Hi everyone! Welcome back to English with Max. This  video is all about improving your listening. I'm  

going to give you my top six tips to help you  improve your English listening skills for free.  

These are basic principles which you can actually  apply to any language you're learning. Before we  

get started I'd like to thank the sponsor of this  video which is the video player app Woodpecker  

Learning. This app is specifically designed for  people who wish to improve their listening and  

work on their vocabulary at the same time.  When you're watching a video with subtitles,  

have you ever wished that you could touch a  word in the subtitles to see its meaning? With  

the Woodpecker app you can do exactly that. Okay,  I'm just going to quickly show you how it works.  

First, you need to select the languages that  you're learning. I'm going to select English  

and I'm going to say that I know French.

Then you need to wait for the dictionaries to  download and then you can start watching videos.  

Now, here you can see the subtitles  

and if you click on a word, the definitions come  up and you can scroll down to see more definitions.

If you click the 5, you can go back 5

seconds. And if you click .75  here, you can slow it down.

You can also watch it horizontally  and still click on the words.  

What I've just shown you are things that  you can do for free, but you can upgrade for  

extra features. For example, if you have an iPad and  a Netflix subscription, you can upgrade the app to  

watch anything on Netflix with the same language  learning tools. The app was built by language  

learners for language learners, so it's a great  free resource to improve your English listening  

skills and confidence. If you would like to try it  out, you'll find the link in the description below.  

Okay, let's get started with the listening  tips. Tip number one: listen to what you like.  

I know some language teachers say that  when it comes to listening practice,  

variety is the most important thing.  But I don't really believe that.  

Yes, it is good to have some variety, especially  if you want to learn a wide range of vocabulary,  

but if, for example, you choose a podcast  that doesn't interest you, but you think you  

should listen to it, there's a good chance that you  won't listen to it. Or you might start listening to  

it, and then get bored and start thinking about  something else. You'll tune out, in other words.

If you choose something that you like, you're more  likely to listen carefully (because you really want  

to understand the information) and you're more  likely to continue listening or to listen more  

often. Maybe because it's something a bit funny,  or maybe you like the people's personalities, or  

maybe you find the subject interesting. It doesn't  really matter, but if you find yourself thinking "Oh  

gosh, I should listen to this" or "Gosh, this is  boring", then look for something else. Nowadays  

there's a lot to choose from on the internet  and a large percentage of it is absolutely  

free. Don't worry if it's not intellectual or  if it doesn't seem like the most useful thing,  

Just try to make your listening practice  enjoyable so it doesn't feel like a chore.

And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not  saying that you shouldn't have any variety.  

And if your aim is to pass a very hard English  exam, then of course you need some variety. What  

I'm saying is that it shouldn't be your guiding  principle. What usually happens anyway is that you  

kind of get tired of listening to the same things  over and over, and you'll probably naturally  

start looking for different material. Okay, tip  number two: listen to different accents. Now I know  

I just said "don't worry too much about variety",  but I mainly meant that in terms of subject matter.  

When it comes to accents, I do think that it's  a good idea to listen to a variety of accents.  

You don't necessarily need to do it every day or  even every week, but, for example, if you're used to  

listening to British English and you find American  English difficult, then I think it's a good idea to  

sometimes listen to American English. And  you, of course, also need to take into account  

that accents differ within countries. Sometimes  you might be in a situation where you need to  

"prioritise", so to speak. For example, if you're  living in Australia and even after many months, you  

find it very difficult to understand Australians,  then you should probably do things like:  

watch more Australian TV, or listen to more  Australian radio, or listen to Australian podcasts,  

etc. Because, after all, you need to understand what  people are saying to you in real life. That might  

sound obvious, but it's not uncommon for people to  come to Australia and not consume any Australian  

media. Yes, they might interact with Australians  sometimes, but in their spare time they'll watch  

American TV series and American  movies. I'm certainly not offended -  

I don't consume a lot of Australian media,  and it's for the simple reason that there's  

much more American and British stuff available.  So yeah, if there's not a lot to choose from in  

a specific accent, it might just require a bit  more of an effort to find something interesting.  

Tip number three: listen to your level. Now,  obviously if you have quite an advanced level,  

you're probably not going to listen  to things that are aimed at beginners.  

If it's too easy, you're probably not going to  progress very much. But similarly, if you have  

a low level, I don't think it's a good idea  to always listen to very advanced audio. Yes,  

listening to something that's too hard is better  than listening to nothing at all, because at least  

you're listening to the rhythm and the sounds  of English. But it's never a lot of fun if you  

don't understand very much. You'll probably get  bored (remember what I said earlier, you don't want  

to get bored), you might get frustrated, and it won't  help you get used to sentence structures because  

you're mainly just hearing sounds. So try to find  resources that are at your level, or a bit above  

your level. I think it's good if you can understand  at least 70 to 80 percent. Of course, if you  

love movies and you really want to watch  lots of movies in English, even if you don't  

understand much of the audio, by all means, do  that too. But don't only listen to things that are  

very difficult for you. This can be a bit  difficult if you have a beginner or intermediate  

level, because there just isn't as much material  to choose from. Once you reach an advanced level,  

it becomes a lot easier to find material because  you can usually just listen to things that are  

aimed at native speakers. So sometimes you  need to think outside the box a little.  

For example, when I was learning Spanish, I actually watched a lot of makeup tutorials  

in Spanish on YouTube. I did that because I thought:  Well, the language itself is still very hard for me  

and requires a lot of concentration, so I  don't want to watch something that also has  

difficult subject matter. When I'm more advanced  I'll start listening to the political debates.  

It meant that I learnt some very useful makeup vocabulary in Spanish like "párpado móvil" and "ahora vamos a disfuminar"...

But those makeup tutorials, at least in the  beginning, actually helped me quite a lot. Like  

I said, you don't need to listen to intellectual  stuff. Tip number four: listen with and without text.  

If you're not sure what that means, listening  with text is reading subtitles when you watch  

a video or reading a transcript when you  listen to audio. Listening without text means  

listening without reading anything. In language  teaching people have different opinions on this.  

Some people say that you should listen with text  and some people say that you shouldn't. I think  

that you should do both, if possible. Both methods  have benefits. The main benefits of listening with  

text are: it can be easier to learn new vocabulary,  and it can be good for your pronunciation because  

it's easier to connect sounds to words. The thing  is, though, in real life situations you won't have  

a text to read. Um... while you're talking, could you  just, like, write down everything you're saying?  

Ah no. And that is why it is also important to  practise listening without text. As I said, I think  

the ideal situation is to do both. If you're really  trying to improve your English, dedicate some time  

a few times a week to listening with text,  and some time to listening without text.  

Tip number five: study English pronunciation  and speech. Obviously it's helpful to know how  

individual words are pronounced. You should  particularly be aware of minimal pairs like  

ship and sheep, and piss and peace,  as well as homophones like beach and...

beech.

But it's also important to be aware of how  words are pronounced when they are surrounded  

by other words. I'm mainly talking  about connected speech and reductions. 

At the moment I don't have any videos on connected  speech, but I do have a couple on reductions and  

I'll link those in the description. An example  of a reduction is the word "of" becoming "eh" or "ehv".

For example, we don't usually say "a cup of tea".  We usually say "a cup eh tea" or "a cup ehv tea".  

In summary, having a better understanding of  English pronunciation should help you improve your  

listening comprehension. And now my final tip. This  one is very simple. My final tip is to make the  

most of "dead time". That's when, for example, you're  waiting for the bus, or sitting on a train, or  

waiting in queues. I know a lot of people say that  they don't have much time to sit down and study  

English, so those moments are great for practising  your listening. There are also moments which  

aren't exactly dead time, but you might be doing  things that don't require a lot of concentration.  

Like cleaning, or ironing, or doing the dishes. For  some people that might also include driving. I'm  

not a great driver, so that doesn't apply to me (I  need to concentrate a lot when I drive), but you're  

probably a better driver than I am. In any case,  those are also great moments to practise your  

listening. So that you can take advantage of those  moments, I recommend always having a device (like  

a smartphone) that has audio on it with you when  you go out. I don't know the exact percentages, but  

lots of people have smartphones nowadays.  It's just that sometimes we forget to look for  

and download audio before we leave  the house. That is it for today, guys.  

I'm curious to know what you do to practise your  listening, so please let me know in the comments.  

If you liked the video, don't forget to hit the  thumbs up. Also remember that if you want to check  

out the Woodpecker Learning app, you will find the  link in the description. See you next time, guys!