English Listening Class
Do you often have to rewind podcasts and videos because you just don’t get something? Take an English listening course and learn to understand different speakers without effort!
..Listening skills fall into the category of “easy to learn, hard to master”. Most non-native speakers learn to recognize English by ear fairly quickly. However, things quickly get tricky once you introduce different accents, tones, and cadences.
And if you mean understanding all the ideas and asking good questions? Even native speakers often struggle with this level of mastery. Luckily, you have an advantage: as a learner, you naturally pay more attention to speech. English listening lessons with a certified tutor will help you turn this attention into intuitive understanding.
Become the best listener you’ve ever met with Promova!
Why join an English listening class
Developing your comprehension takes months. You need at least 100 hours to learn the basics, and advanced learners often need to practice beyond 500 hours to reach fluency. Our certified tutors provide direction, which helps you learn faster and focus on what matters.
Most adults don’t have great memories of English classes at school. Thick textbooks, outdated expressions, and boring topics. Your English audio listening materials with Promova will be the opposite: engaging, relevant, and fun to listen to.
You’ll learn faster if you can feel progress toward your goals. That’s why your English tutor will first create a personal learning plan just for you. Our job is to ensure that your lessons set you up for success - we take an individual approach to how you learn.
What you’ll learn during English listening lessons:
Articulation.
Start with simple sounds and phrases. Learn to understand “muted” or “swallowed” English over time.
Accent.
Start with simple American or British speech. Learn to recognize regional accents, such as Australian English, over time.
Complexity.
Start with short texts and simple connected speech. Learn about assimilation, elision, liaison, and linking words over time.
Context.
Start with tone and general topics. Learn to infer what unfamiliar words mean in entirely new topics over time.
Cadence.
Start with slow, clear, and standard speech. Learn to comprehend fast speakers even in unfamiliar accents over time.
Intonation.
Start with understanding how the voice rises and falls in speech, and how tone changes convey emotions or add emphasis.
Reasoning.
Start with asking and answering simple questions. Learn to find deeper meaning and understand abstract ideas over time.
Structure.
Start with simple, direct sentences. Learn to make sense of complex structures and advanced grammar over time.
Unsure about your level? Take our free English test!
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We collect English audio and video to help learners at every level.
If you aren’t ready to study with a tutor yet, use the 👉🏽Promova App for free lessons and self-study materials.
Our teaching methodology
Your English listening class will improve your comprehension and contribute to other key skills such as speaking, writing, and reading.
Here is how you can learn with Promova:
Your tutor will share a TED talk, an article reading, a podcast, short video, or any number of things based on your interests. You’ll spend a few minutes listening and applying strategies you’re already familiar with. This will help identify what you can do, what you need to work on, and how you can succeed.
You’ll dive into the “chunky” part of your lesson, where the teacher will share new strategies and help you improve. You’ll try out new techniques straight away and build up your listening skills with hands-on coaching.
You’ll return to the same or a similar podcast, video, or lecture with the newly acquired skills. Now you should be able to greatly increase your comprehension and look out for the right things.
You’ll compare how much better you do with new skills and strategies and see how you can apply them in your life. So keep practicing and return to your next lesson, ready to dive even deeper.
Become the best listener you know:
Start learningWhy our students love our classes
People often ask
How can I practice listening to English?
You want to start by knowing your level and finding suitable materials. For example, if you’re at A2, you’ll probably feel lost if you listen to a scientific lecture. On the other hand, if you’re at B2, you’ll probably be bored listening to a basic conversation at the restaurant.
Once you know your level, it’s all a matter of exposure. You want to encounter English speech wherever you go, as often as possible. One useful tip is to pay attention to songs in English and look up the lyrics. Songs typically use simple words and phrases and are free of accents, which makes them easy to understand if you pay attention.
If you need English audio for lessons, Promova provides materials for all proficiency levels and can help you improve quickly.
What are the strategies for learning English listening?
You can think of English listening as a large overall skill that you can approach from different directions. There are two broad strategies that you can use on your own or during English listening lessons:
- Top-Down Listening. You use what you already know about the situation to better understand it. For example, let’s say you’re listening to a TED talk. You know that, and from this context, you can understand specific words, phrases, and so on based on your general knowledge of how these talks work. Alternatively, you could be watching a scene from a TV show and understand the dialogue in a top-down way.
- Bottom-Up Listening. You listen to sound clues, structures, and words, to better understand the content. With this strategy, you’ll focus on the diction and specific language elements to combine them and gain familiarity with the language. In other words, you start from basic elements and place them in context later.
These sets of strategies work together and become intuitive over time. For example, picking up a few scientific terms can help you understand you’re listening to a scientific lecture and listen to the rest of it with ease.
You can take our English listening course online to master both approaches and comprehend general and specific information anywhere you go.
What will I learn during listening lessons?
Promova tutors can help you build up your skills in several ways. Firstly, we will develop an individual plan to ensure you’ll learn from videos, reports, podcasts, and so on that are relevant to your needs. Secondly, you’ll develop your listening skills in several ways:
- Listening for gist - you’ll learn to identify the main elements of what you’re listening to. For example, whether the speaker is happy or sad or whether a given news report is about economics, sports, etc.
- Listening for specific information - you’ll learn to find what you need in a large volume of information. For example, you may be listening to many announcements at the airport and need to find out which one relates to your flight.
- Listening for detailed comprehension - you’ll learn to consume content and fully understand it. For example, you might want to listen to a morning news report or a university lecture and need to get and retain as many details as possible.
If you’re looking for English online free audio materials, be sure to check out our application with a lot of fun and helpful lessons.
What are the 4 types of listening?
Firstly, there are a lot of different ways to think about listening. Researchers distinguish anywhere between 3 and 7 types of listening. The most common way is to focus on your purpose - why you’re listening. Here is what this can look like:
- Informational Listening. You’re listening to learn and understand something. Typically focuses on ideas, concepts, etc.
- Critical Listening. You’re listening to analyze and provide feedback. Typically focuses on arguments, facts, etc.
- Empathetic Listening. You’re listening to connect and provide support to someone. Typically focuses on emotions, feelings, etc.
- Active Listening. You’re listening to engage and participate in a subject. Typically focuses on asking questions, negotiating, etc.
In your English class, listening will start from Informational and help you expand into other types. You’ll eventually be able to work in all 4 dimensions and handle both conversations and recorded materials.