5 Reasons Why Listening Is Important for Foreign Language Learning

5 Reasons Why Listening Is Important for Foreign Language Learning When a native speaker  starts talking in your target language, does it sound like Charlie Browns teacher blabbing?Blah, blah, blah.Do you struggle to understand when  listening in your target language?Do you spend whole conversations stressing that you cant find the right words to say?Believe it or not, this can happen to you even if youre  great at reading, a wizard at learning vocabulary and have translation skills that would make a baby laugh  (which is actually a good thing).You might begin to wonder whether youll ever be able to hold a nice, natural-sounding conversation.No matter how you feel about listening to your target language, and no matter how much progress youve made so far, the importance of listening is undeniable. Why Listening Is Vital for Language LearnersMany language learners focus a lot on speaking. They dont spend as much  effort on  quietly listening.Listening seems like it should be simple, or secondary to other more active language skills. To the surprise of many new learners, listening to a foreign language is difficult. If youve ever had to sit for a second language test, youll know that the listening section is almost always the hardest.But, listening is a vital skill for language learning.Research  shows that when we communicate, we spend around 40-50% of our time listening, 25-30% speaking, 11-16% reading and only 9% writing (although that last one might have changed in recent years due to the rise in social media).That means we spend about half the time listening!The question is: Do you spend half your language learning time on listening exercises?… if youre anything like me, you probably dont.5 Reasons Why Listening Is Important for Foreign Language LearningThe solution is to spend more time listening in our second language. However, its vital that we learn to listen effectively.Often, weve not been specifically taught how to listen in a foreign language, or if we have weve not been taught properly.Lets delve into the resear ch to find why listening is important and how we can improve our foreign language listening skills.1. Listening Is an Active ProcessIf youve ever sat in a group of people speaking in a foreign language, youll be familiar with the uncomfortable feeling that you should be joining in. You feel like, if youre not saying something, youre not really engaging in the conversation.Nothing could be further from the truth. The problem is that  youre confusing a silent process with a passive process.Listening is a very active process, despite the fact youre not saying anything. Thats why youre so tired when you go home after a social event in another language.Getting over the feeling that we are “doing nothing” is a key step towards listening effectively.One solution is to employ active listening techniques, to remind yourself and others that youre involved in the conversation even if you dont speak so much.Here are some tips to show that you are actively listening:Make eye contact with the person whos talking.Lean forward slightly to show interest. If youre actually listening this should be natural.Nod your head slightly to show youre understanding.Make agreeing noises and nod your head if you agree with something theyve said.Dont look distracted by fidgeting, playing with your phone or looking off into the distance.2. The “Silent Period” Is GoldenChildren who learn a second language often go through a  â€œsilent period”  where they dont say anything. Language teachers and researchers  havent totally agreed whether its a necessary stage of language learning, or how long it should be. But, they do agree that many children experience it.Its fair to say that most adults dont go through any silent period at all. We often try to jump straight into speaking.The problem with trying to speak from the beginning is that a period of silent listening can actually be hugely beneficial.One big reason is that speaking can be quite a nerve-racking experience. I find it as stre ssful as performing on stage. As new learners, were thinking so much about what we should say next that we dont fully experience what the other person has said. We suffer from “task overload.”Allowing yourself to be silent lets you get the most from listening.However, speaking successfully in a foreign language can also be very rewarding. Speaking motivates us to continue learning. And we wouldnt want to lose our motivation, would we?The answer isnt to give up speaking altogether. Its to give ourselves permission to be silent, and not beat ourselves up if we dont say much. Speak when you can, but you dont have to force it.We can benefit both from the motivation of speaking and the listening benefits of a silent period.3. Your Brain Is a Foreign Language GoldfishWould it surprise you to learn that your short-term memory is even shorter in a foreign language?When you think about it, it makes sense.  How often have you forgotten what someone has just said in your target language?   For me, at least, it happens a lot more than in my native tongue.Listening is a vital step in overcoming this problem.But, why does it happen?Not to get into too much detail, although it is fascinating, this effect might be due to how our short-term memory works. When we listen to someone talking, our brain starts processing the information by “segmenting” it into small chunks to store in our short-term memory. It splits them up based on our knowledge of the “rules” for how the language is spoken. Instead of storing the actual words “a green goldfish,” our brain would maybe convert those words into an image of a green goldfish for storage.In a foreign language, we arent familiar with the “segmentation rules” for how the language is spoken. Our short-term memory has to store all the words individually.One reason why listening is so important in a foreign language is that it helps us become familiar with those segmentation rules.Not only will it boost your understandin g, it will improve your speaking in the language too.Learning segmentation rules is usually an unconscious process, so the easiest way to learn them is to get lots of listening practice.Here are some ways to become more familiar with a languages segmentation rules:Watch films in your target language.Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.Attend social events with natives and spend time just listening.Listen to the radio in your target language.Watch videos online in your target language.FluentU is one great way to find interesting, approachable video content in your target language. It provides carefully selected videos from all over the Internet in your target language, many featuring natural, casual speech. It also provides dynamic subtitles which go along with the video, which means that you can see how the spoken segmentation rules relate to the written phrases.4. Our Listening Strategies Are Upside-downIf you learned a language in school, what listenin g strategy were you taught?Myself, I remember that a listening exam went like this: listen to a tape (Yes. It was all tapes in those days) and then translate what wed heard. The specifics were important, the difference between a pass and a fail. You would lose marks if you messed up the gender of a word, for example. As far as I can see, thats still how listening is still taught in my home country.Language researchers call this a  bottom-up listening strategy.Bottom-up listening is an okay strategy to use in the classroom. It means carefully listening to each word, pronoun and sentence structure to work out what has been said. Unfortunately, its not a complete listening strategy for use in the real world.In the real world, you cant spend all your listening energy focusing on specific grammar while people speak. Theyll keep talking and youll be lost.Top-down listening, on the other hand, is a great strategy to add more understanding of whats being said.Top-down listening strategies f ocus on concepts. Bottom-up listening strategies focus on words. Both are necessary to be an effective listener.It basically means that you learn a little about the spoken topic beforehand. Here are a few suggestions for implementing a top-down listening strategy for some common activities:If youre going to see a movie or theater play in a foreign language, read the story first.Read up on the topic before going to see a presentation.Try reading about or predicting the content of an audio passage before you listen to it. This will get your brain focusing on concepts and not just specific words.Hang about with a friend who repeats the same anecdote when with different people. You already know the story, so your comprehension will go up dramatically. Its also a great way to make a potentially annoying situation into a useful learning exercise.5. The Gist Is Only Half the Story (or Less)Finally, one thing that we often neglect when listening in another language is to check exactly how m uch we have understood.Beyond a certain level of language ability, we often “get the gist” of what was said. However, sometimes we havent understood as much as we think.Next time you listen to something in your target language, try these six short, easy exercises to prove to yourself that youve understood what was said:Try drawing a picture of what was said.Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.Provide a summary of what was said.Suggest what might come next in the “story.”Translate what was said into another language.“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation (I do this when listening to the radio).Commit to ListeningAs you can see, listening is pretty important. Are you ready to commit to listening better in your target language?Just remember to use active listening techniques, allow yourself to have a silent period, listen lots to learn  the segmentation rules  of spoken language and flip your listening upside-down by incorpora ting top-down listening strategies.When you follow the exercises to check how much youve understood, youll be amazed at the change!Alex Owen-Hill is a European freelance writer. He writes about science, travel, voice-use, language and any of the hundred other things hes passionate about. Check out his website at www.AlexOwenHill.co.uk. Any questions? Connect with him on Twitter at @AlexOwenHill and ask away! And One More ThingIf youre digging these learning techniques, youll love using FluentU. FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interac tive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs learn mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet  or, better yet, download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes  or Google Play store.