Listening comprehension is one of the most challenging aspects of learning any new language. Unlike reading which provides you with a script to which you can hold, cultivating your listening skills is more like dealing with a moving target and thus requires a higher level of attention and concentration. Listening, nonetheless, can be profoundly rewarding when the learner feels that s/he can follow a conversation, news broadcast, documentary or lecture. In order to help you benefit from this site, we would like to suggest some helpful tips about how to get the most out of your listening experience in Aswaat cArabiyya.
- Listen, Listen, and Listen
Like all language skills, listening requires a great deal of practice and extensive exposure to authentic listening materials. When you begin your language learning experience, you spend most of your time listening to your teacher and to the audio/video materials accompanying your textbook. As your abilities increase, you need to have more sustained exposure to listening selections outside the classroom. Make sure to devote ample time for listening and listen as often and as long as you can. Remember that, when it comes to developing language skills, once is not enough. The best way to become a proficient listener is to listen, listen and listen.
- Approach Listening Selections Holistically
When you choose a listening passage in Aswaat cArabiyya, let the entire passage play in its entirety without any interruption. This is important to develop your ability to process larger chunks of spoken language. Listen to the entire selection a number of times before you begin to stop the segment and move back and forth looking for details and focusing on smaller unit of language such as vocabulary and grammatical structures. You may stop the selection in order to focus on a particular sentence or passage; then challenge yourself to pick out key passages without stopping the selection.
- Take Notes While Listening
When you listen, you may consider jotting down some information or key words from the selection. You can do this in English or Arabic, but remember that these are simply notes and don't have to be elaborate sentences. The point here is not to slow you down but to give you something that would help you focus on the listening material. You may also try repeating phrases aloud and memorizing useful phrases for later conversation.
- Global Comprehension First
As you listen to the entire segment the first couple of times, don't get yourself distracted by new words in the selection; rather, keep your focus on getting a general idea about the content of the selection. Begin by looking for answers to the basic what? who? when? where? questions and then expand into more details as you listen further.
- Make Assumptions and Verify Them
After you have listened to a segment for the first time you should come up with some assumptions about the general content. These assumptions will be based on the elements you could recognize in the selection, the elements you could guess from context, and the world knowledge you bring with you every time you listen to something new. When you listen to the selection again, your task will be to verify the initial assumptions made. You can confirm them, modify them, or change them completely based on new information gained after the second and third listening. Listening comprehension is a multi-level process that unfolds in expanded circles similar to the expanding circles you see rippling when you throw a little stone in the water.
- Utilize Your World Knowledge
As an educated person, you have a wealth of world knowledge and schemata that can be of tremendous value to you as you listen to anything new. Your strategy while listening should involve activation of this world knowledge. When listening to a weather broadcast, for example, use your world knowledge to anticipate what will be said. Look for information on rain, storms, sunny days, highs and lows, etc. When listening to a program in which a book is being reviewed, look for possible information on the book themes and organization, date and place of publication, background information on the author, the book's points of strength and weakness, etc,.
- Look for Key Words
Your ability to reach global comprehension and create assumptions about the content of the selection will depend on your ability to identify key words and phrases that are familiar to you. These key words and phrases will serve as anchors for you and will help you to create a meaningful context that will help you expand your knowledge and guess the meaning of some unfamiliar elements within the listening text.
- Play the Guessing Game
Like other language skills, successful listening depends very much on the ability to guess from context. After you have formed your initial assumptions about general meaning in the text and identified your "anchors" within the text, you should begin to make guesses about the unfamiliar elements in the text. These elements can be chunks of meaning, vocabulary items, phrases, or grammatical constructions.
- Zero In On a Few New Elements
A successful listening exercise is one that results in learning new things. When you are done listening to a particular selection, you should feel that you have gained some new information, new words, or new insights into the culture. To help achieve this, you should choose a few new elements in the text (a couple of new words whose meaning you have guessed, a certain grammatical construction that was recurrent in the text, a certain body movement you noticed in the video, etc,.) and zero in on them as targets of learning. Mark them in the text find someone (teacher, native speaker) who can help you learn them further. Be patient with your listening abilities, and push yourself to enjoy and learn from these selections; you will be glad of your diligence when faced with listening in real life situations.