How to Improve Listening Comprehension

It was a hot and humid day as I waited for the bus. Sweat rolled down my spine, and the loud whine of cicadas filled the air. I got on the bus and began planning my lesson. My task was to help my class prepare for the TOEIC test they would take in three months.

The classroom had four beige walls, no windows, and smelled like chemicals. My four students wore khaki uniforms with the FujiFilm company logo above the pocket. They were engineers and designers who would work at FujiFilm labs and factories abroad. They needed to improve their English skills to communicate with colleagues in other countries. Taking the TOEIC test was a requirement to prove their ability to work at one of FujiFilm's factories or labs in Asia, Europe, or North America.

I asked my students how I could help them and what they needed to focus on to improve their TOEIC test scores. They all replied together, "Listening! The listening section is the most difficult for us! We can do the reading and grammar sections, but the speakers talk so fast in the listening section!"

I promised them, "Alright, I'll research and create some lessons to help you improve your listening skills." Then, I added, "By the way, do you all like music?"

"Yes, of course!" they answered.

"What kind of music do you like?" I asked.

"I like the Beatles," said Kenji.

"Me too!" added Hiro.

"I prefer Frank Sinatra," said Takashi.

So, I returned to my language school and asked some of my fellow teachers how they would improve listening scores. Some suggested using listening exercise tapes from textbooks. In contrast, others recommended conducting listening quizzes where I would read conversations and ask questions. Although these were good ideas, I decided to try something different: song lyrics transcription. I would bring a cassette tape to class (we didn't have CDs or mp4s then), play the music, and ask my students to write down the lyrics. This approach would be practical because they enjoyed music, and it could help them practice listening, reading, grammar, and pronunciation skills while understanding the song's meaning.

In the next class, I brought a cassette tape with the Beatles' song "Yesterday." The students were excited to listen to the song, and Kenji said, "I can sing this song in English at Karaoke, and my friends will think I'm cool!" I pressed the play button on the cassette machine, and they listened to the entire song without writing anything. Then, I played the music again and asked them to write down as many words as they could hear. They wrote:

Yesterday

Believe

Why

Play

Said

I realized that this exercise was more challenging than I had imagined. So, we went through the lyrics line by line slowly. I reminded my students that English often has contractions like "don't" and shortened syllables. I shared my own struggle with everyday Japanese. While walking to Kinshicho Station from my apartment every morning, I passed a sushi shop, and the chef always said, "OOSSS!" At first, I couldn't understand what "OOSS" meant. I asked my Japanese colleagues at the language school and they told me it was a one-syllable version of "Ohayo gozaimasu!"

I pointed out that Paul sings the lyrics to fit the song's rhythm, so words may flow into each other like: "Now it looks as though they're here to stay."

To help my students, I asked them to tell me what it sounded like and if they could imitate the sound. Hiro said, "It sounds like 'NOWITLOOKS-AZO.'"

"Good!" I said. "Let's break it down. By writing it this way, we can guess the correct words." So, I wrote "NOWITLOOKS-AZO" on the whiteboard, and they could see the words and break them apart.

In that first transcription class, we could only finish the first verse. But in the following lessons, we were able to transcribe entire songs. We spent about 20-30 minutes transcribing songs in our one-hour classes. We transcribed many Beatles' songs like "And I Love Her" and "Norwegian Wood," among others. We also transcribed Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon." We even went as a class to a Karaoke to sing together.

After a few months, they took the TOEIC test, and their scores increased by hundreds of points. Kenji was sent to Singapore, Hiro went to Taiwan, and Takashi went to London. I can't say that transcribing song lyrics was the only reason for their improved listening scores. They also listened to English on the train to and from work and studied independently. However, another intermediate-level class that didn't use song lyric transcription exercises didn't score nearly as well. That's why I believe transcribing song lyrics is an excellent way to improve your listening. It's also a fun way to study vocabulary and grammar.