Hi there,
As you may have noticed, I am regularly adding new video news articles to the Global English Discussion Forum.
Of course, you may be content to simply surf around and watch the video news articles that appeal to you. That's fine, and it will add to your English listening ability if you do it on a regular basis.
However, if you truly do want to develop your English skills, you really need to go beyond just listening passively. It is important for you to take the step forward and convert receptive skills into responsive skills. That is, if you watch a video news story that you find interesting, you will drive your language skills by responding to it. It can be a simple comment summarizing your opinion in response to the story, or a question about a particular word or expression you heard in the story.
By the way, you do not need to fully understand every single aspect or word in a video news article in order to have an opinion about it and some sort of response. Just be willing to comment about something you did understand, or ask questions about something you couldn't quite grasp.
Every article has an auto-response box that pops up at the bottom. Typing in a thought or reaction to the story is super-easy, and can take as little as 30 seconds! Of course, you may want to do more than that, and whatever time and effort you invest in this activity is building on your English development.
Once you can do that, it's important to get proactive, and start thinking from a Global Citizen perspective. How does something in the story compare to the situation in your own country? How can something "local" in the story you watched be interpreted from a global perspective? What about other people's comments and thoughts? Did you find them interesting, agreeable or disagreeable? Why?
Developing your English is all about using it. Teachers can't really do that for you (make you use English in a genuinely productive way) - it's really up to you. It's also something you really have to invest time in, listening to and responding to genuine English as often as possible.
So get involved, and get your English into action! You can do it!
Best wishes,
~ Jason
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~ Jason 
