How do you improve your English
listening skills?.

If you ask this question to English
teachers, they will tell you the same
thing. They will tell you to go watch
movies. They will say that watching
movies is a great way to improve your
listening.
But there’s a problem.
A lot of English learners watch movies
with subtitles. Some people use English
subtitles. Other people use subtitles in
their native languages.
It doesn’t matter what kind of subtitles
you use. Watching movies with subtitles
is a really bad way to improve your
listening. And in this text, I’m going to
explain to you why it’s such a bad idea.
But first, let me share with you my
personal experience.
Back when I was in college, I wanted to
improve my English listening skills.
So what did I do?
Well, I started to watch movies with
English subtitles. I thought that that was
the best way to improve my listening. I
was really optimistic. I thought that in
two or three years, I would be able to
understand native speakers.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
After six years of doing that, I still could
not understand native speakers. I still
needed subtitles when watching a movie.
I was really disappointed. I watched a
lot of movies, but I still could not
understand native speakers. At the time,
I didn’t know why it didn’t work. But
now I do.
So let’s talk about that right now. First,
there’s one thing about listening that you
need to know.
Listening and hearing are not the
same.
If you want to improve your listening,
make sure that when you practice
listening, you’re really listening and not
just hearing.
So what’s the difference between
listening and hearing?
Well, the difference is whether or not
you’re paying attention.
If you’re paying attention, then you’re
listening.
If you’re not paying attention, then
that’s just hearing.
Let me give you an example.
If you turn on the radio and pay
attention to the sound from the radio,
then that is listening. But if you turn on
the radio and then you do something else
like reading a book, then that’s just
hearing. You can hear the radio, but
you’re not paying attention to it. You are
not listening.
And again, if you want to improve your
listening, make sure that you’re really
listening and not just hearing. You need
to make sure that you’re paying
attention.
Now let’s talk about watching
movies with subtitles.
What’s wrong with it? Why doesn’t it
work?
As you might have guessed, it doesn’t
work because you’re not listening.
You’re just hearing.
So let me explain.
When you watch a movie, you brain is
trying to understand the movie. But
there isn’t just one way to do that. There
are two ways (or two options).
The first option is to focus on reading
the subtitles.
The second option is to focus on listening
to the sound.
Now I have a question for you: which
option do you think your brain will
choose? Reading or listening?
The answer is obvious. You brain is
going to focus on reading the subtitles.
Why?
Because it’s much easier. The text on the
screen is clear. So it’s very easy for you
brain to process. The sounds of people
talking, on the other hand, are not that
clear. So it’s much more difficult for
your brain to figure out what people are
saying. As a result, you brain will pay
attention to the subtitles and not the
sounds.
So when you watch a movie with
subtitles, you’re not really improving
your listening. You’re actually improving
your reading. That’s why it doesn’t work.
So the best way to improve your
listening is to just listen. Don’t read and
listen at the same time. If you watch a
movie in English, remove the subtitles, so
that your brain will have to focus on
listening. If you do that, your listening
will improve much faster.
Source: Unknown