Practicing active listening, watching movies with bilingual subtitles, and interacting with
different types of English speakers will help you improve your listening skills.
1. Active listening instead of passive listening
There are two forms of listening, active and passive. Active listening is listening
attentively, trying to make sense of what is being heard. Passive listening is simply
hearing what is being said without actually trying to understand every word. For
example, when you are listening to English music or podcasts and don't really focus on
them, you are listening passively.
Some argue that it is possible to improve English listening through passive listening, but
from personal experience, I do not find this to help memorize vocabulary or improve
word comprehension. If I don't take the time to try and understand the language I'm
hearing, I won't memorize anything new. Therefore, I advise you to actively listen at all
times, even when listening to casual things like enjoying music or TV shows.
2. Watch English TV and movies with bilingual subtitles
Start watching English TV and movies with subtitles in both English and your mother
tongue. This can be useful because it allows you to quickly figure out the meaning of an
unfamiliar word. Displaying English subtitles is also very useful, helping you to improve
your ability to combine spoken English with written English.
3. Play ESL (English as a Second Language) listening games online
English listening games provide a fun, interactive experience for learners who are
struggling to improve their listening skills.
Some great ESL listening game sites include ESL Kids Lab (contains many simple
listening exercises for beginners, helping to remember basic vocabulary about school,
everyday objects, work, etc.) ...), TeachThis (games designed for English classes but if
you have a group of friends to practice English with you can try), Randall's ESL Cyber
​​Listening Lab (includes tests and quizzes) English listening sorted by level, for everyone
from beginner to advanced).

Listening games also give you an incentive to "win". You will always be motivated and
want to keep practicing listening to English.
4. Guess the meaning from the context of the conversation
You should have real English conversations as soon as possible. One of the best ways to
understand English while you are learning is to use clues from the context. When
conversing or listening to English audio, try to pick out key words that you know. You
can use these words to get a basic idea of ​​what someone is trying to convey and figure
out the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
You can also pay attention to tone of voice (whether the speaker is happy, confused,
serious or smiling), body language, and surroundings. If someone is trying to talk to you
and is pointing at a map, chances are they need directions. If you're reading a red traffic
sign, it probably means "stop".
Even if you don't live in an English-speaking area, you can still use this method to
improve your conversation skills by watching videos on Fluent or listening to English
podcasts.