Active listening (Auto-pause listening) is a brand-new feature that has been launched recently by the eJOY Team. Active listening will focus on helping you improve your listening skills in an effective way. Let’s find out how to practice your English listening with the active listening feature, shall we?
Learn more about our new, redesigned eJOY English app – version 2020
Why active listening?
Active listening is a combination of comprehension listening and bottom-up listening (listening for details or focused). This method of listening will focus on language forms at the word and sentence levels.
Native speakers often ‘smash’ words together when they speak, which makes it really hard for us to recognize every single word in a sentence. For example, in American English the phrase ‘what’s up?’ often sounds more like ‘wassup?’
The best way to deal with this difficulty is to practice active listening. By practicing active listening, you’ll get used to differences between how words sound on their own and how they sound in context.
How to practice active listening effectively?
Notice: eJOY suggests that you should watch the video, look up new words to have an understanding of the video instead of jumping right into the active listening.
Read more about 7 gamified learning steps on eJOY English 2020
Here are steps to practice active listening game
- Step 1: Listen to each dialogue carefully (you can listen to it as many times as you want)
- Step 2: Repeat the dialogue when the video is paused
- Step 3: Check your results when the subtitles are displayed
- Step 4: Tap on any circle to re-listen to the respective dialogue. Pay attention to your errors
Notice: Remember to adjust the subtitle delay time according to your listening level
Take a look at the example below.
This is the chosen video for active listening practice on eJOY GO
1. Watch the video to get a general idea of what the video is about
For instance, in the given video, it’s about a group of friends talking about their new year resolutions.
Here are some new words in the video
resolution (n): a firm decision to do or not to do something.
Eg. she kept her resolution not to see Anne any more
make fun of: To laugh at someone; To make them feel bad emotions.
Eg. You’re always making fun of me!
divorce: the legal ending of a marriage
Eg. “Unhappy couples end up getting a divorce.”
2. Start active listening with 4 steps mentioned above
Step 1: Listen to each dialogue line without the subtitles
You have a few seconds to listen to each dialogue line and guess the dialogue line’s content. The first dialogue line in the given video that I heard is You know what, I’m going to go out on limp (?) and say, “No divorce in 99.”
Step 2: Speak out loud what you heard while the video is paused.
When the video is paused and the subtitles are not yet displayed, I’ll speak this dialogue line out loud You know what, I’m going to go out on limp (?) and say, “No divorce in 99.”
Step 3: Check the result when the subtitles are displayed
Here is the original dialogue line: You know what, I’m going to go out on a limb and say, “No divorces in ’99.”
Compared to the version that we heard: You know what, I’m going to go out on limp (?) and say, “No divorce in 99.”
So as you can see, the indefinite article “a” was missed. We also skipped the ending sound “s” in “divorces” and it should’ve been “limb” instead of “limp” (see the image below)
Step 4: Listen to the dialogue for a few more times and pay close attention to the words and details that we missed.
Note: You need to focus on what you’re listening to. This focused listening practice seems to require a lot of your time and effort but if you work at it in the right way you can actually make significant improvements faster than you might think.
How to access the active listening feature on different eJOY platforms
1. Active listening on eJOY App
- Open eJOY app, choose a video to practice (it’s highly recommended to practice with a no longer than 3-minute video. If your chosen video is longer than 3 minutes, you would have to split it apart)
- Watch the video and look up new words to have a general idea of the video
- After watching the video, go to Active listening by selecting Start learning (image 1)
- Adjust the subtitle delay length according to your preferences (image 2)
- Listen to each dialogue and speak out loud what you heard before the subtitles are displayed
- Check the results
2. Active listening on eJOY GO
- Visit eJOY GO, choose a video to practice
- Watch the video and look up new words to have a general idea of the video
- Don’t forget to turn off the transcript on the right side of the video (1)
- Select the wheel icon on the video’s bottom bar to start your active listening practice (2)
- Go to settings to adjust the subtitle delay time. (3 & 4)
- Listen to each dialogue and speak out loud what you heard before the subtitles are displayed
- Check the results
3. Active listening on eJOY eXtension (upcoming)
The active listening feature will be available soon on eJOY extension. Be sure to stay tuned to our blog for the latest updates!
Now you already know how to practice active listening effectively. It’s time for you to try this feature out and share with us your feedback so we can make it even better!
Let us know if you have any questions regarding this active listening feature.
Happy learning!
