A question that should come up but often doesn't is how often to practice listening. Many students have bad habits from high school or university days.
They used to play, play, play, and then study hard for a long intense period. This is the worst way to study.
I once heard that you could shut down all the universities in North America if you threw away all the final exams after students wrote them. Then call back the students to write the exams again. They would probably fail most students and close the university.
The reason? Most students study very long and intensely just before an exam. Then after the exam, they forget most of what they studied. Have you ever experienced this?
If you study few times for long intense periods, your motivation to study again the next time is lower. But even worse, you forget what you studied very easily. So we have two benefits that come with regular study. But I will talk more about that later.
How often?
The ideal study plan is daily study. Doing something everyday makes it easier to remember what you did before and make stronger gains.
What if I am too busy?
I have students who practice three times a week, and still make reasonable progress. They could certainly learn more and faster if they studied five times a week or everyday. But three times a week is still not too bad.
By the way, three times a week means three times in addition to your regular English class. You are taking a regular English lesson every week, aren't you? I strongly recommend that you take a regular English lesson to give you guidance in your studies, and check your mistakes.
So now you have decided to make a regular schedule of study every week. How long should you study for? This is an excellent question, and another place where most students make mistakes.
Many students think study has to be serious and long. I disagree. Make your English listening practice sessions short. Especially if you are a beginner or intermediate level student. Beginner and intermediate level students should start their practice doing intensive listening.
Intensive listening takes a lot of energy and attention, so it should be done in short periods. Ideally, you will do three study sessions every day for about five minutes each. I like to call this interval training. Train for a short period. Then have a rest interval. Then train again.
Interval training certainly works well for athletes. It also works well for listening practice. Intensive listening is not a high level thinking skill. The shadowing technique is at least fifty percent physical, since you have to repeat what you hear. This is also true for the listen and repeat activities.
Remembering things often works better when you are moving. And repeating recall helps you remember better. So train in intervals. Short bursts of intense listening. I suggest around five minutes.
A great idea is to make this training part of your regular schedule. Do it right after or right before some activity. Right before breakfast is great. You are still a bit sleepy, so you are not trying to think too much.
If you try to think too much you will not to the practice correctly. When you are still relaxed and not trying to think too much, you can practice well. Plus it becomes a great part of your daily routine.
With regular practice as a part of you regular routine, say daily routine, you now get two great benefits which I mentioned earlier.
The first benefit of daily practice is motivation. You start your practice and before you know it, you are finished. That's a big part of your day finished, and it was easy. Now you feel good about yourself. This motivates you to do it again tomorrow. And that's a good thing.
The second benefit of daily practice is learning. When you practice regularly, you learn better. You remember more. Your skills grow faster. That also helps with motivation.
Now you have a clear idea of how often to practice listening. It all depends on how fast you want to learn. For those who want to learn fast, study daily. If you are more relaxed about it, study three or four times a week.
Make sure you study for short periods. five minutes or less is best. If you still have time and want to study more, take a three minute break and then study again for five minutes. You will get great results, and feel happy about studying.
Oh, and by the way, you can find lots of short stories for practicing listening at English Listening World. Come visit and study with us!
About the author
Les Perras owns and operates the Smith's School of English Franchise in Ikoma, Japan. He is also the author of the website at http://www.english-listening-world.com. Visit the website for free listening practice and sign up for the ezine through that site.
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