[General] how to improve poor listening and speaking skills?

halo!
i don't really know this question whether it can be posted here or not
i am a senior form student who comes from hongkong!
i will have a public exam about 4 months later
but my english is not that good.
i want to get lv4 of english in the public exam.....so that i can get into the university
i am now trying many and many ways to improve my listening and speaking
but it dosen't work!!!!
i listen bbc learning english's news article 15-30mins one day..but i know it is not enough!
but i don't have any free time to watch movie or drama!
so..how can i improve my poor listening skills?
i always don't know wt the people are talking about during listening..
so i then can't write any words on answer sheet.
dose there are any good sites or good multimedia can help to improve my listening???
by the way, i watched TED's talk sometimes

it really confuse me
how can i improve it?? can anyone suggest some ways to me?? really thanks a lot if you can!!!

besides, how to improve speaking skill?
i always can't speak in english naturally...
in the individual part of speaking exam...i can't speak...since i don't know how to use english to express my ideas...how can make my english speaking skills become more good and then i can use english to speak anytime.


i am looking forward your suggestion
plz help me

kichan said:

halo!
i don't really know this question whether it can be posted here or not (missing punctuation)
i am a senior form student who comes from hongkong!
i will have a public exam about 4 months later (missing punctuation)
[STRIKE]but[/STRIKE] my english is not that good.
i want to get lv4 of english in the public exam.....so that i can get into the university (missing punctuation)
i am now trying many and many ways to improve my listening and speaking but it dosen't work!!!!
i listen (missing word) bbc learning english's news article 15-30 mins one day..but i know it is not enough!
but i don't have any free time to watch movie or drama!
so..how can i improve my poor listening skills?
i always don't know wt the people are talking about during listening..
so i then can't write any words on answer sheet.
dose there are any good sites or good multimedia can help to improve my listening???
by the way, i watched TED's talk sometimes (missing punctuation)

it really confuse me (missing punctuation)
how can i improve it?? can anyone suggest some ways to me?? really thanks a lot if you can!!!

besides, how to improve speaking skill?
i always can't speak in english naturally...
in the individual part of speaking exam...i can't speak...since i don't know how to use english to express my ideas...how can (missing word) make my english speaking skills become more good and then i can use english to speak anytime.


i am looking forward your suggestion (missing punctuation)
plz help me (missing punctuation)

Click to expand...

I assume that you have a written exam in 4 months as well. If that is the case and your post is an example of your written English, then you have to worry about your writing more than about your listening and speaking.
Note, and use, the rules of written English:

- Start every new sentence with a capital letter.
- End every sentence with a single appropriate punctuation mark (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark).
- Always capitalise the word "I" (first person singular).
- Capitalise all proper nouns (English, Spain, London).
- Use full English words, not textspeak or chatlish (use "please", not "plz"). I have marked in red every part of your post which needs correction - spelling, grammar, capitalisation or punctuation.

We don't connect sections of sentences using lots of little dots. You don't need to type on a new line each time you start a sentence.

kichan said:

how to improve speaking skill?
(

Click to expand...

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Kichan:


I know that it sounds stupid, but the only way to learn how to speak another language is to speak it.

I think that many English-speaking tourists visit your beautiful city. Is there some way that you can

volunteer to help those tourists? It will force you to speak English with them. Do not worry about making

mistakes. The more you speak, the better your English will become. There is no magic. It is very simple:

Practice makes perfect.



James


P.S. One last suggestion: Even if you do not have anyone with whom to speak English, you can speak English to

yourself. That is, each day spend 30 minutes reading out loud something in English. Pronounce the words very clearly.

You need to listen to a recorded material spoken by native speakers.Give yourself three tasks:1) first listen for gist ( you only listen to get an understanding what the material is all about). In this case you only play the recorder once.
2) listen for specific information (like dates,times,names). Again you only listen only once (that makes it your second time you listen to the same thing). 3) lastly you listen for detail ( a broader listening).This time you can play the material as many times as you need to. Try doing this many times, with different materials.This way you will improve your listening skills.

emsr2d2 said:

I assume that you have a written exam in 4 months as well. If that is the case and your post is an example of your written English, then you have to worry about your writing more than about your listening and speaking.
Note, and use, the rules of written English:

- Start every new sentence with a capital letter.
- End every sentence with a single appropriate punctuation mark (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark).
- Always capitalise the word "I" (first person singular).
- Capitalise all proper nouns (English, Spain, London).
- Use full English words, not textspeak or chatlish (use "please", not "plz"). I have marked in red every part of your post which needs correction - spelling, grammar, capitalisation or punctuation.

We don't connect sections of sentences using lots of little dots. You don't need to type on a new line each time you start a sentence.

Click to expand...

yah, you are right!
my writing is not really good
as for the those mistakes, i have already known they are incorrect
as i think i can use informal language in the internet, so i don't pay attention to any grammar,capitalisation and punctuation
when i am doing the writing task, i won't write like this of coz!
maybe i need to do the same even in the internet.

anyway, thank you for your inspired response
by the way, are you a teacher? can i send some of writing task to u and let you to check if there are any mistakes?
i really need someone who can correct my writing task

kichan said:

yah, you are right!
my writing is not really good
as for the those mistakes, i have already known they are incorrect
as i think i can use informal language in the internet, so i don't pay attention to any grammar,capitalisation and punctuation
when i am doing the writing task, i won't write like this of coz!
maybe i need to do the same even in the internet.

anyway, thank you for your inspired response
by the way, are you a teacher? can i send some of writing task to u and let you to check if there are any mistakes?
i really need someone who can correct my writing task

Click to expand...

I am not going to spend another five minutes correcting all the errors in this post. However, you might be able to use informal language and writing on the internet generally, but this site is specifically for people learning English. If you want us to take the time to help you, then we expect you to take the time to type properly.
It is VERY good practice to write properly in a foreign language at all times, whether you are on the internet or not.
You can post writing practice in the Editing and Writing Topics section of this website. Please do not send pieces to individual members. That is not how the forum works.

TheParser said:

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Kichan:


I know that it sounds stupid, but the only way to learn how to speak another language is to speak it.

I think that many English-speaking tourists visit your beautiful city. Is there some way that you can

volunteer to help those tourists? It will force you to speak English with them. Do not worry about making

mistakes. The more you speak, the better your English will become. There is no magic. It is very simple:

Practice makes perfect.



James


P.S. One last suggestion: Even if you do not have anyone with whom to speak English, you can speak English to

yourself. That is, each day spend 30 minutes reading out loud something in English. Pronounce the words very clearly.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your inspired responses and suggestions :>
It's okay even you are not a teacher
I agree with "Practice makes perfect."
It is not often that i can have a chance to volunteer English-speaking tourists
Reading out loud something in English -> I will try it! Does it work? Maybe it only can improve my pronunciation

emsr2d2 said:

I am not going to spend another five minutes correcting all the errors in this post. However, you might be able to use informal language and writing on the internet generally, but this site is specifically for people learning English. If you want us to take the time to help you, then we expect you to take the time to type properly.
It is VERY good practice to write properly in a foreign language at all times, whether you are on the internet or not.
You can post writing practice in the Editing and Writing Topics section of this website. Please do not send pieces to individual members. That is not how the forum works.

Click to expand...

Okay! I will post it later in that section!Thank you very much!

grammar girl said:

You need to listen to a recorded material spoken by native speakers.Give yourself three tasks:1) first listen for gist ( you only listen to get an understanding what the material is all about). In this case you only play the recorder once.
2) listen for specific information (like dates,times,names). Again you only listen only once (that makes it your second time you listen to the same thing). 3) lastly you listen for detail ( a broader listening).This time you can play the material as many times as you need to. Try doing this many times, with different materials.This way you will improve your listening skills.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your useful suggestions!!!!!!!
I will try these 3 steps!!!!
By the way, what types of recorded materials i can use? News report, radio or anyelse???

kichan said:

Thank you for your useful suggestions![STRIKE]!!!!!![/STRIKE]
I will try these 3 steps![STRIKE]!!![/STRIKE]
By the way, what types of recorded materials can I [STRIKE]can[/STRIKE] use? News reports, radio or anything else?[STRIKE]??[/STRIKE]

Click to expand...

Remember that only one single punctuation mark is required at the end of a sentence.

You can use any recorded materials which you can trust to be "correct" English. Don't use poems or song lyrics at this stage - grammar and proper English are frequently lacking in both.

Watch an English news channel, listen to English radio all the time at home (preferably a station which has a lot of talking and not too much music), watch TED talks, anything which will help you pick up the tempo, cadence and rhythm of English. You will find that you start to understand more and more as time goes on, even if you just play an English radio station without really listening to it.