[h=2]Advice for Listening
Performance Level: Low
Score Range: 0–14[/h]
ets.org
Performance Level: Low
Score Range: 0–14[/h]
- Practice listening to something in English every day and gradually increase the amount of time that you listen.
- Listen to different kinds of materials.
- Listen actively. Try to answer the "wh" questions.
- who
- what
- when
- where
- why
- how
- Listen passively to get the general idea of what's being said.
- Listen actively. Try to answer the "wh" questions.
- Keep a listening log (a list of everything you listen to each day/week).
- Write a one-sentence summary to remember the main idea of what you heard.
- Write down new expressions, idioms, and vocabulary that you hear.
- Use dictations and other exercises to help your listening ability.
- Ask an English speaker to dictate an article to you. Good sources of material are newspapers, magazines, and textbooks.
- First, write down exactly what you hear
- Then only take notes on the important points that you hear
- Do information gap exercises, using unfamiliar content and complex structures.
- Ask an English speaker to dictate an article to you. Good sources of material are newspapers, magazines, and textbooks.
- Listen to different kinds of materials.
- Use the resources in your community to practice listening to English.
- Visit places in your community where you can practice listening to English.
- If possible, enroll in an English class.
- Go to a museum and take an audio tour in English.
- Follow a guided tour in English in your city.
- Call or visit a hotel where tourists stay and get information in English about room rates, hotel availability, or hotel facilities.
- Call and listen to information recorded in English, such as a movie schedule, a weather report, or information about an airplane flight.
- Watch or listen to programs recorded in English.
- Watch television programs.
- CNN, the Discovery Channel or National Geographic
- Watch movies, soap operas or situation comedies on television
- Do this with a friend and talk about the program together
- Rent videos (turn off the captions!) or go to a movie in English.
- Listen to a book on tape in English.
- Listen to music in English and then check your accuracy by finding the lyrics on the Internet (e.g., www.lyrics.com).
- Listen to English language recordings that come with a transcript. Listen to each recording at least three times.
- The first time, take notes about the main ideas you hear.
- The second time, read the transcript and listen for the ideas you wrote down.
- The third time, write down any words and phrases that you didn’t understand and look them up.
- Watch television programs.
- Go to Internet sites to practice listening.
- National Public Radio (www.npr.org)
- CBS News (www.cbsnews.com)
- Randall’s Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com)
- BBC World Service.com Learning English (www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish)
- Practice speaking English with others.
- Exchange language lessons with an English speaker who wants to learn your language.
- Visit places in your community where you can practice listening to English.
- Begin to prepare for academic situations.
- Visit academic classes in English.
- Record lectures or presentations and replay them several times.
- Listen to short sections several times until you understand the main points and the flow of ideas.
- Stop the recording in the middle and predict what will come next.
- Become familiar with the organization or structure of academic lectures.
- Pay attention to the difference between main ideas and details presented.
- Listen for the general (main) ideas
- Pay attention to details
- facts
- examples
- opinions
- Pay attention to the structure.
- lecture or presentation — introduction, body and conclusion
- narrative story — beginning, middle and end
- Learn to recognize different styles of organization.
- theory and evidence
- cause and effect
- steps of a process
- comparison of two things
- Pay attention to the difference between main ideas and details presented.
- Think carefully about the purpose of the lecture.
- Try to answer the question, "What is the professor trying to accomplish in this lecture?"
- Write down only the information that you hear. Be careful not to interpret information based on your personal understanding or knowledge of the topic.
- Take notes while you listen to a talk or lecture. This will help you identify the main ideas of the talk.
- Practice doing simple dictations to work on your ability to listen and write at the same time.
- Work with a partner. Listen to a talk and take notes individually.
- Compare your notes with your partner’s and check for differences (and similarities)
- Use your notes to tell your partner what you heard
- Use your notes to write an outline or summary.
- Gradually increase the length of the talks (and your summaries).
- Listen for signals that will help you understand the organization of a talk, connections between ideas and the importance of ideas.
- Listen for expressions and vocabulary that tell you the type of information being given.
- Think carefully about the type of information that these phrases show.
- opinion (I think, It appears that, It is thought that)
- theory (In theory)
- inference (therefore, then)
- negatives (not, words that begin with "un," "non," "dis" "a")
- fillers (non-essential information) (uh, er, um)
- Identify digressions (discussion of a different topic from the main topic) or jokes that are not important to the main lecture. [It’s okay not to understand these!]
- Think carefully about the type of information that these phrases show.
- Listen for signal words or phrases that connect ideas in order to recognize the relationship between ideas.
- Think carefully about the connection between ideas that these words show.
- reasons (because, since)
- results (as a result, so, therefore, thus, consequently)
- examples (for example, such as)
- comparisons (in contrast, than)
- an opposing idea (on the other hand, however)
- another idea (furthermore, moreover, besides)
- a similar idea (similarly, likewise)
- restatements of information (in other words, that is)
- conclusions (in conclusion, in summary)
- Pay attention to the connections between examples.
- When you hear two details, identify the relationship between them
- Write a sentence connecting the examples using the appropriate connecting word
- Think carefully about the connection between ideas that these words show.
- Pay attention to intonation and other ways that speakers indicate that information is important.
- Important key words are often
- repeated
- paraphrased (repeated information but using different words)
- said louder and clearer
- stressed
- Pay attention to body language and intonation patterns used to express different emotions.
- Emotions are often expressed through changes in intonation or stress
- Facial expressions or word choices can indicate excitement, anger, happiness or frustration
- Listen for pauses between important points.
- During a lecture, pay attention to words that are written on the board.
- Listen for numbers that you might hear in prices, times or addresses
- Listen for verbs and other expressions that show if an event is happening in the past, present or future
- Important key words are often
- Listen for expressions and vocabulary that tell you the type of information being given.
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