Improve Your Listening Skills by Transcribing

Improve Your Listening Skills by Transcribing¹

In our Education Tips series, education experts in the United States offer advice on how you can improve your knowledge of American English. This week, Pascal Hamon, the Academic Director at the English Language Institute at Missouri State University, talks about how students can improve their listening skills.

English learners can improve their listening skills by transcribing spoken English.

That advice comes from Pascal Hamon, the Academic Director for the English Language Institute at Missouri State University.

Students often study listening comprehension in less than interesting, even boring ways, he adds. Transcription, however, provides a fun way to improve one’s listening skills.

Why is listening important?

At VOA Learning³ English, we often receive questions from English learners about how they can improve their listening skills.

Some learners want to build up general English skills, while others want to take exams that involve listening skills.

Take the TOEFL exam, for example. International students who want to attend an American college or university are often required to pass TOEFL, short for the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

This test has a listening section. It asks students to show their ability to understand short and long conversations in English. Those discussions⁴ are designed to test one’s understanding of common vocabulary, idiomatic⁵ expressions, and special grammatical⁶ constructions used in speech.

Whether you want to build general English skills or prepare for a test, being able to understand spoken English is a necessary skill. And you will not get better at this skill unless you practice!

Pascal Hamon says that listening exercises should force English learners to focus on turning the sounds that they hear into words. Then, learners must use their brains to turn these words into a message.

Many students try to learn listening skills by performing listening comprehension activities. Hamon believes that such exercises have value but do not force the student to decode⁷ individual sounds.

Worse, some English learners listen to television or radio programs in English, but do not actively⁸ try to study how native speakers say words and sentences.

Building listening skills does not have to be boring, says Hamon. There are fun, game-like activities that build listening skills.

One such activity, Hamon says, is to make transcriptions.

What is transcription?

Transcribing is the act of writing down the words that have been spoken.

English learners should start working with transcriptions by finding⁹ audio¹⁰ or video material that has a transcript² with it, Hamon says.

Then, he adds, English learners can start practicing.

"They [English learners] listen to a segment¹¹ as many times as they need, and they try to write what they hear – without subtitles¹², without ... Just focusing on what they hear. And then they can check with the actual transcript to see what they got right, what they did not get right, if there are areas where they thought they heard two words but there is actually only one, or they missed a verb ending or plural¹³ or something."

Students should not stop the transcription exercise there, however. Hamon says that students should always try to learn from their mistakes.

Students should think, Hamon adds, about what they could do better. By identifying problems, and repeating the exercise, English learners will improve their listening skills.

What can you do?

You can start practicing transcription on your own by following these steps:

-First, find audio that has a printed transcript, but do not look at the words. You should choose audio that is right for your level.

One way you could do this on our website is to open a story and start listening to the audio before reading the story. All of our stories have audio below the headline of the story.

-Second, listen to a short section of the audio many times. After you have listened many times, try to write down what you hear.

-Third, compare what you wrote against the story.

-Finally, think about, as Hamon suggested, where you had problems. Ask yourself the following questions: What do I need to improve? What words or sounds did I not hear?

Remember: when you transcribe¹⁴ something, you do not always have to choose a news story. You could choose a song or part of a movie that you like. Just be sure that you are able to find a transcript for it to check your work.

To get you started, let me give you something to transcribe. Listen to part of a song at the end of this story. The song is called “How Deep is the Ocean,” and the singer is American Billie Holiday.

Transcribe what you hear and write it in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. Next week, we will give you the answer in the Comments Section of this story and on our Facebook page.

Words in This Story

transcribe – v. to make a written copy of (something)

transcription – n. the act or process of making a written, printed, or typed copy of words that have been spoken

comprehension – n. ability to understand

boring – adj. dull and uninteresting

focus – v. to direct your attention or effort at something specific

section – n. one of the parts that form something

decode – v. to change (secret messages, documents, etc.) from a set of letters, numbers, symbols, etc., you cannot understand into words you can understand

conversation – n. an informal talk involving two people or a small group of people

practice – v. to do something again and again in order to become better at it

check – v. to look at (something) carefully to find mistakes, problems, etc., or to make sure there is nothing wrong with it

1 transcribing   

（用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的现在分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音）

参考例句：

• They continue to remove molecules until the cell stops transcribing the gene. 他们继续除去分子，直到细胞不再转录基因为止。
• Q: Can I use Voice-to-Text software to help with the transcribing? 问：我能使用声音-到-本文的软件帮助转换吗？

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

4 discussions   

n.讨论( discussion的名词复数 )；商讨；详述；论述

参考例句：

• Discussions are held on an informal basis within the department. 讨论限于在本部门内非正式地进行。
• Her specialist input to the discussions has been very useful. 她在这些讨论中提供的专家建议很有助益。

5 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。

6 grammatical   

adj.语法的，符合语法规则的

参考例句：

• His composition is excellent except for some grammatical mistakes.他的作文写得很好，只有几处语法错误。
• He can barely form a grammatical sentence.他几乎造不出合乎语法的句子。

7 decode   

vt.译（码），解（码）

参考例句：

• All he had to do was decode it and pass it over.他需要做的就是将它破译然后转给他人。
• The secret documents were intercepted and decoded.机密文件遭截获并被破译。

8 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

9 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

10 audio   

n./adj.音频(响)(的)；声音(的)，听觉(的)

参考例句：

• Often,the meeting is recorded on audio or video media for later reference.通常这种会议会以视频或者音频形式记录下来，供以后查阅。
• You don't even have to pay for audio programs.你大可不必为自己听这些节目付费。

11 segment   

n.切片，部分，段，节

参考例句：

• The company dominates this segment of the market.这家公司控制着这一部分市场。
• Give me a segment of a tangerine to taste.给我一瓣柑橘尝一尝。

12 subtitles   

n.说明字幕，印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕，译文对白字幕；小标题，副标题( subtitle的名词复数 )；（电影的）字幕

参考例句：

• subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
• a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片

13 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

14 transcribe   

v.抄写，誉写；改编(乐曲)；复制，转录

参考例句：

• We need volunteers to transcribe this manuscript.我们需要自愿者来抄写这个文稿。
• I am able to take dictation in English and transcribe them rapidly into Chinese.我会英文记录，还能立即将其改写成中文。