Listening Strategies
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Memory strategies
- Look for associations between the sound of a word or phrase in the new language with the sound of a familiar word.
- Listen for key words that seem to carry the bulk of the meaning.
- Physically act out the word I heard to help me understand the story
Cognitive Strategies
- Practice skim listening by paying attention to some parts and ignoring others.
- Regularly listen to the recording and review it periodically.
- Practice sounds in Chinese that are very different from sound in English to become comfortable with them.
Compensation strategies
- Try to predict what the other person is going to say based on what has been said so far.
- Pay attention to the speaker’s eye-contact, facial expression and gestures.
- Guess the speaker’s intention based on what he has said so far.
Metacognitive Strategies
- Reading some background materials beforehand to prepare for what you will hear
- Pay attention to the subject and verb of the sentence while listening
- Pay attention to the interrogative when listening to question words.
- Pay attention to the words which the speaker slows down or emphasizes.
- Identify errors in understanding and try to eliminate such obstruction
- Listen to talk shows on the radio, watch TV shows, or see movies in Chinese
Affective strategies
- Try to relax while listening to something new.
- Don’t mind if you can’t understand every single detail and feel encouraging when you can catch the gist what people are saying.
Social Strategies
- Ask for repetition or slow down when I can’t understand what the speaker has said.
- Send continuation signals to show my understanding in order to avoid practice listening with other native speaker.
- Ask a native speaker about unfamiliar sounds that I hear.