THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS
The most effective activity for improving your listening skills is something I call “high stakes active listening”.
Active listening, by definition, is an activity that requires you to listen to something and take action based on what you have heard.
Active listening is separated from passive listening by the simple requirement that you have do something in response to what is entering your ears. This change causes you to move up the Performance-Stress curve from your baseline. But, it isn’t enough to just actively engage.
If you want to start getting into the “Goldilocks” area of stress where you performance and rate of learning is the highest, you need to have some stakes on the line.
One of the best forms of high stakes active listening is speaking with a native in a one-on-one situation.
Speaking in a one-on-one situation is miles ahead of passively listening to a recording because it forces you to concentrate and be actively engaged in the dialogue.
I remember vividly one critical encounter that opened my eyes to the power of high stakes active listening when I was trying to find parking in Madrid.
My girlfriend and I entered an undercover parking garage. There were no signs explaining opening times or prices for parking.
We drove up to the parking attendant window and I asked in Spanish “how much to park the car?”
The attendant responded “12 euros al día”.
Good start.
I then asked “what time do you close?”
That question was followed by an onslaught of Spanish that went straight in one ear and out the other.
Our accommodation for the night was over an hour away and we were afraid that if the parking garage closed while we were hanging out late in the city, we would be stuck there until morning.
I had to find out when they closed.
If the car got stuck for the night my girlfriend would never have forgiving me. The stakes were officially high!
Over the next fifteen minutes I asked a series of questions, most of which were followed by a torrent of information that I struggled to put together. But, after fifteen minutes the ideas that the parking attendant were throwing at me started to take shape.
It the end, the message became clear. The parking lot was open 24 hours a day and if we stayed past midnight they would charge us for a second day.
Hallelujah. ¡Genial!
I got the message. And better yet, I learnt more about the process of improving listening comprehension in that fifteen minutes than I did all the way up until that point.
From then on I have always looked to practice my listening skills with a native in a one-on-one situation.
Another great way to find this type of practice is in a language exchange. Language swaps are perfect for forcing active engagement. Especially if you meet someone new and you want to make a good first impression. There are a number of resources you can use to find a language swap no matter where you live.
It may sound scary to speak with someone if, up until that point, you haven’t really understood your target language yet but do not underestimate the progress you can make with this type of practice.