Listening comprehension is one of the main challenges when learning a new language. Each language is a unique system of sounds, and it takes time for our ears and brains to get used to distinguishing between them. The good news is, there are lots of different ways you can work on it! Read on for our top tips.

1. Listen for the general idea, not the details

If you don’t understand every single word someone is saying, don’t get discouraged! Even in our native languages, we constantly mishear and misunderstand things that are said to us. Usually, having a general idea of what’s being said or spoken about is enough to be able to carry on with a conversation. If you start worrying about the details you’ve missed, you’ll likely miss the main point of whatever comes next. That’s why it’s important to listen for overall meaning rather than each detail.

Not understanding everything is a completely normal part of language use, no matter what level you’re at

2. Slow down

For non-native language speakers, listening to audio recordings can be exhausting, and it's easy for your level of concentration to drift as you go. To make sure you're getting the most out of your practice, break your listening down into chunks. Listen to one or two minutes, pause, and think about what you've understood before carrying on. 

Also, don’t be embarrassed to slow down audio recordings and listen more than once. Websites like Youtube and podcast apps like Spotify or Apple Podcast have a function to slow the playback right down, which can be very helpful when your comprehension isn't perfect. Hearing the sounds more slowly at first will help you comprehend them better at full speed later on in your learning.

3. Sing along!

Singing along to music in Spanish helps you pay close attention to the specific sounds and intonations of the songs you're listening to. Practicing forming the sounds yourself can help you recognise them more easily in different contexts in future.

Music is also often repetitive, with similar sounds coming up again and again throughout a single song, giving you more opportunities to fine-tune your comprehension with each listen.

4. Use transcripts, subtitles and song lyrics

Reading along isn't cheating! If you read along with a text while listening attentively to speech, it can help you better isolate specific sounds and the ways they come together in speech. Don't be afraid to watch TV shows or movies with subtitles, read along with the lyrics as you listen to music, or reinforce your comprehension using the transcripts of the audio recordings used with your Spanish textbook.

As long as you're reading as well as listening, and not instead of listening, you'll be going some way towards improving your listening comprehension.

5. Patience makes perfect

As babies, one of the first steps towards learning our mother tongue is distinguishing which sounds from the world around us form part of the language system we find ourselves immersed in and which ones don't. In other words, our brains learn to focus on the sounds that are most important for communication and (more or less) ignore the rest.

Each language is a system made up of a unique set of grammatical rules and words, but also a unique set of sounds. For example, the rolling R sound in Spanish words like ropa (clothing), or perro (dog), called a trill in linguistics, doesn't exist in English. Learning a new language means slowly retraining our brains to pay attention to these new sounds and treat them as meaningful.

This is possible for people of all ages and backgrounds, but it's a process that takes time. It won't happen overnight, but every time you listen to Spanish you're helping your brain to slowly adapt to a new sonic world. The more patient you are throughout the process, the more likely you are to reach your desired destination.