All those who have had to deal with a native English speaker know perfectly well the feeling of discomfort in not understanding what the other person is saying and the sensation increases when you ask to speak more slowly and still do not understand anything the other person is saying! It has happened to me many times, especially at the beginning, so much so that, especially on the phone I tried to repeat what my interlocutor had said, at least I was sure of what I was saying!
But why is it so difficult to understand what the British or the Americans, Australians and Canadians are saying? Have you ever wondered what blocks the message and its decoding, when children are able to understand it better than you? Basically there are two problems : one of decoding and one of vocabulary .
Phonetic decoding: converting sounds into words
When we listen to sounds, words spoken by someone, in our brain we decode the information received and associate it with something known, for example an image, a sensation or a situation. This process is automatic, but when we are not familiar with the sound we receive we are unable to convert it into anything – it simply remains a sound.. This can happen with words you know well or with words you have never heard, and of course there can be several causes that reduce your ability to understand the message, for example accent, speed of pronunciation, clarity of pronunciation, the channel used (telephone or Skype for example). All these things can also put in difficulty people who have studied the language for years but have never really practiced it, even language graduates who are able to write a thesis or read a book in English but cannot understand David. Letterman when he does his show!
The phonetic decoding process can become particularly difficult due to these elements:
- Speed. If a person speaks very fast and you are not trained to understand your sound decoding speed becomes insufficient or inadequate. This if you think about it happens not only with the English language, but also, for example, with Italian rap!
- Accent. Have you ever heard English from a Chinese or a French person? Or have you ever heard of an Australian? The first two are not native speakers, but they can put you in serious trouble because of the accent they have, while the last one speaks very differently than a person from the United Kingdom. On the other hand, you will surely have encountered different accents from the Italian regions and as an Italian you will also have found yourself in difficulty.
- Clarity of pronunciation. There are journalists who speak with their mouths tight, articulating very little words and eating a few letters, so much so that, personally, I find it hard to understand what they say … too bad they’re Italian! The same thing can happen with an English-speaking interlocutor.
- Awareness of the speaker. If those in front of you are aware that you are not native English speakers, they will probably try to adapt their way of speaking , spelling out the words better, slowing down, etc. A dear Australian friend of mine, after the first three months of Erasmus together, said that by dint of adapting her way of speaking at home they no longer recognized her when she called, on the other hand we finally understood her very well! J
- Lexicon. The choice of words can obviously put you in more difficulty than you would with the Italian language. Phrases slang , slang and searched words make it much more difficult to understand.
Lack of vocabulary
This second problem is very simple and consists in the lack of knowledge of the word , so even if it were written you would not be able to understand its meaning. In some cases the context can be useful to guess the missing meaning, but we are not always faced with articulated sentences and in some cases the missing word is central to understanding. Having a broad vocabulary whose pronunciations are also known is therefore key to understanding a speech. In this sense, some sites such as Google Translate or Howjsay can be of great help in starting to memorize pronunciations and associate the sound with the way the word is written.
Improve your English level
Reading, speaking, writing and listening are the four modalities you need to master to increase your English level, but you cannot consider them separately. Even if your problem is understanding, if you focus only on listening to dialogues your progress will not be balanced , vice versa, if while you are listening to you try to improve your pronunciation and write the words then your learning process it will be more complete, balanced and effective.
One of the most common mistakes that are made when you want to learn or improve your level of English is not to have a method , but to search the net for a series of free contents that you think can be used to increase our knowledge. The first mistake is therefore to choose an unsuitable level of content : too simple or too advanced. In the first case, listening will not be of any use to us as it is not stimulating, while in the second we will risk feeling frustrated because we are unable to make any concrete progress. It’s a bit like learning algebra from a math course for engineers or learning to ski by jumping straight onto a black run!
Have you ever tried to listen to an English-language newscast or an American film? It is not at all simple, also because the language is not conventional and we often come across specific lexicon or jargon. If you are just starting out, we recommend starting with TV series or podcasts specifically for English learners, while if you are at an intermediate level you can try American soap operas. I know what you’re thinking: soap opera? True, the level of content is not the best, but the dialogues are based on everyday life and are designed to reach a large audience, so pronunciation and accents are usually quite accurate. Avoid UK soaps which usually have regional accents and a lot of slang.
To obtain good results the commitment must be constant, which is why an experience abroad is the best advice we can give you. However, if at this moment you do not have the opportunity to undertake this journey or if you want to increase your English first, you can always download material, such as videos, CDs, mp3s, quizzes, etc. Try to get a good amount of material so that you have a clear plan for your growth in this area. A good method is to download all the contents, save them directly on your pc and on your mp3 and draw up an accurate schedule that includes at least 15 – 30 minutes for each day to devote to improving your English. Finding the time may seem complicated, but if you put your English lessons into your daily life theyou will make a habit and, at a certain point, you will not be able to do without it! When you find pleasure and satisfaction in listening to podcasts or watching your TV series then you will look forward to having your space in the day to dedicate yourself to this entertainment. It will no longer be a boring lesson to learn and study in a canonical way, but a pleasant moment to dedicate to yourself!
If you want, you can learn English while having fun ! Choose topics that interest you, for example, if you are a lover of cooking, look for programs that talk about this or, if you are interested in science, look for podcasts on nature, animals, perhaps on how to train dogs. Internet and computer science can be two other good topics that you could explore and, I assure you, you will find much more satisfying and complete, as well as varied, the news in English.
To increase learning, try to associate sensations with sounds as well , in other words don’t just try to focus on the point you don’t understand or the sentence that has been spoken, but make the listening process as engaging as possible. A language is not aseptic, but rich in rhythm, musicality and tone.
People usually assume that there is only one way to listen: play the downloaded track or start the movie and try to understand: either you understand or you don’t understand. Obviously in the second case it can become frustrating and definitely very unpleasant for which after a few listening the company is abandoned. Fortunately, there are many different ways of listening, a bit like in photography there are different filters that can be applied to the same image, obtaining very different results. The difference is basically in the reason why you listen:
- Understanding the key issues. The first listening can be done to understand the meaning of the speech. There is no need to concentrate on every single word, first of all focusing on the general meaning, on who is speaking, in what tone, towards whom and on what theme. You can start writing down key terms if you want, but avoid taking notes and not using subtitles.
- Understanding the details. The following listening can be done to try to understand some specific passages or some words that you think may be useful to better clarify the key issues. You can also write down questions which then become your filter for active understanding. In fact, your mind will try to answer the questions you have asked yourself by focusing attention on the points that can return an answer.
- Listen freely. In this case, you don’t apply any filters, you just listen to the sounds. You can do this kind of listening for example, when you drive or when you are washing dishes and you want something to keep you company and relax. With this type of listening you will be surprised that you will still be able to understand parts of speech, words and the general meaning of some parts!
- Zoom in. As with images or text you can also zoom in on the parts of the audio that are more difficult to understand. In this case your attention is focused on understanding a small part of the speech, a word or a phrase that you can listen to several times by stopping the audio and restarting it.
- Repeat while listening. This strategy is extremely effective for learning new terms and pronunciation and is kind of what you do with songs. Once you are familiar with the audio track or part of the movie you have seen you can try to repeat what is being said aloud while you are listening to it. This way you can also try to copy the accent, tone and musicality of the speaker. Try to do this without following the tense or the subtitles.
- Listen following the tense. This filter is very useful, but also very harmful because it does not train your mind to guess the words it hears, so try to use it very carefully and sparingly. After applying the other filters it can be very useful to read the text and therefore also understand the parts that, despite the effort, you were not able to capture. Write down the new words you find and try to repeat them in the following days as well.
- Read in the background. While you are listening, you can read the text aloud, but always try to focus more on your hearing. This filter is very similar to that of repeating listening, but it allows you to better follow the development of the speech or song!
