4/20(Sat.)Why do we struggle with fast English?(Host : Ken)

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Gloria Lo
YOYO member
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註冊時間: 週一 2月 04, 2008 7:51 am

4/20(Sat.)Why do we struggle with fast English?(Host : Ken)

文章 Gloria Lo »

Session1: Why do we struggle with fast English?

A:The wrong way to improve your English listening skills (6:09 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_PQvy9xKNw&t=19s


B:Why Are Films Difficult to Understand in English? (6:54 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-jJMFvbwCY


Questions
1. Do you watch English shows with subtitles(in Chinese or English)? Do they really help us improve listening? As the first YouTube video mentioned, when we use subtitles, we are practicing reading rather than listening. Do you agree?

2. Please rank the following items according to their speed or your listening difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10.(without subtitles)
I. English movies/dramas
II. CNN news
III. Ted Talk videos
IV. Native English speakers talking with each other
V. Native English speakers talking with you
VI. Non-native speakers having an English conversation.
VII. English learning materials
3. What is the difference between classroom English and real-world English(refers to authentic English shows and conversations between native speakers)?
4. Why do we struggle to understand “fast speakers”? Do they really speak "fast"?


Session2 Speak like a native speaker. Learning techniques: using contractions, liking and shadowing.


A: Tips for Speaking English Fast (9:18 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJntwCwExU

B: Shadowing technique (mimicking) demonstration (5:00 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPkk0lfOrlc

Questions
1. Do you use contractions when speaking English? What do you use?
2. Do you link your words when speaking English? What linking or reduction rules do you know?
3. Do you think teachers in Taiwan focus on the teaching of contractions and linking? Do most people speak English with these habits?
4. Have you used a technique called shadowing to improve English speaking ? What the other techniques do you apply?
Luis Ko
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註冊時間: 週三 6月 06, 2007 10:18 pm

Re: 4/20(Sat.)Why do we struggle with fast English?(Host : K

文章 Luis Ko »

When it comes to listening ability, vocabulary database is also a key point. If you don't know the word or the phrase you are listening to, and have no idea the way it is being pronounced then, there's no way you can understand them. Anyway, the proof is in the pudding lo~ 8)
i might be a cynic and, a sceptic as well but, i'm definitely not a bad person!!
Iris Wu
YOYO member
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註冊時間: 週二 5月 20, 2014 4:33 pm

Re: 4/20(Sat.)Why do we struggle with fast English?(Host : K

文章 Iris Wu »

Another thing I want to check with everyone is that how you overcome obstacles when listening audio books.
I am easy to get distracted and miss parts of the contents and feel I need to rewind, so I end up with repeating the same paragraphs and moving very slowly.
I wonder if you have good tips to overcome this kind of issues when using audio books? I hope I can join the meeting today to find out more of your experience.
Kooper
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文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 4/20(Sat.)Why do we struggle with fast English?(Host : K

文章 Kooper »

Enhancing English listening skills requires a multi-prong and ever-evolving strategy, and the challenge is actually quite personal. There’s no simple one-size-fit-all approach, nor is there a magic bullet that turns on one's English ears overnight. To better understand films in English, the two YouTubers offered three prescriptions in total: turning off subtitle and forcing us to listen instead of merely hear; avoiding compulsive internal translation into our mother tongue while watching or dissecting sentences by grammar on the fly; learning vocabulary and expressions that are being used in everyday conversations rather than, say, news English or textbook English. All of the three pieces of advice are rather solid. But to be brutally honest, they’re still a bit oversimplified and incomplete.

A decades-old method that was widely advocated and that I used to believe in is having radio or TV programs in English turned on in the background all the time - whatever we’re doing, even sleeping. It seems simple, intuitively natural, and more or less compliant to the three rules. My attempts following this recipe unfortunately always ended in vain. The methods that eventually stood me in good stead turned out to be much more delicate and are nowhere near effortless.

As Luis pointed out, we need sufficient vocabulary to understand Hollywood movies. Picking learning material that matches our vocabulary sizes is a crucial first step. Few, if any, intermediate or beginning English learners start with CNN News or the TV drama Friends and manage to improve. The two are way out of their league.

Second, repetition matters more than broadness. I found the learning much more effective if I listened to a limited number of episodes time and again than numberless ones un-repeatedly.

Third, the material has to have some sorts of subtitle or transcript to look up. During the repeated runs of listening, I would, by turns, skip and look up the subtitles or written contents. Besides learning new words, that helps me spot and address listening blind spots. Oftentimes they’re caused by linking sounds, dropping sounds, or unfamiliar accents. Repeated listening helped me internalize these lazy pronunciation patterns of native speakers and got over some listening plateau.
Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 4/20(Sat.)Why do we struggle with fast English?(Host : K

文章 Kooper »

Attendees(18): Antonio, Blithe, Christine Hsiu, David Jr., Georgia, Gloria, Jacy, Julian, Kat, Ken (host), Kooper, Laura, Leon, Light, Luis, Michelle, Tim, Wade
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