English Listening - Curiosity in Language Learning
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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 76 of the Listening Time Podcast. I want to thank all of my Listening Time members, super members, and family members. Thank you all for supporting me and helping me do what I do. I

And remember that if you haven't joined my membership yet, you can join to receive my specialized training, which will help you understand native speakers when they're speaking fast.

And specifically, if you want my advanced podcast episodes, then become a Listening Time family member and you'll receive two new advanced podcast episodes every month. So click on the link in the episode description below this episode to join today. That's patreon.com slash listening time.

So I have a little bit of a special episode for you today. I'm going to be talking about curiosity in language learning. And I'm talking about this today because I also have an opportunity for those of you who are more curious when it comes to your English learning experience.

So I'm going to talk first about a new tier that I have for my Patreon membership, and then we'll talk a little bit more about curiosity in language learning in general. Remember that the word tier refers to a level. So the new tier or the new level that is available now for all of you is Listening Time VIP.

So I'm going to talk a little bit about that right now. For those of you who are curious and you want to be able to ask me questions and learn more about different concepts in English, you can join this tier. Now let me explain how it's going to work.

So the reason why I'm opening this tier is because I get a lot of questions from many people, many of my listeners regarding English, listening, pronunciation, grammar, language learning, all kinds of subjects, all kinds of topics related to English. I get questions all the time from many people and

And of course, I don't have the time to answer every question that I get with a very detailed response and I think that's a little unfortunate. So I wanted to open the opportunity up for all of you who want to be able to ask me questions about English related topics.

and hear me answer those questions in video format. So I want to answer your questions and also encourage you to ask more questions. I want to encourage all of you to become more curious in your English learning journey, and I want to help you out with that.

So what I'm planning on doing is every week, once a week, I'm going to do a Q&A session. So Q&A refers to questions and answers. So I want to do one Q&A session every week where I answer your questions related to English. So this is how I'm going to do it.

Once a week, I'll post on Patreon on the membership for all of the Listening Time VIPs, and I'll ask you for your questions. And then you can comment on that post and ask me a question that you want me to answer.

And I'll answer your question and all the questions that I get in the next Q&A session. So I'll post this every week so you can ask me a question for the new Q&A session. And I'll answer those questions in video format. So I'll record myself once a week talking to you all and answering all the questions that I get.

And so your question can be about anything English related, anything related to English or language learning in general. So if you have a question about the pronunciation of a certain word, or if you want to know why a certain phrase is hard for you to use in English, or

or you're curious about a certain grammatical structure or whatever it may be, you can ask me that question and I'll try my best to answer it and answer it in detail during this video Q&A session. So I'm going to try to answer every question that I get. So if you ask me a question, I want to answer it.

And if there aren't that many questions one week and I can answer them all in a very short time, what I'll do is I'll also spend some time talking about some of the errors that I've heard from my students during the previous week, which should be very helpful for you. So I always record my students' errors from my classes and

And so I'll talk about some of those errors that I heard that week and explain why they're wrong. And I'll show the corrections and you'll get a nice lesson every single week. Even if you don't want to ask me a question that week, you'll be able to learn a lot and benefit each week definitely.

during that Q&A session because I'll be talking about many different English concepts and errors based on your questions, other people's questions, or the errors that I hear my students make. So that will be every single week.

and it will be in detail and it will be a very nice lesson for you. So this new tier is for people that are a little more serious, maybe a little more curious and who want to ask me questions and have a weekly class kind of where they learn more about some of these concepts related to English.

And so this tier is going to be at a higher price. So this will be $8 per month. So for $8 a month, you'll be able to have access to this weekly Q&A session. You'll be able to ask me the questions that you have regarding English, and you'll be able to learn a lot every single week.

And so I'm sure there will be fewer people in this tier than the other tiers because it costs a little more money. But that will be okay because it will give me the chance to answer everyone's questions.

So if I have hundreds and hundreds of people in this tier, it might be a little hard to answer all of the questions. But I'm sure there will be fewer people that sign up for the Listening Time VIP tier. So I should be able to answer every question that I get from all the Listening Time VIPs.

That's really important for me. I want to be able to answer all the questions I receive. I'm very serious about this. I want to give a detailed response to the questions I get. So this is why this tier will cost a little bit more than the other tiers.

So if you're interested in that, make sure to sign up to become a Listening Time VIP and you'll be able to start asking me questions and I'll be able to answer your doubts and help you understand a lot of different concepts in English.

So I'm sure that will be very helpful for a lot of you. And remember that this will be a weekly session, not just once a month. I'm going to do this every week and I'm going to ask you for your questions every week. So it's a very constant thing that I'll be doing.

and it will be like a weekly class for you. And of course, if you sign up to become a Listening Time VIP, you'll also get all of the other content that I release. You'll still get all of the seminars, the advanced episodes, the sound training videos, all of that, of course. So you'll get all the benefits a Listening Time family member gets,

But you'll also have access to my weekly Q&A sessions and you'll be able to ask me questions. So if you're interested in that, it's just $8 per month. So click on the link in the episode description below this episode to sign up today.

Alright, now I want to talk a little bit more about curiosity in language learning in general. So, curiosity is a very important characteristic that can help people accelerate their language learning and learn faster.

In English, when we say that you accelerate, this just means that you go faster. So, curiosity can be a trait that can help someone accelerate the language learning process and be able to improve at a faster pace than someone who isn't curious.

In English, the word "pace" just refers to your speed, how fast you're doing something. So what is curiosity? Well, curiosity is wanting to know and wanting to learn.

So if you have this trait, this means that you're interested in understanding more about the subjects that you're learning or you have a general interest in understanding the world around you and the things that you see and the things that you're interested in learning. So this can be very helpful when it comes to language acquisition.

And let me clarify something. I don't think that this will just directly lead to acquiring things faster. And if you ask questions and show curiosity that you're automatically going to learn things faster because in language learning, I don't think that just learning about a rule or learning some new concept is

I don't think that this actually leads you to acquiring this concept. I don't think that this means that you're automatically going to know how to use that rule once you learn it. I've talked about this before.

I don't think that language acquisition works that way. I don't think that a teacher teaches you how to use a rule and then you memorize the rule and then you use it correctly when you're speaking. I have never seen that work in any of my classes with any of the hundreds and hundreds of students that I've had. That simply doesn't work in that way.

But curiosity and asking questions helps lead to language acquisition in a more indirect way. Let me explain. When you learn in a curious way about different concepts in the language, so let's say you learn about a certain pronunciation rule in English.

This doesn't mean that you're automatically going to pronounce this thing correctly in your speech. It's not going to happen. But what it will do is you will start to notice that correct pronunciation when you do your listening practice. Once a teacher has shown you this and has drawn your attention to this,

you're going to start to notice that pattern when other native speakers speak and you're going to start to hear that and it's going to become more familiar to your ears and you're going to start to notice it everywhere. You're going to start to hear that sound again and again and again

And this will draw your attention to the correct sound. And eventually, once you've heard the correct sound many, many times as native speakers are speaking, eventually you are going to be able to pronounce that correctly if you make the effort to do so.

So the way that asking questions and being curious helps you to speak better is that you'll be able to hear that correct pronunciation or the correct grammatical structure or whatever it is. And you'll be able to notice that many times when you're listening or when you're reading and that experience.

That exposure, that repeated exposure to this word or phrase or structure or whatever will eventually lead you to become more comfortable with it and you'll be able to use it in your own speech.

So, yes, this curiosity actually helps you acquire a language because it helps you notice these correct patterns. And I believe that this is a very important part of language learning, being able to notice things.

things. As a language learner, when you're noticing things, when you really try to notice certain elements of the language that you're learning, you are going to learn faster than someone who doesn't notice these things.

So the faster you notice things and the more you notice things, the more you're going to start to hear that thing in your listening and in your reading. And the more you hear or read that thing, the faster you'll be able to use it in your own speech. It's pretty simple.

And so this is why I encourage you to start to become more curious, start to want to notice things in your English learning. Ask questions and take the opportunity that I already mentioned to you today to become a listening time VIP and ask me all the questions.

questions that you have related to English or language learning so that I can answer those questions and help you start to notice things more.

And of course, if you have another teacher, another English teacher that you take classes with, be open to asking them questions and wanting to know more about certain things related to English. And be curious. Try to foster more curiosity in your life in general and in your language learning in specific classes.

In English, when we say that you foster something, this means that you help to generate something. You help to produce something. So try to foster creativity in your language learning and in your life in general. This will definitely help you out.

So I want to talk a little bit about some examples of students who I've had that have shown this curiosity and who have tried to notice new things in their English learning journey and who have benefited from this. So, for example, I remember I was working with a student on the T-R sound in English.

In English, when native speakers pronounce the letters "tr" together, we say it like this: "truh". For example, "trust" or "truth". However, many English learners don't pronounce it like this. They pronounce it as "truh", right? And this is incorrect.

And so I was showing this to my student and we were looking at different examples of words that start with "tr".

and he was really fascinated by this reality that he hadn't noticed before. He hadn't noticed that this sound was different from the sound that he was making. And he was really interested in this and he asked me for more examples of words that have that sound. And we spent a long time practicing with that.

And of course, he didn't get it right away. He didn't suddenly pronounce every word with TR correctly. Obviously not. I already mentioned that I don't think that it works like that.

However, over the following weeks and the following months, I noticed that he started to pronounce more and more of these words correctly. It wasn't automatic, but over time he started to say more and more of these words in the right way. And now he always pronounces these words correctly. It's very impressive.

And this all started because he asked this question and he started to notice this pattern when he did his listening practice. And because he started noticing it over and over again, he became comfortable with it very fast.

And he told me that he was hearing this sound everywhere. He said, I can't believe that I didn't notice this before. And so that ability to start to notice that sound helped him to actually acquire this sound. So that was pretty cool.

And then I remember that with another student, I was showing her that every time we use an object after the word listen, we always need the preposition to. So we say listen to music, for example. We don't say listen music. And this was a big revelation for her.

In English, when we say the word revelation, we're saying that something is revealed to you. You learn something completely new.

And so this was a revelation for her and she asked for more examples and I gave her more and I showed her that we always use to after listen if we have an object afterwards.

And then she did the same thing as the other student. She started to notice this pattern again and again and again during her listening practice. And she came back to me a few classes later and said, I hear this everywhere now. Every time someone says the word listen again.

I always hear the word to afterwards. And this is something that I never noticed before. And now I notice it every single time. And then from that point on, she started to acquire this pattern. And little by little, she started saying the correct phrase more and more and more.

And now today, she says this correctly almost 100% of the time, whereas in the past, she said it wrong almost 100% of the time. So because she was able to start noticing this pattern, she was able to acquire it in her own speech. So this was really cool to see as well.

So these are a couple examples of how my students' curiosity has led them to acquire a certain element, a certain English element in their own speech and do this in a natural way by noticing the thing more and more.

And so this is my goal with my Q&A sessions that I'm going to do for my listening time VIPs. I want to help draw your attention to certain elements, certain patterns in English that will help you start to notice these things in your own listening.

And by doing that, you're going to start to get more and more comfortable with these different elements and you'll be able to acquire them in your own speech eventually. So that's the goal with the Q&A sessions that I want to do. I want to foster curiosity. I want to encourage you all to be curious and to start asking questions and to start noticing more.

If you can develop this habit of noticing more things when you're learning, this will be very helpful for you.

So why don't we stop there for today? I hope this episode was interesting for you. Remember that if you want access to these weekly Q&A sessions and if you want to ask me your questions related to English that I will answer in video format,

then make sure to sign up to become a Listening Time VIP for just $8 a month and you'll get a new Q&A session every week and you'll be able to ask me questions every week. So click on the link in the episode description below this episode to sign up today. That's patreon.com slash listening time.

And of course, for those of you who become listening time VIPs, you'll get all of the other benefits as well. You'll get all of the same things that a listening time family member gets, but you'll also get these Q&A sessions as well. So sign up today if you're interested in that.

And remember that you have the transcript for this episode in the episode description as well. So click on that if you need it. All right. Well, thank you all for listening to this episode. And I'll talk to you next time on the Listening Time podcast.

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