How to Improve Your English Listening Comprehension

How to Improve Your English Listening Comprehension: A Guide for Finnish Senior High School Students

Listening comprehension (LC) is one of the most essential – and often most challenging – skills to master in a foreign language. For Finnish students in senior high school, who typically have around 10 years of English studies behind them, the ability to understand spoken English can still feel surprisingly difficult. Why is that? And more importantly, what can you do about it?

1. Vocabulary Is the Foundation

You can’t understand a word you’ve never heard before. That’s why having a wide and active vocabulary is essential for listening comprehension. If you know the word, you’re much more likely to recognize it when you hear it – even if it’s said quickly or with a regional accent.

Words are not always pronounced clearly in fluent speech, so the mind has to fill in the blanks. That’s only possible if the word already exists in your mental dictionary. The more words you know, the more you understand.

✅ How to build vocabulary for listening:

  • Watch shows and read subtitles at the same time (English–English is best).
  • Create personal vocabulary lists with audio (e.g., using Quizlet or Anki).
  • Learn collocations (e.g., make a decision, take a risk) to boost understanding of whole phrases, not just individual words.

2. Pronunciation and Prosody: The Music of English

English is a stress-timed language, meaning that some syllables are stressed more strongly and regularly than others, while Finnish is syllable-timed – each syllable is pronounced more evenly. This difference creates serious problems for Finnish learners.

In English, content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are stressed, while function words (prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs, pronouns) are often unstressed or even reduced (e.g., can becomes /kən/, to becomes /tə/). If you expect every word to be clearly pronounced, you’ll miss a lot.

✅ How to improve prosody awareness:

  • Shadow native speakers: listen to a sentence and repeat it with the same rhythm and intonation.
  • Practice marking stress in sentences: I want to go to the STORE (not I want TO GO to THE store).
  • Listen to short phrases repeatedly until you “hear the melody” of natural speech.

3. Phonemes and Pronunciation Patterns

English has many sounds that don’t exist in Finnish, such as /θ/ (thing), /ð/ (this), or even the difference between /b/ and /v/. If you don’t know how these are produced, you may not hear them correctly.

✅ How to train your ear for English phonemes:

  • Use pronunciation tools like the Interactive IPA Chart or YouTube channels (e.g., Rachel’s English, BBC Learning English).
  • Practice minimal pairs (e.g., ship/sheep, bat/bad, cot/caught).
  • Record yourself reading and compare it to native pronunciation.

4. The Role of Exposure: Quantity AND Quality

To truly improve your listening comprehension, you need massive exposure to authentic English. This means not just listening to English occasionally, but making it a daily habit.

✅ Best exposure sources:

  • TV shows & films: Choose natural dialogue over action-heavy content. Sitcoms are great for everyday speech.
  • Podcasts: Choose topics you enjoy. Start with transcripts if needed (e.g., TED Talks, BBC 6 Minute English).
  • Audiobooks: Start with books you already know in Finnish or easy English versions. Try graded readers.

📝 Pro tip: Re-listen to the same material several times. The first listen gives you general understanding, the second helps you catch details, the third allows you to pick up pronunciation patterns.

5. The Role of Speaking

Speaking helps internalize the patterns of English. If you speak English actively, you become more sensitive to how it sounds. Producing the sounds yourself helps your brain tune in to them when others say them.

✅ How to use speaking to boost listening:

  • Practice speaking with AI tools, language partners, or classmates.
  • Read texts aloud regularly.
  • Use the “shadowing” technique: repeat right after a native speaker, copying intonation and rhythm.

6. Recognizing Different Accents and Dialects

English is a global language. You’ll hear many accents – American, British, Irish, Indian, Australian, and more. Some learners panic when they can’t understand every speaker.

✅ How to train for accent variation:

  • Listen to a variety of speakers on YouTube, podcasts, or news channels (e.g., CNN, BBC, ABC, Al Jazeera).
  • Try “accent challenge” videos or “Guess the Accent” clips for fun practice.
  • Focus on global English: the goal is communication, not perfection.

7. Typical Finnish Learner Challenges

Finnish speakers tend to:

  • Expect every word to be stressed → miss reduced function words.
  • Struggle with linking (e.g., want to eat becomes wan(tə)weet).
  • Get confused by sentence stress (focus words) and rising/falling intonation patterns.

✅ How to overcome these:

  • Practice with dictation exercises: listen and write down what you hear.
  • Analyze sentence stress: which word carries the most meaning?
  • Compare Finnish and English rhythms. Try clapping along with spoken English to feel the beat.

8. Combining Strategies: Practical Tips

Here’s a weekly routine that combines the best of all worlds:

Monday:

  • Watch 1 episode of an English series with English subtitles.
  • Write down 5 new expressions or collocations.

Tuesday:

  • Listen to a 5–10 min podcast episode twice.
  • Practice shadowing 1–2 sentences.

Wednesday:

  • Read aloud from a book or article for 5 minutes.
  • Focus on rhythm and word stress.

Thursday:

  • Record yourself reading a short text.
  • Compare with native pronunciation and repeat.

Friday:

  • Talk in English with a friend or tutor.
  • Try to use the new vocabulary from Monday.

Weekend Bonus:

  • Watch an English YouTuber with a different accent.
  • Try a pronunciation game or app (Elsa Speak, Speechling).

Final Thoughts

Listening comprehension isn’t just about “hearing” – it’s about understanding how English works: vocabulary, rhythm, stress, sounds, and variation. The more you listen, the better you’ll become. But how you listen matters, too.

Remember:

  • Wide vocabulary = wider understanding.
  • Knowing how English sounds = sharper ears.
  • Exposure + active speaking = deeper learning.

Make English a part of your daily life, and your listening skills will follow. As the saying goes: ears open, English in! 🎧🇬🇧🇺🇸