Listening Skill

A GOD WAY TO IMPROVE OUR LISTENING SKILL

Listening is one of the four basic language skill. The four basics of languange are : listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In order to be able communicate in certain language, English for example, we have to listen to that language.

Listening plays an important role in communication, as we can’t give an appropriate responses unless we understand what the other person/s is/are saying. Our answer can be in the form of a statement or an emotional response, such as laughter or a facial expression.

There is a good way to improve our listening ability through radio news on various radio stations: Radio Australia, VGA (Voice of Amerika), BBC (British Broadcasting Cooperation), etc. They broadcast the world news in various languages including English and Indonesian.

We, especially us beginners , often experiance difficulty listening to the world news in English. We can overcome our probelms by listening to the world news both in Indonesian and then it is followed by the English version. For example, the world  news from BBC in Indonesian at 23.15 GMT  (06.15 WIB).

The advantage of doing this is that you can anticipate and guess at the English words and their meanings by thinking back to the Indonesian words from the first news, because both broadcasts have the same content.

Another way to listen the news three times. It is same procedure as the first method but it is preceded by the English version. Thus, you will hear the news three times in English-Indonesian and then in English again, The first English version is for you to guess at the meanings and try to understand the news without reffering to the Indonesian version. Listen to the news and interpret it to the best of your ability. Then you can check your interpretation with the Indonesian version from the second broadcast. If you miss cetain English words from the first news, you can get the Indonesian words during the second news and then try to look for the equivalents of these words in the subsequent English broadcast. Of course, you can apply this method to other radio stations as well. You can choose the time, which is most convenient for you.

I am sure that you will have some troubles at first, such as new words that you haven’t heard before.

But you shouldn’t worry about this. If you have a strong enough motivation to learn English and make the morning news an essential part of your breakfast or the evening news your friends at bedtime, the troubles will slowly disappear as you get used to this activity. Your English will improve, especially your listening ability. Additionally your current events knowledge will increase.

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