Improving Listening Skills As A Way Of Improving Personal Verbal Communication

Listening among many others, like observing and reading is a great way to improve our verbal communication skills. This doesn't go without the saying that "To be a good speaker, one first has to be a good listener".
Have you always thought, 'is the process of hearing and listening the same'? Yes, No? But as you would have it, there is a difference between the two. Hearing is the act of perceiving any sound, whereas listening is something which we consciously and actively choose to do. As previously mentioned listening is more of an active process that demands attention or concentration.
To be a good listener one has to fully understand what the other person is trying to communicate to him or her. Listening basically involves hearing, understanding and interpreting the things communicated.
Today, I'll tell you a few ways towards improving your listening skills:

1. Listen To A Variety Of Things

Listening to things like TV news, series, audio files, music, public speeches, etc. This isn't so boring after all because accent or style of each speaker is unique in it's own way.
Listening to these many different things will actually help you with developing your own verbal communication skills.

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2. Listen To News

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As the style of reading news is very basic and doesn't involve the use of slangs. It literally becomes easier to relate to and actually understand it quite easily.
As you keep practicing/developing your listening skills, you should constantly keep switching to things but are more complex and demand more active participation to understand or listen to.

3. Watch Movies And Listen To Music Without Using Subtitles Or Lyrics

Lots of us often tend to watch our favorite TV shows/series and listen to songs with subtitles and lyrics turned on. If you get to start turning off these subtitles and lyrics when you watch more movies and listen to more songs, it will actually increase your concentration levels as you literally have to put in the work, yourself to actually enjoy or understand what it is that you're watching or listening to.

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After watching little portions or parts of these TV shows you should rewind it and turn on the subtitles to see how well you had understood or interpreted the section you watched. Same goes for listening to music—you should try singalongs and karaoke as often as possible.

4. Be Prepared

Let's suppose you're going to someplace where the mode of instruction will be mainly verbal, like attending a conference or going to an airport. First prepare yourself for the probable things you'll hear, like exchanging pleasantries, listening to details about your flight.
Being aware and prepared for the signs and words that'll be used/spoken makes it easy to understand the instructions given.

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5. How To Do The Listening Activity Properly

Whilst playing audio files try to pick up words, check the tone used and overall, try to understand what is being said. You might want to repeat the same audio over and over again, in case you did not understand it the previous time you listened to it.
If there are words which you're hearing for the first time note them down somewhere. Look up their meanings and usage later. Doing this helps you expand your own personal vocabulary.

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These are all important tips, but you'll only get the results you desire when you try consistently—practice more, get better fast. Constantly remind yourself that your ultimate goal is to verbally communicate more efficiently.
Thank you for reading through this post.
Merry Christmas y'all🎄