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The Way of Practicing Listening to
English I remember that when I was studying in high school,
my teacher told me, "Students trying to improve their
listening often complain about lack of vocabulary, not
being able to follow the speed of the speaker, trouble
with accents and so on-the list could go on for a couple
of pages or more. The problem might not be with your ears
but with your brain. No, no, I don't mean you should go
to find a doctor or a psychiatrist. What you should do
is reexamine your methods. You might just be using your
ears in the wrong way and wasting your time." There
are four issues about the ways of practicing listening
to English. "Concentration" "don't get
ahead of yourself" "tapes are good, but not
all tapes are equal", "it's music to my ears-but
it's not good for practice." I want to talk about
the last issue in detail. Here's a sad truth, listening
to English pop songs is not a good way to improve our
English in my opinion. Can you understand every word in
a Chinese song? I don't think so. In a song the words
are subordinate to the music. The singer doesn't care
about grammar, pronunciation or meaning. Sometimes the
singer even makes up a word. Listen to songs for the music,
not for the English. The important thing is to find a
right way to practice your English listening.
Kitty Zhu, advanced
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