Listening Strategies That Always Work
Listening Strategies That Always Work
Listening Strategies That Always Work
'Listening occupies about 45 per cent of the time adults spend communicating.
Yet, for all its importance, students (and even teachers) often fail to give
listening the attention it needs. This is all the more remarkable as learners often
say that listening is the most challenging of all the skills in English.
Listening challenges for English language learners
While the challenges posed by the speaker or the situation may be out of the
listener’s hands, there are a few skills or 'strategies' that English learners can
use to help them along.
1. Predicting content
Imagine you've just turned on your TV. You see a man in a suit standing in front
of a large map with the symbols of a sun, clouds and thunder. What do you
imagine he is about to tell you? Most likely, this is going to be a weather
forecast. You can expect to hear words like 'sunny', 'windy' and 'overcast'. You'll
probably hear the use of the future tense: 'It'll be a cold start to the day'; 'there'll
be showers in the afternoon', etc.
Tip:
If you are taking a listening test, skim through the questions first and try to
predict what kind of information you need to listen out for. A question
beginning 'How many…?', for example, will probably require you to listen for a
specific number or quantity of something.
2. Listening for gist
Imagine you are a superhero flying in the sky. From that height, it is possible to
see what the entire area is like, how densely populated it is, the kind of houses
in each area.
When listening, it is also possible to get the ‘whole picture’ but with one crucial
difference: information comes in a sequence. And in that sequence of
information, there are content words (the nouns, adjectives and verbs) that
can help you form that picture. We often call this listening for gist.
For example, the words 'food', 'friends', 'fun', 'park' and 'sunny day' have their
own meanings, but when you hear the words in sequence, they help form
the context of a picnic.
Find a short video with subtitles on a topic that interests you. Use the title to
help you predict the content and then listen out for the content words. Go
back, and listen again with the subtitles. How much did you understand the first
time? Return to the video a week later and try again.
Tip:
When you learn new words, try to group them with other words used in a
similar context. Mind maps are good for this.
3. Detecting signposts
Just like the traffic lights on roads, there are signposts in language that help us
follow what we're listening to. These words, which link ideas, help us to
understand what the speaker is talking about and where they are taking us.
They're particularly important in presentations and lectures.
For example, if a university lecturer says: 'I am going to talk about three factors
affecting global warming…' then later on you might hear the phrases 'first of all',
'moving on to' and 'in summary' to indicate the next part of the talk. Other words
and phrases can function in a similar way. For instance, to clarify ('in other
words', 'to put it another way'); to give examples ('to illustrate this', 'for
example'), and so on.
Most course books for learners of English come with a CD and audio script.
Find an example of a business presentation or lecture and see how
many signpost phrases you can identify (listen more than once, if necessary).
Then check your notes with the audio script.
Tip:
Imagine you are a detective taking a closer look at those buildings you saw
earlier on as a superhero. This time, rather than taking in the big picture, you're
looking for something specific and rejecting anything that does not match what's
on your list.
In a listening test, if you are asked to write down the age of a person, listen for
the words related to age ('old', 'young', 'years', 'date of birth', etc.) or a number
that could represent that person's age. If it is a conversation, you might wait to
hear someone beginning a question with 'How old…?'
Decide on a type of detailed information you want to practise listening for and
watch programmes where you would expect to get that information. For
example, you could listen to a weather report to get details about the
weather, or you could follow the sports news to find out the latest results.
Tip:
If you are taking a test, as soon as you get the question paper, skim through the
questions, underline the important words and decide what kind of detail you
need to identify in the listening text.
5. Inferring meaning
Imagine you are a tourist in a country whose language you do not speak. In a
restaurant, you hand over a credit card to pay for the bill, but the server seems
to say something apologetic in response. Even though you don't understand his
words, you can probably conclude that the restaurant doesn't take credit cards,
and you need to pay with cash instead.
This is the technique of inferring meaning: using clues and prior knowledge
about a situation to work out the meaning of what we hear.
Similarly, we can infer the relationship between people from the words they use,
without having to find out directly. Take the following conversation:
We can infer from the use of the words 'homework' and 'exams' that this is a
conversation between a student and his teacher. By using contextual clues and
our knowledge of the world, we can work out what's being said, who is speaking
and what's taking place.
Tip:
The next time you hear a word you don't understand, try to guess its meaning
using the context or situation to help you. But don't worry if you don't get it the
first time. As with everything in life, the more you practise, the better you will
get.
Summing up