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: I’d like to thank italki for supporting the show. To claim your free lesson and start speaking today, visit: https://iwillteachyoualanguage.com//italkishownotes Do you have a question? Ask me your language learning questions by clicking here, and I’ll do my best to feature it on the show! Also, please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the podcast! If you’ve got any comments about the show then please leave them in the “comments” section below! If you’d like to help me out, then I’d love it if you could… Share the episode using the social media buttons around you Leave an honest review and rating of the podcast on iTunes (click here to do that)