This article consists of the five parts below. It explains fundamental strategies to improve listening skills. The audio of this article is available.

1 Introduction: Why you should give top priority to improving your listening skills among the four skills

Listening is the foundation of speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Make the best use of the reading skills for entrance exams by developing listening skills.

2 Understanding listening skills: Listening skill is the integration of top-down and bottom-up processing

Listen “from the whole to the details” and “from the details to the whole.”

3 Method 1: Make it a habit to listen to English directly related to your interests at your own pace

Learn to listen from the whole to the details by using “videos with subtitles and transcriptions,” “adding subtitles to videos,” “podcasts,” “audiobooks,” and “Text-to-Speech service.”

4 Method 2: Learn English sound features analytically

Learning pronunciation leads to better listening skills.
Pronunciation skills develop skills of reading and writing, too.

5 Conclusion

Links to other useful sites.

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This article consists of the five parts below. It explains fundamental strategies to writing effective emails to professors.

1. Why it is important to learn how to write professional emails　
2. Parts of an email
3. Techniques for writing effective emails
4. Useful tips for writing emails
5. Useful expressions for writing emails

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