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Can Highlighted Audio Stories Improve My English?

Possible_Media_766
I’ve been using a free app that highlights English sentences while reading them out loud. The app reads stories with audio and highlights the word it’s currently reading. This makes it super easy to follow along, and I feel like it’s helping me understand spoken English better. At least, that’s what I think. The problem is, when someone speaks English to me, it still feels way too fast, and I struggle to keep up. Do you think using an app like this can actually help me understand real conversations? Or is it just making me lazy by relying too much on the visuals? What’s your opinion?

3 comments

ProteusReturns•
If you pause often and repeat what you hear, that could help. Shadowing is one way of improving your fluency; i.e., mimic not just the words you hear, but the exact intonation, accent, etc. Also, not all dialects of English are fast-paced. If you're trying to hold a conversation with, say, a New Yorker, you'll quickly feel the pacing mismatch. Maybe look for slower speakers, or if you can, slow down the app's speed a bit. Southern dialects tend not to be very rapid, but the accent can be infectious, if you'd rather not acquire it.
Possible_Media_766••OP
app name is EngListen [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/englisten-read-english-stories/id6736916125](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/englisten-read-english-stories/id6736916125)
SnooDonuts6494•
Yes. Probably. There's a nice idiom; "more haste, less speed". I don't know that app, but I'm basing my advice on my personal experience as a teacher (in Japan). I taught students using English videos with English subtitles, and I'd pause on every sentence. We'd only watch 5 minutes of the movie in a 1 hour lesson, so it took several weeks. At the end of the process, they could watch the entire movie without subtitles. Don't worry about speed. Make sure you fully understand it, before *eventually* increasing the speed. You'll get faster naturally. Concentrate on understanding, first. Take as much time as you want. Don't feel pressured into going fast. Gambatte. (= "Go for it, good luck")