IWTYAL 232: Why you shouldn’t listen to “slow audio”

In this solo episode, Olly discusses whether listening to “slow audio” is useful.

Episode Summary:

• News in Slow Spanish-type sites are becoming increasing popular
• With Yabla you can slow down the audio
• But are these helpful, or dangerous?
• There are only two reasons you won't understand something spoken:
  • 1) You don't know the words/grammar
  • 2) You can't understand fast speech
• If you slow down what you're listening to, you're not helping your listening, because it's not natural, and lacks the features of fast speech
• It simply gives you more time to process the information, i.e. think about the words used
  • But is this the best way to learn new vocabulary… listening to slow, unnatural audio?
• This = confusing / misunderstanding the problem, and can severely limited your ability to cope with real language
  • Listening to stuff at your level (comprehensible input)
  • Listen at natural speed, and use the transcript to help you understandInstead, solve the problem of not understanding fast speech by:
• I do sometimes slow down audio (Speater app), but it's always when I'm listening to stuff that's too hard for me
• Caveat: Slowing down audio could be useful at the very beginning

Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode:

• News in Slow Spanish
• Yabla – video with interactive learning tools
• Speater App – a great app for interactive listening
• Conversations – transform your listening skills with story-based audio material
• Manifesto for Better Listening – a blog post I wrote about listening skills

Start Speaking Today:

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Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.