Introduction:

Spanish is an amazingly fast-spoken language. It is the language that is on the rise. This is considered a beautiful language and holds a worldwide influence on business and culture. Spanish comes in second place behind Chinese, which is spoken by around a billion people. There are around 21 countries that have Spanish, as their official language. It is considered one of the significant languages in the world. Spanish is a phonetic language and has borrowed words from English which made one think over learning this beautiful language. This interesting information about the Spanish language unleashes the language’s long heritage as well as its importance and growth in the present world. 

Learning any language involves covering all the aspects of language learning which are Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. But for many Spanish language learners, listening is taken as the most difficult part of the learning process. For learning the language, paying attention to listening skills holds utmost and equal importance as do Speaking, Writing, and Reading. In our daily life, we spend almost half of the day listening. So, it becomes more important to have effective listening skills.

Let’s learn about the ways which can help to improve listening skills in Spanish language.

• Selective listening

While choosing the content to practice listening, please be sure as to what or what not to be used as a listening resource. Content could be chosen as per the situation, so there is no obligation of listening to it till the completion, keeping other things at stake. So, match up your selection with your aim and objectives or your learning requirement to make the most of your practice time.

• Diversified listening  

Listen to the variety of content or audios which will keep you tightened up and thus leading to effective listening comprehension. To make the most out of your practice time, keep the audios ready, load your phone or car with Spanish audios/songs/podcasts. Keep yourself engaged in diverse listening to be ready to have a chit-chat with any of your Spanish-speaking friends.

• Watch Movies

Movies have an advantage over other listening resources in that they have both audio and visual cues to help you figure out what is going on. There are many Spanish movies out there to help you improve. You can watch any movie which you have watched already in your language and now in Spanish. You can read the given subtitles and listen at the same time, and then watch the movie without subtitles once you feel comfortable and confident. This allows for better comprehension of spoken Spanish and allows you to learn new Spanish words quicker. 

• Spanish Routine

With the intention of immersing yourself truly in the language, switch to Spanish mode. Anything that you read or listen to in day-to-day routine in English should be in Spanish rather be it switching your phone’s language and making the most of the Spanish language on social networking sites. Spanish will be imbibed into your routine when you listen to nothing but Spanish, and with more practice, you will end up using Spanish only.

• Interaction in Spanish

Accept your mistakes while interacting in Spanish. Trust it’s the first step to acquire fluency. Chit-chatting on the phone in Spanish is an excellent way to hone your listening skills. The lack of non-verbal cues received while interacting means you will really have to tune in to what the other person is saying. No video mode! Try to understand the intonation while listening carefully. It will certainly help you in the long run and in retaining what’s learned.

• Learning vocabulary

Try to keep a target of learning around=d ten vocabulary words in Spanish every day and record them with the meaning. Reviewing this recorded vocab every day before learning new, will help in recognizing words when you hear them the next time, so your listening will keep on sharpening.

Don’t forget that you just may not be able to learn everything which is even mentioned in your spoken language, so don’t expect to grasp every single word once listening in Spanish. Simply use any of the above-mentioned ways, which matches your learning needs, and concentrate on getting better day by day. The solution to all your queries that you may have regarding improving your listening skills, get in touch with Multibhashi, to get more insight.