How to listen well when learning a language
How do you listen when learning languages? Does it sometimes bother you that you can distinguish Spanish words but hardly any Portuguese? Or that you can understand Brazilian Portuguese better than the Portuguese spoken in Portugal? Language experts share their insights on how to acquire language faster using certain listening techniques.
Steve Kaufmann of TheLinguist.com says that when it comes to language acquisition, you should first learn the words instead of delve into the differences, as in the case of Brazilian Portuguese versus European (Portugal) Portuguese. According to Steve, "I prefer to listen and read to acquire words. When I start out, I’m motivated to work my way through whatever content I’m listening to and reading regardless of pronunciation."
That is a great strategy. But for someone who knows so many languages, this is intimidating enough. What about the rest of us who barely knew a second language?
TheLinguist blogger also says, "Listening to both versions of the language I just got used to the differences while acquiring vast amounts of vocabulary. They use ‘tu’ the singular form of “you” in Portugal; in Brazil they mostly only use the “você”, which is the third person, for ‘you’" (Kaufmann, 2020).
Você is very unique to Brazil. And that's one of the main things we go through as we learn languages. We pick up the little nuances, the little ways in which people say things. In fact, learning a language is also learning about other people's cultures.
Studies done on learning languages showed that when it comes to "language skills acquisition...when we communicate, we gain 45% of language competence from listening, 30% from speaking, 15% from reading and 10% from writing" (Renukadevi, 2014).
So listening well carries a huge chunk of that learning into our system. While there are barriers to listening in language acquisition sometimes such as lack of focus, differences in accents, and even physical and environmental distraction, we can overcome these barriers and become effective listeners.
What can we do to improve our listening skills when learning a language? D. Renukadevi recommends that we should use top-down or bottom-up strategies. Top-down (prior knowledge) strategies include:
- listening for the main idea
- predicting
- drawing inference
- summarizing
Another strategy is bottom-up (linguistic knowledge), wherein the listeners do not know as much information so they just rely on the physicality of the words. Some examples are concentration on specific details while listening and recognizing word-order patterns.
Between different levels of language that I already know, I use top-down strategies for Spanish, and bottom-up strategies for Geman and Mandarin. That's because in Spanish, I already have a good amount of comprehension whereas in the latter two languages, I can only rely on words without yet connecting them to any prior knowledge (because I don't have much).
Don't forget the other side of the equation: speaking. When we listen, we absorb from an outside source. Are the outside sources effective enough? Do we learn more from certain speakers compared with others? And most importantly, are we given a chance to express ourselves as soon as we get a chance to listen and understand? In learning languages, communication is a two-way street. I highly encourage you to create your own social media base when it comes to learning languages, so you can express yourself as you listen and learn.
Author: Marie Puddu
References:
Kaufmann, S. (2020, December 15). How To Learn Portuguese - The Linguist on Language. Retrieved from https://blog.thelinguist.com/how-to-learn-portuguese/
Renukadevi, D. (2014). The Role of Listening in Language Acquisition; the Challenges & Strategies in Teaching Listening. International Journal of Education and Information Studies, 4(1), 59–63. Retrieved from https://www.ripublication.com/ijeisv1n1/ijeisv4n1_13.pdf
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