This is the usual reaction I get from the class when I suggest that we do a listening activity. It is the part they find most difficult and unanimously dislike about learning English. "But they speak so fast", "I don't understand", "It's too difficult", "They use vocabulary I don't know" they protest.
Well, how are you meant to improve if you don't practise. The only way a spoken language can enter the brain is through the ears, so if you don't practise listening, then spoken English will always be too fast and too difficult and if you don't learn to recognize the sounds of spoken English, you will never understand it. It is really that simple. How do people think they are going to participate in a conversation if they only practise what they want to say, communication is also about listening to what others say too.
Strangely, Spanish schools teach primarily using written grammar exercises rather than spoken or listening exercises. Reading or writing in the form of filling in the blanks or conjugating verbs is the principle way of learning a language. Reading and writing skills are distinctly different from listening and speaking skills, they can help to increase and memorize vocabulary but they are of no help whatsoever for helping speaking skills, which are sorely neglected and so students suffer immensely as after long years of study they find themselves unable to communicate and unable to understand what is being said to them. They can read it but not use and communicate with it. Fortunately, schools nowadays are changing, but still not enough emphasis is put on listening skills as an aid to speaking.
English, unlike Spanish, is not a phonetic language and although there are phonetic sounds, they are rarely taught and moreover, there are so many exceptions that the only way to really become familiar with English pronunciation is by speaking and listening to the language. To familiarize yourself with how the words sound when spoken not simply to recognize them on paper, which in some cases have nothing to do with the construction of letters used. Take the 'ight' combination of letters, which are pronunced to a Spaniard as 'ait' whereas English-speakers would have used 'ite' as a synonymous way of pronouncing those letters, ('might' and 'mite' are pronounced in the same way). However, it is not so simple as we have now come across the phenomenon of the 'silent E'; or the horrible 'ugh' combination which can be pronounced a whole host of ways, such as 'though', 'thought', 'rough', 'bough' and so on. Difficult eh! How would you know how to pronouce those without listening to them first.
There are those people who naturally have a good ear and who can easily pick up languages. Lucky them! But more often than not, those with the best ability to speak and understand English are those who have gone out and practised; as by using it they have learned it. It doesn't have to be in a native-speaking country but of course this does make it easier. Of course, not everyone has the chance to spend time in the UK, for example, to practise but there are other ways to improve your listening and speaking skills.
A good way is by watching TV shows and films in the original version, in English. Most people who do this tend to do it in the wrong way. After a long day in the office or at school or University, they sit down exhausted in front of the TV with the intention of 'studying English' or 'practising listening' while watching TV. After about ten minutes of squinting at the TV straining to understand what is being said, they switch back to Spanish feeling like a complete failure with terrible English as they have not been able to understand the dialogue. They vow to try again tomorrow, but the reality is that English has become something to be endured. Learning English, especially improving listening skills does not have to be a form of punishment. There are umpteen reasons why you could not understand; you were tired, maybe the English was particularly difficult or the accent was an especially difficult one or simply one that you were not familiar with. Many native speakers struggle when listening to an unfamiliar accent and there are a LOT of English accents. In the UK alone, not only are there regional accents with each town often having its own accent but each class also has its own one too (I know it's not fashionable anymore to talk about the class system, but these differing types of accents still exist). In the village where I grew up there were four: the upper-class, middle-class, working-class and farmers' country accents and you could tell a lot about the type of person by how they spoke.
Instead, the best idea is to get into the habit of putting the TV on in English but with Spanish subtitles, for example. That way you can enjoy the programme in a relaxed way whilst reading the subtitles. The important thing to remember is that the ear does two functions: it hears and it listens. Even when the ear is not focused on something - it is not listening - it still hears; so the brain is still working and processing the information. You are giving the brain a chance to familiarize itself with the language without the stress of making a big effort, you are using a natural process. After a while you will be surprised when suddenly your brain tunes into the English and you can understand things seemingly effortlessly, maybe not a lot at first but it will continue increasing until you find you are relying less and less on the subtitles and more on your own listening skills. It is important to accept that this is a process and it takes time, so patience is necessary but once acquired, these listening skills are not lost so easily especially if the habit of watching TV in the original version is kept up.
But why wouldn't it be kept up? You are not spending a lot of effort.
You cannot teach listening skills, it is a natural ability that you are exercising not something that is acquired.
Another idea is to put on the radio through the internet. Try http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ * while you are working, cleaning or relaxing at home. Again, don't listen. Have it on as background noise and focus on whatever else you are doing. Again, you will be surprised at how often you will start tuning in and understanding the language. Primarily, try not to give yourself stress or worry about how long it is taking you to understand. It will happen, everyone has their own time. Of course, it doesn't harm to have those occasions when you do want to practise listening and use the radio or TV as an opportunity to focus on improving your listening skills, just don't do it to the extent that you give up watching/listening to the TV in English.
One thing a lot of people who have good pronunciation and listening skills have in common is a love of music, especially British or American pop songs. Enjoying music is a pleasurable way to practise listening and to learn a great variety of new vocabulary and expressions in a natural context, the music and rhythm are also a great help for pronunciation and intonation.
So, there is a lot that can be done, try to make language learning as pleasurable and relaxing as possible. Listening to a language being spoken does not have to be torture or a highly stressful affair. It is a question of habit forming and most people, once they start watching films in the original version cannot go back. Why do Portuguese people have such good English? One of the reasons is that there is no dubbing done in Portugal, everything is shown in the original version and people get used, at a very young age, to hearing or listening to another language, so it becomes second nature to them. My nephew was over visiting me in Madrid a few weeks ago and I put on some cartoons in English for him with the TV set for the original version, however after a while some French cartoons were shown followed by some Spanish ones, he did not notice at all that the language had changed.
That is the reality; young children notice the images, noises, gestures and intonations rather than listen to the words spoken. They start focussing more on the words as their vocabulary improves so it is not hard for them to watch cartoons in English.
It's true that it is hard at first to get used to reading subtitles, if you have been always used to dubbing, but only for the first ten minutes or so, we quickly adapt so there is no excuse.
* Some BBC Radio recommendations:
Radio 4: in general, specifically 'The Today Programme', 'Woman's Hour', 'A Point of View', 'Any Questions?', 'Book of the Week', 'The Bottom Line'.
Radio 4 extra: for theatre, plays, reenactments, books and dramas.
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