Listening
1- Do not give up if you do not understand what you heard. Go on listening. Speaker might say something as a clue in the following part of the speech.
2- Focus on keywords. Normally they are much more emphasized and intonated. Speakers generally think that these points are much more important in the speech.
3- Take care of the body language, gestures and facial mimics. These things can be useful clues about what the speaker says.
4- Think of the attitude and feelings of the speaker. Is the speaker sure? Angry? Happy? Serious? Or kidding? Intonation gives information about the feelings the speaker has for the subject under discussion.
5- Focus on the rising and falling tone of the speaker. You can easily understand what kind of question they ask and what kind of reaction they expect from their speech.
6- Listening exercises should be focused on one purpose. Ask yourself why you listen. Are listening to understand the overall ideas or to obtain specific information?
7- Write down new words and phrases. Do not hesitate to make mistakes when you write. Then look up your dictionaries and ask foreigners to give you the explanation or meaning.
8- Do not force yourself to understand every single word. Focus on important words so that you can understand the general idea.
9- Listen to songs in the target language. Songs help you keep the rhythm of the target language.
10- When you speak, watch TV or movies, do not compel yourself to understand every single word. Instead, try to focus on general meaning.
11- Do listening exercises regularly and in short breaks. If you exercise regularly and in short periods, your listening abilities can develop easily.
12- Listening to the news is a very practical way to develop your listening skills. Listen to the news in your mother tongue at first and write down some names, places and short notes about the news. Try to listen to the news more than once and write down some words that you think they might be useful.