Learning to listen in another language is challenging and essential. You do not need to understand every word. Keep the general context; the melody of English comes with practice.
One excellent way to practise your English listening skills is to watch videos and movies with subtitles. This is an effective and entertaining way of practising listening for any proficiency level. Another, more difficult method is to watch programmes, especially things like the news, with or without subtitles. Newscasters tend to speak very quickly, so this can be quite challenging. Finally, one of the most difficult ways of practising listening is by listening to radio programmes or podcasts. Not being able to see the people when they are speaking makes it significantly more complicated to understand.
It is very important to remember that it is not necessary to understand every word. The goal should be to keep up with the general context of the conversation. If there is a word here and there that you do not understand, that's fine! It will get easier the more you practise. In addition, the more you listen to English in whatever form, the more you will begin to understand the melody of the language. Too, the more you listen and read, the more you will pick up on certain grammatical rules and constructs without actually studying them!
First, depending on the length and complexity of the subject, you may want to watch the video with subtitles in your native language. Do not do this more than once; the idea is simply to listen and verify that you understand the general points being made. After this, switch the subtitles to English, so you can listen and read what is being said. This will allow you to hear what is really being said, even if it is said quickly. Once you have listened a few times with the subtitles, try listening with no subtitles. Because you are now familiar with the content, you will be able to listen to accent, vocabulary, and nuance.
TED Talks are an excellent resource because you can find videos on almost any subject and most talks have transcripts in many languages. Some favourites are below — each link goes to the transcript.
The reference site's links for these two talks both pointed at other videos. The titles are kept; the correct URLs still need finding.
Understanding any language is more complicated when we cannot see the person who is speaking, which is why listening to podcasts and radio programmes is such excellent practice. Don't worry if you don't understand everything; this is completely normal! Just keep listening. If you are more of a beginner, just listen to the melody and try to understand the general point of the conversation. For the more advanced students, listen for words that you don't know, so you can continue to improve your vocabulary.
Strongly recommended for all students, especially beginner, pre-intermediate and intermediate levels. It has over 300 episodes covering a multitude of English grammar lessons for French speakers learning English. The narrator has an English accent and speaks in French and English, offering detailed explanations about each topic. Check it out!
This podcast focuses more on expressions and practical vocabulary than AnglaisCours Club. The narrator speaks with an English accent, in both French and English during the sessions. There are 76 episodes to choose from.
The British Council website is an excellent resource for English language learners. Their podcast series are designed for different proficiency levels, so be sure to select whichever level you feel most comfortable with. Each episode includes a transcript, which is very helpful, and exercises to check that you understood what you heard.
An excellent podcast series presented by BBC Radio, designed for more advanced speakers. It has a multitude of episodes on various slang words or phrases. It does not offer transcripts. Each episode is about three minutes long. They are really very clever and well worth listening to.
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