Instructions for the Listening Section
Part A
Directions:
In Part A, you will hear short conversations
between two people. After each conversation, you will hear a question about the
conversation. The conversations and questions will not be repeated. After you
hear a question, read the four possible answers in your test book and choose
the best answer. Then, on your answer sheet ,find the number of the question
and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you
have chosen.
Part B
Directions:
In this part of the test you will
hear longer conversations. After each conversation you will hear several
questions. The conversations and questions will not be repeated.
After you hear a question, read the
four possible answers in your test book and choose the best answer. Then, on
your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that
corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen.
Remember, you aren’t allowed to take
notes or write in your test book.
Part C
Directions:
In this part of the test you will hear
several talks. After each talk, you will hear some questions. The talks and questions
will not be repeated.
After you hear a question, read the
four possible answers in your test book and choose the best answer. Then, on
your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds
to the letter of the answer you have chosen.
Vocabulary
Listening Strategies
Listening Strategies
There are three types of listening strategy
in this section outlining what you can do before ,during and after a lecture or
seminar. Before listening In order to get the most out of your lectures and
seminars, you not only need to sit, listen and think ,you also need to prepare
for them. You may already do some of the following, but if not, try them out
before your next lecture or seminar.
Read up on the content beforehand Each
lecture series is usually accompanied by a list of texts which you should read
in advance of the lecture. This will familiarise you with the ideas and information
you will hear. It also gives you the opportunity to check important vocabulary
which is likely to be used in the lecture.
Predicting the content of the
lecture
As we listen, we unconsciously
compare what we hear with what we already know. This allows us to identify what
is new information and what is already known. In order to help this process,
spend a few minutes before the lecture thinking about what you expect to hear.
Focus on the title of the lecture and think about what you already know, or
questions that you would like answered.
While listening
Listening in lectures and seminars
is an active process.
Selecting what is important or
useful
Listen for signposts which tell you
what the lecturer thinks is important, eg.
"There are three main points ...", "On the other hand ...",
"Interestingly, ...".
Like paragraphs in writing, the
lecturer's voice will tell you when they are starting a new point. Listen for changes
in their intonation: loud and high sounds often indicate importance.
Develop your own note-taking style
Develop your own method for writing
different types of information in different ways. You could use:- colour (eg. different colours for main points and examples)- abbreviations
(gov't, aesth, pysch'y , globn)- symbols (–», +)- pictures-
the space on the page (eg. write the lecturer's points on the left, your ideas
on the right, new words in the margin)
Look at the lecturer
Don’t forget to look at the lecturer
from time to time: a large part of communication is visual. When you do this,
try writing without looking at your pen.
Don’t listen for every word
We all have lapses of concentration
or find that we have missed or not understood something while we are listening
for a long time. When this happens we have a choice: either we try to recall
what we have just heard and try to reconstruct it from memory, or we leave it
and move on. Unless you can remember things extremely easily and quickly, it is
often best to just move on. You can always ask someone else later. By thinking
about what it was, you can often miss even more of what is being said.
After listening
Recycling
By trying to remember what you have heard,
you will increase your chances of remembering it later. Try:- talking about it
with your classmates;- making a mind-map of the lecture content;- writing a few
sentences which summarise the main points.
Key Word:
Remembering a new word in the second
language by 1) identifying a familiar word in the first language that sounds
like or otherwise resembles the new word, and 2) generating easily recalled
images of some relationship between the new word and the familiar word.
NHK Radio I heard the word,
"gigantic". That's a new word for me. I was surprised that there are
so many words which mean "big" in English, for example, large, huge,
gigantic.
Contextualization:
Placing a word or phrase in a meaningful
language sequence.
Listening and Recall I dictated
Lesson 26. Lesson 26 said about undergraduate students and graduate students.
When I heard first, I could not dictate "bachelor's degrees." But in
last sentence, there were "master's degrees" and "doctor's degrees."
So I could understand what he said.
Transfer:
Using previously acquired linguistic
and/or conceptual knowledge to facilitate a new language learning task.
Noticing:
Being alert to new information.
Inferencing :
Using available information to guess
meanings of new items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information.
Listening Skills
* Listen to some specific words:
* What does the person mean?
* What does the person suggest?
* What does the person say about
somebody else?
* What does the person imply?
* What had the person thought?
* What had the person assumed?
* Who is the person?
* What will the person probably do
next?
* Where does this conversation
probably take place?
* What does the person need to do?
* What does the person mean?
* A restatement of the words or
ideas of the second line in the conversation or the second speaker’s lines.
* Choose the answer that sounds the
most different from what you heard
* Never choose an answer because it
sounds like what you heard in the conversation. Avoid similar sounds
* Choose answers with synonyms
* Draw conclusion (who, where, what)
* Listen for WHO and WHAT in
passives. If the conversation contains a statement in active voice the answer
to that question is probably in passive.
* Listen for negative expressions
* Listen for double negative
expressions
* Listen for almost negative
expressions:
* Almost none: hardly, barely, scarcely,
only
* Almost never: Scarcely, seldom
* Listen for expressions of
agreements
* Agreements with positive
statements:
* So do I, Me, too, I’ll say!, Isn’t
it!, You can say that again!
* Agreements with negative
statements:
* Neither do I, I don’t either
* Listen for expressions of
uncertainty and suggestions
Uncertainty:
* Isn’t it? (tag)?, As far as I know
As far as I can tell
Suggestions:
* Why not ………….. Let’s …………
* Listen for emphatic expressions of
surprise
Listen for wishes
* A affirmative wish implies a
negative reality
* A negative wish implies an
affirmative reality
* A past tense verb implies a
present reality
* A past perfect tense implies a
past reality
* Listen for untrue conditions
* Similar to 15
* Had can be used without if
* Listen for two- and three-part
verbs
* Example: call off = cancel
* Listen for idioms
Part B
* Anticipate the topics
* Anticipate the question
Determine the topic
* Draw conclusions about WHO, WHAT,
WHERE, WHEN
* Listen for answers in order
Part C
* If you have time, preview the
answers to the listening part C questions. While you are looking at the
answers, you should try to do the following:
* Anticipate the topics of the talks
you will hear.
* Anticipate the questions for each
of the groups of the answers
* Listen carefully to the first line
of the talk. It often contains the main idea, subject or topic of the talk, and
you will often be asked this type of question.
* As you listen to the talk, draw
conclusions about the situations of the talk: who is talking, where or when the
talk takes place, which course this lecture might be given in. You will often
be asked to make such inferences about the talk.
* As you listen to the talk, follow
along with the answers and try to determine the correct answers. Detail
questions are generally answered in order in the talk, and the answers often
sound the same as what is said in the recording.
* Use any remaining time to look
ahead at the answers to the questions that follow.
Listening Skills
Structure tips:
* Be sure that the sentence has a
subject and a verb
* Be careful of objects of
prepositions because they can be mistaken for the subject of the sentence. The
object of the preposition is a noun or a pronoun that comes after a preposition
such as: in, at, on, of, to, by, behind, etc, to form a prepositional phrase.
* Be careful of appositives. An
appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and has the same meaning.
Appositives can be left out the phrase and it still makes sense.
* Be careful of present participles:
they can either be as part of the verb or an adjective
* Be careful of past participles
* Use coordinate connectors
correctly: and, but, so, or, yet
* Parallel structure
* Invert the subject and verb with question
words
* Invert the subject and verb with negatives
* Subject verb agreement
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