LISTENING SKILLS: PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER
Apart from being ineffective, passive listening practice can be a source of frustration that, in an absolute worst-case scenario, could cause you to give up your language studies altogether. At best, passive listening is great for demonstrating that you have made progress using other, more effective, listening techniques.
If you really want to accelerate your listening comprehension skills:
Put yourself in high stakes active listening situations. See if you can use your most powerful weapon for performance—stress—to increase your rate of learning.
Spend more time actively engaged with software tools and apps, or podcasts and movies with pen and paper in hand.
Use non-listening activities like reading to boost your vocabulary.
No matter if you think you have a disadvantage with listening skills, you can improve as long as you are spending time doing the right kinds of effective practice.
Andrew Barr
Andrew Barr is a native English speaker and has studied Spanish for 7 years. He writes and podcasts for language students who want to be conversational in Spanish at RealFastSpanish.com. If you want to be conversational in Spanish, start with the Spanish grammar hacks.