When you listen to English speakers do you feel like many words sound so similar that you can't tell the difference?
The solution to this problem is practicing with English words that sound very similar from the very beginning when you start learning English. Make it a habit that each time you learn a new English word you try to compare its pronunciation with that of another word you find similar. I advise some of my students to keep a special notebook for that. They write down small groups of words that are similar in pronunciation as well as in spelling. On this website, we even have an example of a compilation of words like that for practice. You can see the list at this link.
Another good trick that can help you practice and improve your pronunciation skills is to use special software known as speech-to-text software. This kind of software is very common nowadays. If you have the latest version of Microsoft Word, you can see a feature which allows you to speak and then see the words automatically get typed on the page. Iphones have an app called Translate too. Search engines like Google have the option to search by simply saying what you want to search. Shopping platforms also have this feature. There are many other apps that you can use. The goal is to see whether you can say the English words you want to learn correctly. If you say them incorrectly, the software will write the wrong word.
The more you practice saying English words correctly, the easier you can listen and understand other English speakers.
When you practice listening on your own, you can also use audio books. Nowadays audiobooks are very commonly found online. Start with simple stories. As you listen to simple stories and understand them your listening skills will gradually improve to the level where you can listen to advanced level speeches and understand. Don't start practicing your listening with very high level material like English news broadcasts. That will likely discourage you.
This listening test below is very basic and you are expected to score a hundred percent so that you can become more courageous to face more challenging listening tasks. You have only 15minutes to answer 30 questions. Click on this link to go to the test page or scan the QR code on the picture below.
Good luck!
