How to improve your listening

Ok everyone this is a fun way to improve your English listening because there is no doubt that everyone like to watch English movies so take advantage of it and learn how to watch it properly and improve your English listening.

Ok now I assume that you watch movies at home in your DVD player or through Internet because you cant do this in a movie theatre. Now one movie should be watch 3 times which go through 3 different phases this is how it is done.

1st Phase

When first time you watch the movie just watch the movie as you normaly would do. Enjoy the story laugh when you have to, cry when you have to or do what ever you want and get the main idea of the story.

2nd Phase

When you watch the movie second time you dont watch the movie instead you listen to the dialogues very carefully. Dont try to look at the movie with your eyes but open your ears and concentrate on the dialogue and try to understand what they talk and get familiar with the accent. If you cant understand any word go back and listen it to again. When you get that word properly continue listening to the movie.

3rd Phase

When you watching the movie third time you must turn on the subtitles. In the 2nd phase you made yourself familiar with the accent and the dialogues of the movie so now you have to do is watch and listen to the movie while looking at the subtitles and try to validate your understanding of the dialogue this will make sure that you went through every single word and there is no problems in your understanding.

I suggest that you should watch two movies per week so that would be six views per week. Do this for about three weeks you will see a considerable improvement in your listening and after you get familiar with this technique you dont need to watch a movie three times instead you can do the three phases in the first time when you watch the movie. This might be hard but if you realy want to improve your listening you have to work hard because there is no easy way or short cut for success.

Good Luck!


If you have any questions please ask.
damith1 AT hotmail DOT com


Please post your ideas and methods that you use to improve your listening so that others can learn different methods and choose the most effective one.

Thank you very much.I think it will be a good way to improve our listening ability.I will try it as soon as I am free.Thanks again.

thank you for taking your time and explaining this effective method for us.

thanks!i will try my best to improve my listening!

Thanks ,I think it's a good way to improve my english ability.

Thank you so much for your detailded method,I believe it is a good way to improve our listening skill when watch English movies.And I'll try.

when watching movies, i usually prefer to watch in on DVD, then turn on the subtitle so i can better understand it.  Unless it's a really good movie or let's just say a very long awaited movie, even if it's advanced screening, i'll definitely see it on the big screen. 

i often watch America series,although i only know a little about it,but i like to do that

thank you for your suggestion,I believe this is a good way to improve our english.thank you again deva

you are absolutely right! But,

you forgot to talk about the translate! i mean ,it's impossible to watch an english movie without the translate in " arabic"  << that's for me ! actually i understand sometimes without looking at the translate but i don't like to miss any part from moive even if it was silly! i tried one time to watch a movie without translate, i got the main idea" what the story talk about" but i miss many details. From that moment, i decided to not watch any movie without the translate!

I think it will take me much time,but maybe I'll have a try.