A regular habit
I think it is a good activity to do before going to sleep, as not only can I listen to podcasts that I like, but it also reduces my stress at work. I enjoy listening to TED Daily podcast as it has a variety of topics for me to explore and the podcast contains 10 to 15 minutes, so it is easy for me to shadow the speakers. If I am bored from listening to TED Daily podcast, I listen to TED-ed.org because the website provides short lessons with animations to watch and English subtitles to read along with. I think it is another way of practicing my focus. While I am listening to the podcasts, I pay attention to what the speakers are saying and mimic their sound.
Actually, I used to dream of working as an anchor when I was in high school. I got inspiration from Kriste Lu Stout, an award winning anchor at CNN, while I was watching international news. I still remember that I used to try to mimic her American English accent while she was presenting news.
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Getting my news
Before the availability of the Internet and smartphones, I used to receive news from newspapers, TV and radio. When I was at school, I did not use to read newspapers, but I would watch news on TV and listen to radio. Although I was young, I enjoyed watching news about economics and politics and I used to get help from my parents in explaining the news. At that time, I used to want to be a politician as I thought that their work was about walking on the street and meeting people. When I went to university, I studied business and social science. Some of my friends would make jokes to me that I would have become a politician after I graduated. I laughed at them as I thought that it was not easy to work in this career.
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Zemach's most useful strategy
Since I have studied English language for many years, I think the most useful strategy from Zemach is being an independent learner. My experience confirmed her advice that if I spend time to study and practice English outside of class, I can have a better understanding of the lessons and use the language more fluently. In my free time, I often study more details on the grammar points that are not clear to me. For example, after I study English verb tenses in class, I read more about the tenses from my grammar handbooks and practice using them by writing down or speaking some sentences to allow my brain to absorb the new information. It works as when I want to use the grammar structures, my brain automatically produces the sentences that I want to express. In addition to that, while I am listening to podcasts from TED Daily, I also pay attention to how the native speakers of English use grammar to express their ideas. Although I used to struggle with the process of studying outside of the class, it is worthwhile for me as my English skills are getting better.
Another benefit of being an independent learner is that it makes my learning experience of the language more enjoyable because I read and listen for pleasure. I like English language as it has opened my world. There are many fascinating stories that are written in English. For example, I enjoy reading science fiction stories from Ted Chiang as I can indulge myself in the world of imagination. While reading his stories, I got many ideas and discovered multiple dimensions in his stories. I mean his science fiction stories are a mixture of science, philosophy, psychology and so on. If I could not read and understand English, I would not have read these awesome stories.
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Your method of practicing English is very interesting! I also use podcasts as the lessons for improve my listening skill because I found it is very productive to learn new things and improve English skills at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI found Emma's comments about accent interesting. My friends tell me I speak Thai with an Isaan accent, which is plausible. And I'm sure there's a fair bit of my native pronunciation habits mixed in with my Thai. These days, that does not worry me much. It doesn't worry IELTS and TOEFL either. Their official grading rubrics for the speaking parts of the tests say that speaking with an accent is not a problem provided it does not interfere with pronunciation enough to cause communication problems.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading Emma's comments on that aspect of her regular habit, I was reminded of a TED Talk I recently watched again. The talk was by historian Yuval Noah Harari, and in his justly popular talk, he was explaining a key part of his explanation of how our species went from be as inconsequential on Earth to domination in a mere 70,000 years.
He communicates complex ideas very effectively, getting in a few excellent jokes, in English, which is clearly not his native language. He is Israeli, and speaks with a marked accent, but that accent is no problem for his listeners.
If you would like to get in some listening practice, Harari's talk, which is 17:00 minutes (a little less actually - the host chats a bit at the end), it's "What Explains the Rise of Humans?" at https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_humans?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare