My Secret Weapon for Improving Listening Comprehension (The 3-1-1 Method)
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Contents
What is the 3-1-1 Method?
How the method works
The not-so-obvious hidden benefits
Using the 3-1-1 Method with YouTube videos
The 3-1-1 Method with TV shows and movies
Q&A
Final words & thoughts
In the past 7-8 months, I’ve started putting a lot more time into my Cantonese. It’s a language that requires a lot of time. A lot of time, in order to improve.
When you’re in the intermediate levels (especially when learning languages that are far from your own native language) it can feel like the time you spend doesn’t bring much results.
You keep listening and reading, but the progress is just so slow.
And the truth is…
…it is.
It takes a lot of time to progress in a language that is very distant from your native language. In order to help with improving my Cantonese I came up with this method that is a bit of a “comprehension mini-game”.
I call it the “3-1-1 method”.
It’s very simple (I like simple). But it’s effective and it works.
The method gives you a clear goal to achieve. A process to follow. It makes the abstract concrete. It’s a way to make the results feel more tangible.
It’s a bit of a “language hack” that also takes advantage of a secret (that is not talked about enough) to language learning.
What is the 3-1-1 Method?
The 3-1-1 is a method to help you improve your comprehension.
It’s mainly targeted to improve your listening ability, but it will also improve your reading.
Let’s first talk about the things you need for the method.
What you need:
An audio clip in your target language
A podcast, a YouTube clip, a TV show episode, or something similar.
A transcript of the same audio
The text of the audio written in the script of your target language. Something that has been transcribed. Subtitles of a TV show episode or a YouTube clip work well, for example.
A reading tool such as LingQ, Readlang, or Migaku.
You need a tool that easily lets you see the definition of unknown words, with the click of a button or the tap of your finger. I personally use LingQ, but whatever you prefer will work. You can use Google Translate or a manual dictionary, but it will take way more time, so I don’t recommend it.
For who and what language is this method for?
This method is best suited for intermediates (around a B1 or above).
This means you already have a solid foundation in the language and you can even speak it to an extent. Your problem is that you find it difficult to move beyond the intermediate levels. Understanding native content like TV shows is still a struggle. You’re unsure how to move past this roadblock.
You’d like to really take the language to the next level and enjoy native content with a high level of understanding. To reach the more advanced levels of fluency, so you can basically do whatever you want to in the language.
The method can be used for any language, but where the method shines the most is when learning more “difficult” languages (such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc. for an English speaker). In other words - languages where listening comprehension is a challenge.
How the method works
The 3-1-1 method has 3 steps. You do the first step 3 times, the second step 1 time, and the third step 1 time (which is why it’s called “3-1-1”)
The 3 Steps:
Listen to an audio clip 3x.
Read through the transcript of that audio 1x.
Listen to the audio again 1x.
Simple, right?
I told you it would be simple. However, there are some hidden and powerful benefits of doing this sequence (we’ll talk more about what they are in a bit).
It’s a way to extract as much as possible from what you’re listening to. Repeated listenings to the same material is a great way to get more from the content. Your brain will focus on different things and pick up different things on each listen.
Then when you read through the transcript it helps you see visually with your eyes what you’ve heard with your ears. It clears up some of the words you don’t know. The purpose of the 2nd step (reading) is to get rid of some of the ambiguity.
To get “answers”.
When you go through the third step and you will notice that you understand more than when you listened to it the first time. Your ears are now able to recognize some of those words you’ve read. It probably won’t clear up all of it, but that’s not the point.
By doing this sequence you will strengthen your comprehension. Words begin to be more ingrained in your mind and start to stick.
The not-so-obvious hidden benefits
As simple as this method is, there are several maybe not-so-obvious benefits of using this method. This section will help you understand more about some of the mechanics behind learning a language. About some of the things that are going on behind the scenes.
Because there are several things going on.
Making the abstract concrete
If you’ve read some of my previous blog posts you might be familiar with that I put a big emphasis on making language learning as concrete as possible.
When you’re trying to improve your listening (especially at an intermediate level and beyond) it quickly becomes obvious that it’s difficult to know whether you’re actually improving. It’s difficult to measure your listening ability. Because it’s very abstract.
Reading is quite easy to measure, but listening is much more difficult. Making listening feel ambiguous.
When things are ambiguous it discourages us from doing it. We need clarity to know we’re on the right track and to feel motivated. I mean, why put in a lot of time on something unless you actually know it’s working?
By having a clear 3-step process it removes that ambiguity. Because now you have created boundaries around your listening. When we create internal boundaries around something ambiguous, those boundaries make the ambiguous activity inside it more concrete.
You’re just focusing on completing the three steps. Getting from point A to point B. How much you learn is not the focus. You will improve naturally over time as you keep going through this process.
Having a clear goal to accomplish
You might have the goal “learn to speak Korean” (or whatever language it is you’re learning). It’s good to have the overall goal in the back of your head. The problem is:
It’s a big accomplishment.
It gets overwhelming if you have the “big goal” as the main focus in your day-to-day language learning. A language like Korean is an elephant of a language. In order to consume it you need to do it piece by piece. To give you time to digest it before you continue eating another piece.
To improve your comprehension in your target language the goal needs to be much more specific. If it’s not, then chances are you’ll end up giving up. Because you might not feel you’re improving. You need small wins consistently to encourage you to keep going day in and day out.
Using the 3-1-1-method you won’t focus on your listening comprehension (an ambiguous goal). You’re focusing on completing the process (a concrete goal).
Having this goal keeps you from focusing on learning (which you can’t control), and instead on completing the 3-1-1 sequence (which you can control).
Focusing on what we can’t control just brings frustration. It’s much better to just let the process do its work, putting our energies into what we can control.
I have used this method with entire seasons of TV shows. Going through one episode at a time. By using an entire TV show season, you’re actually creating a language course for yourself. It gives you a clear goal to achieve. Use the method for each episode and once you’ve finished the 3-1-1 process you move on to the next episode.
Until you get to the end of the season.
I used the 3-1-1 Method for each 20 episodes of the first season of the animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. By the end, I definitely noticed a difference.
I guarantee you will too.
Taking advantage of a not-so-talked-about language learning secret
There is one secret that in my opinion is not talked about enough in language learning. Something the 3-1-1 method utilizes effectively. It’s not persistence, focus, interesting content, or anything like that, as important as those are.
What is the secret?
Curiosity.
It’s actually more powerful than you think.
Let’s talk about how it works.
By listening several times to the same audio you will start recognizing certain parts. Parts where you can hear what is being said, but you still can’t understand what it means. In other words, you hear the sounds of each syllable. To the point where you would be able to type it out and look it up in a dictionary (don’t do this yet though).
Once you can clearly hear a word, but don’t know the meaning, it sparks your curiosity:
“What does this word mean? What are they saying?”.
When you experience this, it primes your mind to understand.
Still don’t look up the word. Let that curiosity linger. Continue listening to the audio three times. Each time you hear the word or phrase you’ll mind will recognize it and wonder what it means.
When you finally do read through the transcript and you come across that specific part you’ll go:
“Ooooh that’s what they said!”
This will make it easier for the word or phrase to stick. Because you’ve already been curious about what it means.
Not only have you listened to it multiple times, but your mind has most likely also repeated it many times to itself. We tend to repeat words in our heads when hear them and we’re curious about what they mean.
Which will make the word even stronger in your mind.
The same thing happens when you already know a word. Each time you hear it you will deepen your level of knowing it (yes, there are levels of understanding a word. Not just a simple “know” or “not know”).
Exactly what words or sentences will stick out to you is a bit of a mystery. Maybe it’s actually a keyword to the plot. It could even be something that will help you unlock your understanding of an entire scene in a TV show.
Once you know a word to a certain degree of familiarity it will start showing up in your speaking. This happens when it passes a certain threshold and moves from being passive vocabulary (being able to recognize it when hearing it) to becoming active vocabulary (being able to recall it and speak it at will).
It trains you to focus on “low-hanging fruit”
This won’t happen for all the words you know. However, certain words are (for whatever reason) ripe for you to learn.
It’s like the low-hanging fruit of an orange tree that is ready for you to pick and eat. There is fruit higher up in the tree, but it’s much more difficult to reach. You could go get a ladder to be able to reach it, but it would require much more effort and take more time.
And, it’s not ripe for you to eat yet.
Going for the low-hanging fruit is a better and more effective use of your time.
Using the 3-1-1 Method you’ll be training yourself to ignore the things that are too difficult for you right now, and instead focus on what you’re ready to learn.
Learning this will not only make language learning more relaxed, but you’ll progress faster. It keeps you moving forward smoothly on the highway to fluency, rather than getting stuck on overgrown foresty side-tracks where it’s difficult to walk.
For some people, this is very challenging to do (it was for me for a looong time). Because it’s much more comfortable to get answers to all the questions right away. But delaying this will really serve you in the long run.
What is hard now is going to be easier down the line.
Download my guide “Intuitive Language Secrets” for free and learn the what “Lingtuition” is:
Using the 3-1-1 Method with YouTube videos
In order to use the method, the video you’re going to use needs to have the “CC” subtitles available in your target language. You can even use automatically generated subtitles. They’re of course not as good as manually made ones, but many times they are all you need to clear up the ambiguity.
Here’s how you do it:
Step 1.) Watch the video you have chosen once. You can also just listen to it without watching.
Step 2.) There are two ways of completing this step:
Option #1) Read through the transcript using an app like LingQ so you can easily click on each word to see the definition. This is handy since you can read it on your phone whenever you get a chance during your day, without needing a computer.
Option #2) Watch the video with a youtube extension like Migaku or Language Learning with Netflix. Using one of those will let you click on all the unknown words and get an instant translation as you watch. The advantage to this option is that you’ll able to associate the visuals with what you’re hearing, which might help in comprehending it.
I personally generally prefer option #1. That way I don’t have to actively sit down with a video or computer, instead I can just read through the transcript on my phone on the go throughout my day. This lets me do more of it.
Step 3.) Watch it or just listen to it on YouTube. This time you’ll understand a lot more.
You still most likely won’t understand all of it. That’s fine. Just continue watching more videos using this method, rather than focusing too much on a particular one. Repetition is beneficial, but after a while, you’ll start seeing diminishing returns.
TIP:
Save a video you use this method with. Write down the URL so you can easily find it again as well as the date you watched it. Then, a few months from now, watch the video again. Set a reminder on your phone to tell you to watch it again at a certain date 2-3 months from now.
If you have continued to consistently use this method (and just listened and read a lot in general) you’ll find that you now understand more than you did a few months ago.
This is a good way of feeling a sense of your progress in your learning. It’s very encouraging. BUT, it hinges on the fact that you have been consistent and spent enough time with it. Then you will reap the rewards of having taken action.
The 3-1-1 Method with TV shows and movies
This method works great for movies and TV shows.
I prefer TV shows because of their shorter length. If you are using a movie, however, one option is to split it up into parts (let’s say 3-4 parts) and go through each part individually using the 3-1-1 Method.
Let’s say you’re using a Japanese anime to learn your target language (I’ve watched quite a bit of it dubbed in Cantonese).
Using the 3-1-1 Method for TV shows and movies is exactly the same as if you’re just using audio. Only the first listening time (step 1) watching the episode.
I consider watching to be a listening activity unless you’re watching with target language subtitles, then it’s more of a reading activity. That doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial to watch with subtitles. It’s just important to be aware of what skill you’re actually working on (even though in my opinion you will get some listening gains by using target language subtitles).
The short version:
Step 1 - Watch the episode once
Step 2 - Listen through the condensed audio version 2 times
Step 3 - Read through the transcript
Step 4 - Listen to the condensed version 1 more time
The detailed version:
Step 1
Watch the episode or movie the whole way through once. With or without subtitles (if with subtitles, make sure they are target language subtitles). Try to pay attention and try to understand as much as you can, but don’t force yourself or stress about it. Focus mainly on enjoying what you’re watching and just receiving the language.
Step 2
Create a condensed version of the episode to cut out all the silence or non-dialogue parts (my post How to Condense Audio from TV Shows & Movies [to supercharge your listening comprehension] will show you how to do this).
You will get through the episodes much faster when listening to the condensed versions.
Listen to it 2 times. Or even more, if you’d like (depending on the length of the audio - see the Q&A section below for more on this).
Step 3
Read through the transcript and look up the words you don’t know. I always use LingQ, but you can use whatever you prefer. It just needs to be a tool that lets you easily see the definition of a word with a click or tap.
Step 4
Listen to the condensed version of the episode again. Preferably quite soon after you’ve finished reading it. The same day or the next day is best.
You can also watch the episode again if you’d like. I almost never do, as I would rather keep watching more episodes and get more input that way. That being said, there’s definitely benefit to doing this. Only do this if you actually want to watch the episode again though.
When you listen or watch again you’ll find that some unknown parts have now gotten cleared up. Don’t expect your comprehension to be 100%. How much your comprehension of the episode increases will depend on your current level and the particular show you’re watching. In other words - how many unfamiliar words you will come across.
It could be that your comprehension goes from 30 to 40% or from 70 to 80%. Either way, it’s a win. What matters is that you have improved. You are where you’re currently at.
Be happy with it.
If you keep going and do this consistently enough, you’ll eventually get to a point where you understand all of it.
TIP:
A good way to know whether or not you have improved is to do the following:
After you watch the first episode of a TV show that you plan to watch, write down your experience.
How did it feel? How much did you understand? Try to put a percentage to it to the best of your ability.
Then go through 20 or so episodes of the TV show using this method.
After you’re done, go back to that first episode and watch it (or listen to it) again. Compare how much you now understand.
Certain words will have repeated just by the nature of being in the particular world of that TV show. You will have gotten a lot of repetition of certain vocabulary. Chances are you know some of it quite well by now.
Q&A
Here are some common questions and answers that come up concerning the 3-1-1 Method.
Why listen 3 times?
Why not listen 5, 7, or 10 times? Won’t you get more out of the material that way?
Yes, and no.
Repeated listening is beneficial. But after a certain point, you’ll start seeing diminishing returns. It’s more beneficial to move on to the next audio that you want to work with. The low-hanging fruit has now been harvested. Some time needs to pass until other fruits will become ripe.
It also gets boring listening to the same audio over and over again. Being engaged and interested in what you’re listening to is very important. Because it will increase your focus. It’s not always possible to be absolutely enamored with everything you’re listening to. You’re not looking for perfection. What you want to do though is move the needle as far as you can in that direction.
From experience, 3x seems to be a good number where you will have enforced the words enough times.
There’s no particular magic to 3 repetitions. I just find that 5 is usually a bit of a stretch, while 1 or 2 times is a bit too little.
It will also depend on the audio, your current level, and your level of curiosity. Sometimes you might better off listening more times. So feel free to do that if you feel it serves you. 3x is just a rule of thumb for you to use. It’s probably what most of us can handle without looking up the word lol (although even that takes discipline).
If the clip is shorter (say, 3-5 mins) then you can go ahead and listen 5x without any problem. For 20 mins or longer - 3x is what I recommend.
You’ll usually start feeling when you’ve listened enough times.
When you start feeling it’s difficult to get much more out of it, it’s time to read through the transcript.
Listening multiple times is a way to build up curiosity. You’re also building comprehension at the same time. Learning a word well is about hearing it enough times. When you learn the definition doesn’t matter so much. In many ways, it’s actually advantageous to not learn the definition right away, but instead, after you’ve been curious about it and repeated it in your mind. Then you’re more likely to remember it.
This is why the 3-1-1 Method works so well in my opinion.
Is it worth reading through the script more than once?
In a sense that you will get more out of it and learn more - yes it is.
But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
I find that it’s better to just keep reading more material. More episodes. More transcripts. More books.
Because knowing a word in one context is one thing. But many words have different meanings depending on context. You really need to hit words from a lot of different angles (contexts) to deeply know them and have a strong sense of what they mean.
Only through enough contexts can you truly have a deep understanding of what a word or phrase means.
It’s also much more interesting to move on and use new material, making it easier to maintain focus.
What about listening and reading at the same time?
Listening with a transcript is very beneficial at a certain point in language learning. Especially around upper beginner/lower intermediate. I did this a lot with Cantonese at one point.
Once you get to a solid intermediate, I find that separating reading and listening is generally better. Reading makes it easier to pick up on what you’re listening to because you get that visual confirmation. But in real life, you won’t have that luxury.
Purely listening is much more challenging, because you don’t have the visual help. This will help really develop and fine-tune your ears. So it’s a good idea to practice pure listening to really get solid in your listening ability.
How focused do I need to be while listening?
To get the most out of listening try to pay attention as much as you can. Without straining yourself. Being relaxed is a much better state to learn effectively.
Sometimes we’re not as focused and listen more passively (attention going in and out). Many worry about this, but it’s honestly not that big of a deal.
When you’re listening to material that you don’t fully understand, it’s very challenging to maintain 100% focus all the time. It’s a language you’re not fluent in, so your mind is constantly battling trying to figure out if it’s important or just background noise. The mind filters out what is not important. Like at a coffee shop where there are tons of people talking in the background. You’re fighting this exact same battle with your mind when listening to things you don’t yet understand.
If your thoughts wander, don’t worry. Don’t beat yourself up about it, just gently bring your mind back to focus when you’re listening. You will have to do this over and over again. Some days more than others. By doing this, you continually show your mind:
“This is important. This is a priority for us.”
Do your best to try to pay attention, but don’t focus too hard on trying to understand. Simply focus on listening to the words, absorbing the syllables. Hearing the sounds. Your mind will more and more convert it to meaning automatically.
Just like in your native language, you can’t not understand when you’re hearing a word you already know. When you hear the sounds your mind automatically transforms it into meaning.
Also, certain days are better than others. Some days it’s more difficult to focus. It could be because of having a lot on your mind, lacking sleep, eating poorly, and so on.
That’s normal.
Do the listening anyways.
With time, as you spend time listening your focus and vocabulary will increase. Making it easier and easier to pay attention.
Final words and thoughts
You might wonder:
“Do I have to use the 3-1-1 method to be able to increase my comprehension?”
You don’t.
The most important thing is to do a lot of listening (and reading). By just engaging in the activity of listening consistently, you will improve. Listening and reading enough will get you to fluency.
The 3-1-1 method is just a tool to help you get that listening time in. To train your ears to pay attention. To make the abstract activity of practicing listening more concrete, and use curiosity to your advantage.
You’re in many ways tricking yourself to improve using the method.
I find it to be a very effective tool to have in my toolbox.
Give the 3-1-1 Method a go and let me know in the comments below how it went!
As always, I really appreciate hearing from you and about your thoughts and experiences.
More posts on improving comprehension:
The Blueprint to Spanish Fluency 4-part Series
“I Don’t Understand Anything” - Why you Can’t Understand Fast Speech
5 reasons Reading is the Fastest Way to Learn a Language
