Tips For Toefl Listening

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.

Instructions for the Listening Section  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 are not allowed to take notes or write in your test book.

Instructions for the Listening Section  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 listeningIn 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 beforehandEach 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.

Vocabulary Listening Strategies  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.

Vocabulary Listening Strategies  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.

Vocabulary Listening Strategies  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.

Vocabulary Listening Strategies  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.

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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.

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Transfer: Using previously acquired linguistic and/or conceptual knowledge to facilitate a new language learning task. VTR - Music TV It's great fun for me to hear most of interviews in English. It's easy for me to understand about music in English because I have many knowledge about it (...I can't understand daily news so easily...) Movie - Tess Last year we learned English Linguistics and I knew I can hear a dialect (Southern dialects of England) in this movie. I could catch just a few words:... I zaid (said) "Good night" ...near a month ago (about or nearly) Wow by Bananarama There is a long line in this song. It seems difficult to sing along the tape. But it's not so hard to sing that part if I add rhythm.

 **Noticing: Being alert to new information.  Movie - Peggy Sue Got Married Fourth time. Everytime I find new things. That's interesting.  Julian Lennon Live He said, maybe, "We're gonna have a _____" Compotition - I hear like this. I couldn't catch that word correctly for a long time. But I recently find it, competition. I was so happy when I realized It. It was just "e" or "o", but I couldn't find it for a long time.  Sherlock Holmes story A school boy answered, "Yes, sir," "No, sir," "He sometimes cries, sir". He always added "sir" at the end.

 Inferencing: Using available information to guess meanings of new items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information.  Elaboration: Relating new information to other concepts in memory.  Madonna songs I don't have the words' cards of some of the songs in this tape. But recently I heard commotion meant a kind of fight or disturbance. I hear she was singing like this, maybe: "(You got a commotion). If we got together, we be causing a commotion." I don't think this is right but I know what she means.

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

Listening Skills  Invert the subject and verb with question words  Invert the subject and verb with negatives  Subject verb agreement

Links to practice

 http://www.englishelearning.com/index.p  http://www.near-online.net/2000/flash/ni  http://home.earthlink.net/~eslstuden t/testing/TOEFL.html#listen

Sources

 http://www.real.gold.ac.uk/listening/strat  http://www.lang.nagoyau.ac.jp/bunai/dep/eigog/listening/fuji wara.html