it is too hard for the non native English speaker to understand what native english speaker saying

[lingkky]

Non native speakers always learn to pronounce English words through their word spelling.when they hear the native English speaker speak English ,they cannot catch up efficiently what they are saying without listening carefully and referring to any related documents in words.This may due to the native english speaker always pronouce and speak too fast so the non native speker cannot hear clearly the words pronounciated.Are there any ways to improve this situation?

[Joe]

Hi Lingkky,

It's not really that native speakers speak too fast. They speak at the normal speed for their language, like all speakers, you too :)

But one of the secrets to understanding natural spoken English is to learn about Word Stress, and Sentence Stress. For most words in English, native speakers put the Stress (or extra emphasis or loudness) on ONE syllable - and they say the other syllables much more quietly and softly. That's why some people say native English speakers "eat their words" :)

For example, take the word "photograph". It has three syllables: pho-to-graph. But we stress only the first syllable, like this:

PHOtograph

Or another word, "important". Here we stress the second syllable:

imPORtant

All those unstressed syllables get "eaten" - they are very soft.

In many languages every syllable is pronounced with equal stress or force. But if you understand the idea behind English stress, you will be able to understand spoken English more easily - and you will begin to speak it better too :)

To learn more about Word Stress, with audio for you to hear the sounds, look at:
https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciati ... ress-2.htm

You could also check out Sentence Stress, which also can help you:
https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciati ... stress.htm

Good luck!

[darbrider]

I agree with Josef that word stress is one of the things that make it hard for a non-native to understand spoken English. However knowing about that is not enough to solve the problem. In my experience, you need to to listen and become familiar with complete phrases in many common situations and learn how to say these phrases by repeating them. So the next time you hear them you will automatically recognize them. For example if someone says "hey ya wanna go grab s'me coffee or somethin' " (pronounced fast with some of the words / syllables eaten) you'll understand it because you've heard and repeated the phrase before. This site may help you : Teentok.com it's a library of videos for everyday talk. Listen to the spoken dialogues (they are free) to learn common phrases in each everyday situation .

[Readable]

Thanks

[DrNorman]

Listening takes practice, but it doesn't take too long to start to understand, especially if you follow a few useful steps. I have written an article about this on my blog. You can find it at https://www.advancedenglishlearning.com ... rning-Blog.
I hope you find this useful!
Dr Norman

[StevenMorris]

A great way to improve your confidence is to watch other people speak English. What phrases do they use? What gestures do they use? How do they respond to each other? Perhaps they use special phrases or particular intonation. Observing how other people communicate is a great way to extend your own "library" of useful phrases for different situations. If you don't live in an English-speaking country, check out film and TV, or trailers on YouTube, hope this will help you.