How to Understand Native English Speakers - Improve English Listening

Remember to tell us which situations you find it most difficult to understand native speakers! You can tell us in the comments!

Contents:
1. Use Contractions When You Speak 0:44
2. Understanding the True Pronunciation of English Words 3:12
3. Understanding Words Which Are Left Out 6:06
4. How to Use Context to Help You Understand 8:22
5. Understand Different Forms of English 11:10

The lesson will help you learn:

- How to use contractions to sound more natural in English.
- How to use weak forms to improve your listening and speaking in English.
- How to shorten questions to make your English sound more natural.
- How to use the context to improve your English listening and understand native speakers better.

A big thank you to the Alphabet translation team from Syria for the Arabic captions!

[daphneespinoza]

I love their videos, their pronunciation is so clear and elegant. I thank you from my heart for your teachings team Oxford!!

[moderninformation]

1. use contractions
2. Connecting words and pronunciation
3. Leaving some words
4. Focus general topic to understand
5. Consider different accents

[khanraimakhan]

I'm from Pakistan but I'v been living England for two years. I'm not jobian. I spent my all time at home. So I v lots of prblm English listing special native. I watch ur videos it's really very helpful for me. I learnt a lot. Thanks both of teachers

[damianespitia]

I’m working as a transcriptionist and from time to time I have to do English transcription jobs. I find it quite difficult. These videos are very useful for me. Thank you so much.

[XungLe]

For me, it's much harder to listen English on the phone calls than in the face-to-face situation. Thanks!

[TheRavenir]

I used to have a lot of trouble understanding the spoken English in most movies. For some reason, they always seemed to mumble instead of "speaking clearly". That's why I always turned on the subtitles so that I could understand everything they were saying. However, now I realize that by doing this, I was only making it harder for myself to understand natural spoken English. I was growing too reliant on subtitles, but unfortunately, real life does not come with subtitles. That's why these days, I no longer watch movies with any subtitles whatsoever. Whenever I don't understand something, I just watch that part again and most of the time I will understand it the second time.

One of the things that has helped me the most with my listening skills is learning about weak forms and how certain consonants such as "T" are often not fully pronounced by native English speakers. Being aware of this made the "mumbled" English I often hear in movies suddenly much more understandable. I have also started using weak forms in my spoken English, which has made me sound much more like a native.

I really wish I had been taught this in school, but unfortunately we were only taught the "proper" i.e the full pronunciation. It is only on the Internet that I learned about weak forms vs strong forms.

[antoniomattozzi]

I think the hardest thing is to understand native English speakers when they speak naturally to each other because sometimes they use "idioms" that don't exist in other languages. Thanks so much for your wonderful lesson!

[kdtravelvlogs]

I didn't know how to speak native speakers but by listening for 2 months now I can understand 100%

[teresaescobar]

The most difficult situation for understanding is interviewing for getting a job. Now, I know, that it can be for the stress for understanding every word and not the general meaning of the sentence. Thanks a lot for the tip.

[mamarina.blonda]

I wonder who dislikes such an amazing lesson!


Their language is so understandable! Love video!

[mihretabandualem]

Hi I'm from Ethiopia.I regularly attend your free lessons every day.That's very good lessons.I found most difficult to understand native speaker when I saw english film

[Islam_makes_Peaceful_soul]

Hello, I am Salim and leaving in India, I am very thankful to both of you for this lecture, I am working with USA people so I can understand this changing pronunciation of native english speaker as the city changes, but your lecture has pointed out lot of thing which are helpful for learner.

[gfcdkws]

I love their videos, their pronunciation is so clear and elegant.

[MoGoda]

Hi, I'm Guda From Egypt. I remember that situation when I was in the interview with a native one, her accent was very very difficult. Next time I asked her to allow me recording the call to hear it after that to train myself on that type of quick and difficult accent.

[fani]

It's difficult to understand native speaker in a phone call. But thanks for your video. It's help me to listen to you. I really want to improve my english.

[lethithanhhue]

This is the first time i see forgine people speak clearly, slowly and perfectly. I'll strive practise listening skill everyday. Thanks for everything. All the best for them.

[MsCesarss]

Congratulations, good explanation! I started to study English two months ago and I´m listening many differents accents. This video showed me that I can understand a native speaker.

[BTSARMY-stce]

Hi I'm from Turkey 🇹🇷 I can understand english a bit. I saw your channel and I loved this channel. You are perfect💜💜

[md.mahmudulhaque]

Excellent teaching. I have understood every tips and tricks. I try to learn better English.

[zptudrs]

Hi i am Khaldoun from Syria,
Thank you so much for your lessons, actually i love it and enjoy it .
For me sometimes i have difficulty in understanding the movies when they are going to speak fastly .
Thank you so much