How can Adult ESL students Listen and Speak like a Native Speaker? Tips from a Second Language Learners Perspective!

By Kayo Arima Hawkins,    contact:  [email protected]
 
My name is Kayo Hawkins and I am a Japanese person from Japan and moved to Canada 4 years ago.  However I spent over 7 years living and teaching in English speaking countries (Australia & Canada).  Even though having scored IELTS 8 Academic (Reading, Writing Listening & Speaking) in the past, there are still a lot to learn and improve my English as a second language.  In this blog post, I would like to share some ideas in a series of post to improve your English in your busy life.

1. Listen to News radio stations (CBC in Canada, ABC Radio in Australia…)

CBC radio in Canada provides radio programs that cover a variety of topics – local news, global news, books, music, food, education and culture.  Every time you tune in, you will find something interesting & culturally important.  The best part is, learning English could happen in your spare time - when cleaning the house, working in a gym, commuting on the train and driving; just turn the radio on and you would be amazed how stimulated you feel.

There are two benefits of listening to News Radio station like CBC. First, it is great for building your vocabulary and grammar.  There are always specialists or guest speakers who talk about the topic with academic contents, vocabulary, and manner of talking like a native speaker (semantics).  It is great way to learn how to speak in long sentences to add details, reasons, examples, and opinions to your statement in a short amount of time.  The more you listen to it, the more chance that you would be able to imitate what you hear.

Another good thing that happens to you from listening to radio is that those programs provide you something to talk about with local people.  At work, at school, at playgroup, it is a nice way to start the conversation with people: “I just heard on the radio this morning that there is a thing like raccoon-proof green bin!”   Personally I find the topics on the Radio so funny, as I lived in Tokyo or big cities in Japan most of my life, I never imagined the importance of racoon proof green bins :) in Canada.

Talking about local news would make local people feel closer to you because that is something they can relate themselves too.  Its a good speaking strategy to try one small topic in the conversation each day to participate in the conversation to be recognized that you are there as a part of the community that enjoys socializing with others.

Radio programs also have Apps and social media websites to stay connected and interactive with listeners.  Following these sites might motivate you to speak up and express your opinions and feeling about some issues to be shared with other people, which is another opportunity to practice reading and writing.

Just simply turn on the news radio channel when you have a chance - it would surely take you to the next level of living in a new country as a member, not as a foreigner, with more curiosity and discovery of the land you decided to be.

Kayo's Points to Remember:

1. Tune in to the local Radio Station to improve listening, vocabulary, grammar
2. Imitate, repeat and practice speaking out loud the sentences, words, vocabulary you hear
3. Speak in longer sentences as your confidence grows
4. Everyday, try to speak about ONE topic from the radio at work, school or with native speaking friends
5. Join the community as a cultural member by talking and sounding like a local native speaking person

Please feel free to add comments below, I am happy to respond.



CBS Radio Links:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio

---