the head tilt goes away, there's usually some issue. I'm looking at the shoulders. You ask somebody a question, they don't know. Both shoulders shoot up very quickly. And then I look at the hands. When something's troubling us, we tend to stiffen our fingers, interlace them, and almost like a teepee, we move our hands back and forth very slowly. This is to be differentiated from when we do the steeple which we do in this position. When something's at issue, we tend to put our hands on our hips and we become very territorial. This is called arms a kimbo. But look how it changes when we put our thumbs forward and then it becomes one of more of I'm inquisitive. But I also look for any behaviors of ventilating because men tend to ventilate at the neck and we do at the very instant something bothers us. And then I look at the legs to see if there's any brushing of the legs with the hands which is again to pacify and then the feet. Do I see any behaviors such as wiggling of the feet, kicking of the feet? If I ask a question and all of a sudden the feet withdraw and are crossed, perhaps the person feels a little threatened by that question. So when we study non-verbals, it's not about making judgments. It's about assessing what is this person transmitting in that moment. All right. So if you've just heard that video, I want you to tell me what is it? What was he talking about? Mr. Mr. Navaro was talking about reading body language or listening to body language as I like to say. According to Mr. Navaro, what is one type of body language that communicates a dislike for something? Is it shuffling feet or crossing your arms or crinkling your nose or shrugging your shoulders? Which one did he say specifically communicates a dislike for something? Go back and watch the video if you need to because he said this very explicitly. The answer is C. Crinkling in the nose just like this girl is over here. Think about if something smells bad. What is your face when you smell something that just smells terrible or not like you expected. You don't like it. So automatically you crinkle your nose like this. That is what he said. So we'll do this with information as well. If you say something to somebody and they crinkle their nose, that means they just didn't like what they just heard. All right, next question. What type of body language shows that someone is uncomfortable? Do they move their hands together? Do they turn around or away from the speaker? Do they pat their legs? Or do they lean towards somebody? Go back if you need to. All right, the answer is a. They move their hands together. This this way uh they they put their hands together to rub them and a little bit of self soothing, but they're uncomfortable is what happens. We also say ringing our hands. This is when you squeeze tightly and you're very aggressively rubbing your hands together. In this picture here, you see that the person receiving the document does not seem very sure because though their hands are together as if they're calm, they've got them upright. That's not something a calm person does. So, they don't seem very sure of what they're receiving. All right. So, here's another listening for you listening to body language. I want you to watch this interview between Jimmy Fallon and Emma Watson on the Tonight Show. Again, I just told you who it is, but I want you to identify what they're talking about. Thank you so much. They are talking about an embarrassing story of a time that Emma came during the first time her she was there. The first time she was on Jimmy Fallon's show, she blundered big time. She made a mistake and confused him with another guy named Jim who does another late night show in America, Jimmy Kimmel. So, let's take a look at her body language. How do you know that this is an embarrassing story? Just watching Emma. Imagine that you can't hear her at all. What about her body language tells you that she is embarrassed? We see her head. One of the first things she does is she puts her head on her hands. Uh, and she puts her head down a lot as if she's ashamed, like acting like she's ashamed for having made such a big mistake. her eyes. She keeps looking up and she blinks a lot and she rubs her hands together. She squeezes them. She presses them down into her lap and her eyebrows. She raises her eyebrows as if she cannot believe her blunder from before. And she's now you know with actors and actresses like they are good at body language. They're good at expressing what they intend for you to understand with their body language. But it's really interesting watching them when they are embarrassed because though they have a bit of a refined finish to it, they still are quite actually embarrassed and can't believe they are talking about this on national television. So very interesting to take this particular interview in. All right, next listening. We're going to watch a scene from Friends. Some of you probably know Friends from Practicing Your English, and it's a little bit of a dated show now. And some of the language is a little bit dated as well. However, you can still learn a lot from it. So, go ahead and listen. Make sure you listen the first time through without any kind of subtitle reading and then listen again with the subtitles and then come back and tell me what is this about. Man, it is so hard to shop for girls. Yes, it is at Office Max. What did you get her? A pen. It's two gifts in one. It's a pen. That's also a clock. Huh? You can't give her that. Why not? Because she's not 11. And it's not the seventh night of Hanukkah. Wait, honey. What he means by that is while this is a very nice gift, maybe it's just not something a boyfriend gives. Sure it is. She needs a pen for work. She's writing. She turns it over. Whoa. It's time for my date with Joey. All right. Look. Look. What What did you get for Angela Delveio for her birthday? She didn't have a birthday while we were going out for 3 years. Look, it's too late. And I got an audition. I can't shop anymore. I I will go out and I will try to find something for her. Okay. Thanks, man. And oh, while you're at it, could you get her a card? Would you like me to write her a little poem as well? Or just get a card that has a poem already in it? Okay. Joy's bad birthday gift. This was a terrible birthday gift. Let's explore why. So, what did Joey just finished doing when he came into the room? Did he finish running? Was he shopping? Was he on a date? or was he just coming back from a birthday party? Joey had just finished shopping. What was he shopping for? These are bonus points. He had just finished shopping for a birthday gift for his girlfriend. Now, why did Chandler think Joey's gift was terrible? Is it because he thought she would never use it or she would hate it? because she's not a little girl or because she doesn't want to be reminded of work. The answer here is that she is not a little girl. Chandler actually says because she's not 11. Okay, she's not a little girl anymore, so she's not going to want a pen. That honestly is kind of cool if it has the date on there and the time. That's kind of neat, but it's probably not an appropriate birthday gift. All right, so now why did Rachel think the gift was bad? Was it too useful or was it too cheap? Is it not a thoughtful gift or it's not the kind of gift a boyfriend gives? She actually says the answer verbatim. So, if you don't remember, go back and listen. Rachel thought the gift was terrible because it's not the kind of gift a boyfriend gives. Maybe you should say something else and notice her body language. Actually, that's what I want you to pay attention to now. What kind of body language shows Rachel and Chandler's true feelings about Joey's gift? Did they have crinkled noses or squinted eyes? Or were they ringing their hands? Or were they turning away? What What was it about their body language that reflected their true feelings? It was crinkled noses. Notice when they came in and he showed them, they're just their face was immediately like, "Why on earth would you get that? That is a terrible gift." Their faces scrunch up and everything. Chandler actually does this quite a bit throughout the Friends series. Actually, when I think of Chandler's face in my mind, this is the face that I think of him making because he did it all the time. Okay, so this is all good and well when you're watching videos and such, but what about music? Music you listen to a little bit differently than you would. Think about your own language. How do you listen to music in your own language? Obviously, you're not paying attention to every single word every single time you hear it. You're listening to the beat and you're taking in the rhythm. I suggest that when you're listening to English music, you do the same. Four listening steps that we've talked about before. Just listen. Just take it in first. Then get familiar with the lyrics. What are they singing? Listen and read those words at the same time and see if you can pick that up. Take notes or print out the lyrics and circle the key parts of the song that have a lot of meaning. Sometimes there's lines in there that's just extra extra information, extra emphasis, whatever. But some parts of it's going to be very important. And then right at the bottom, write out what the main idea of the song is in your own words. Make sure that you don't skip this step. It is very important what you understand from the song. Then watch the music video. Why did the artist choose this type of video? And what can you learn about the meaning of the song from the video? How does the video context differ from your personal understanding of the song? I personally suggest when you are doing your own English study that you listen to the music first, then watch the video. And I do this because when you see the video, it's probably going to change your understanding quite a bit. And honestly, it is very common for the videos to not have anything to do with the song lyrics really just be something that reflects the artist or the band's personality. But it is important that you do see the video so that you do kind of understand a little bit about who they are as musicians and then the type of song that goes along with it. All right, so I have a song for you to listen to. Panic at the Discos High Hopes. What do you think this song is about? Is it making money, being successful, reaching your dreams, or making everyone proud? What is the purpose of the song? It is about reaching your dreams. So, there are elements of these other things in here, right? There's elements of being really stressed out because you don't have enough money. You're like scrging around, but then there's elements of being successful and that being the goal. And there's elements of making your mama proud, right? Because mama said these are things that are key parts of the song, but the main idea is reaching your dreams. that you set those dreams and that you consistently pursue them until you reach the desired end. How does the video add to the song's meaning? I mean, it's kind of strange, right? I mean, this guy's walking around and he runs into rude people and then he climbs this building like just walks up right up it. I mean, super odd. So, is it showing that people can be rude no matter what stage of your success journey you're in? Does it show what success looks like? Does it show that reaching your dreams is worth it? or does it show that people will recognize you one day? The answer is C. Now, this one's really tricky because B and D are also somewhat true. However, C sums them up perfectly. That is why C is the answer here. It's all about reaching dreams. And if you're still curious about it, go to YouTube, look up this song. Make sure it's the official video from the actual band Panic at the Disco. Look in the description and this is what they talk about. reaching your dreams is worth it. So, off we go. Things to remember. So, here we're going to wrap up a little bit of what we talked about in this lesson. We we've talked about listening several times more than once. You are not going to effectively listen or study listening. If you listen only once or if you listen while reading the first time around, you've got to give yourself the chance to listen without. And honestly, in the future, if you come back and listen to the same thing, listen to it without the crutches again because you've already studied. You already know the main point. You've already talked about it and internalize that message by being able to summarize it in your own words. Now, you should be listening to it regularly without. You should be able to watch that scene from Friends and know exactly what it's about. You should be able to listen to High Hopes and know exactly what it's about and be able to hear the words. And every time that you listen afterward, you're going to hear more and more of the words and understand more and more of the meaning. You're also going to notice some other things in the context that you did not know before. So, take in the paral language. Don't just focus on the vocabulary, phrases, and grammar. It's not going to help you out. Yes, if you want really rigid proper grammar, but there is something called acceptable grammar. Okay? If you have perfect grammar, you're going to sound like a computer or a robot. But if you have acceptable grammar along with proper paral language, then you're actually communicating and you're communicating well. Consider the cultural background that something comes from. High hopes would have a different meaning in different cultures. So, it's very important that you understand that this is from an American artist to an American audience. There are some things that you will see in terms of music videos that are just very uncomfortable depending on where you're from. So, make sure you understand where it is coming from. Finally, summarize what you heard in your own words. Make sure that you internalize the message. If you write out all of your notes for a class and you never review them, are you going to pass the test? Of course not. You've got to do the work. You've got to review. You've got to internalize what you've heard and then you will pass the test. All right. Next video, the next lesson, next time I see you, we're going to talk about reading comprehension quick tips and warm-ups, and then we're going to get into the bulk of the lesson of the course. All right. Thank you guys so much and I'll see you next