VOA · Ask a Teacher
Beginner · A2learner speed4:582024-11-04public domain
In Ask a Teacher, real learner questions about English grammar and usage get short, clear answers. Episodes are only a few minutes long and use simple classroom English — a gentle entry point if you are new to dictation practice.
Hit "Start dictation practice" — all 5 minutes are already sliced into sentences, so practice starts immediately. No wait.
Replay each sentence as many times as you need — beginner episodes use short sentences and simple vocabulary.
Switch to Dictation mode, type each sentence, and get a word-by-word diff with your accuracy score.
01Hello!
02This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Zechariah in Turkey about listening to English.
03Dear Teacher, When I practice listening, I focus a lot and do a lot of repetitions.
04After a while, I realized that I was actually memorizing the audio recording instead of practicing listening.
05How do you think I should do an ideal listening exercise?
06Thank you, Zechariah.
07I'm happy to answer this question, Zechariah.
08There is not one ideal listening exercise.
09Instead, there are several good ways to improve your listening.
10The repetitions you are doing can be necessary and helpful for you to understand what you hear.
11And repetitions likely help you remember new words and how to pronounce them.
12But let's look at more ways you can practice listening.
13First, try to find listening material that is just a bit above your ability.
14This will help you learn new words without making it too difficult for you.
15It is best to listen to English material that has words written either in captions or in the body text, such as a VOA Learning English article.
16This will help check your listening.
17You can test yourself by first listening to parts of the audio without reading the words.
18Note the main ideas and the things you clearly understood.
19Then, listen to it again and try to understand more details.
20This is when you can do shorter repetitions.
21Next, you can check how much you understood by reading the words as you listen to the audio again.
22One of the best ways to practice listening is by writing every word you hear.
23This is called transcribing.
24Even with audio examples as short as one minute, you can learn a lot of English using this method.
25For example, if you are transcribing an interview, you might notice differences between spoken English and written English.
26By transcribing, you can notice and learn new expressions, grammar rules, and spelling.
27This method also helps make new words stay in your memory when you read them.
28That is because you are discovering the answer to a problem you have already tried to solve through listening.
29Try listening to English spoken at different speeds.
30Many videos online let you increase or decrease the speed of playback.
31Practice listening to English spoken in different foreign accents.
32This is a useful skill because English is spoken in so many places around the world.
33Center your listening on specific sounds or grammatical points.
34For example, preposition use in English can be difficult.
35Try listening for prepositions and the words they connect with.
36This can help you use them correctly in your speaking and writing.
37Remember that, like any skill, you can improve listening by practicing often and having detailed plans for the methods you will use.
38For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
39We'd like to hear from you.
40Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com And please include where you are from in your email, too.
41And that's Ask a Teacher.
42I'm Andrew Smith.
43Thank you.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
Practice it by ear
