Stress-Free Foreign Language Learning: Eliminate Frustration when Listening

Stress-Free Foreign Language Learning: Eliminate Frustration when ListeningAuthor: Amelia GreenIf you get frustrated listening to a language you’re trying to learn, you’re not alone. Difficulty understanding the spoken word is one of the common complaints language learners have. Fortunately, though, this problem is relatively easy to solve if you go about it the right way. Forget PerfectionMost of the frustration with listening comes from trying to understand every word perfectly. Sometimes striving for perfection is a good idea. When you’re learning to pronounce a difficult sound or word correctly or when you’re doing focused work on grammar, you want to try to get it 100% right. With most listening tasks, though, perfection just isn't practical.

Think about what you need to listen to in real life. It might be the TV news, the dialogue in a movie, or what someone’s telling you in person. In all these cases you, have other clues to help you get the gist of what’s being said. With TV and movies, you have visual cues. With live conversation, you have the person’s tone of voice and gestures to help you out. The problem is listening tasks in most language classes have you listen to someone reading a script and then ask you specific question about what the person said.

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