LISTENING & SPEAKING
SESSION 2 / AUGUST 2015
TIPS FOR THE LISTENING & SPEAKING SECTION
1. Use the resources in your community to practice listening to English.
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
Rent videos 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).
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.
Look for a conversation partner and exchange language lessons with an English speaker who wants to
learn your language.
MORE TIPS FOR LISTENING & SPEAKING
Begin to prepare for academic situations.
Become familiar with the organization or structure of lectures.
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
Think carefully about the purpose of a 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.
Answer questions based on what was actually discussed in the talk
Develop a note-taking strategy to help you organize information into a hierarchy of main points and supporting
details.
Make sure your notes follow the organization of the lecture.
Listen for related ideas and relationships within a lecture and make sure you summarize similar information
together.
Use your notes to write a summary.
FEW MORE!
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!]
Listen for signal words and 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 intonation and other ways that speakers indicate that information is
important.
Listen for emotions expressed through changes in intonation or stress.
Facial expressions or word choices can indicate excitement, anger, happiness, frustration,
etc.
Listen how native speakers divide long sentences into "thought groups" to make them easier
to understand. (A thought group is a spoken phrase or short sentence. Thought groups are
separated by short pauses.)
Listen to sets of thought groups to make sure you get the whole idea of the talk
Listen for important key words and phrases which are often ...
repeated
paraphrased (repeated information but using different words)
said louder and clearer
stressed
Listen for pauses between important points.
In a lecture, pay attention to words that are written on the board.
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