Listening strategies

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4,5

Listening Strategies

Essential listening skills

What five skills do we need to develop to become good listeners?

1. Predicting content = inhoud voorspellen
   
2. Listening for gist = luisteren naar de belangrijkste ideeën
   
3. Listening for details = luisteren naar details
   
4. Inferring meaning = betekenis afleiden
   
5. Detecting sign posts = signaalwoorden

1. Predicting content

Depending on the content, you can often predict the type of words and style of language the speaker will use.

• Our knowledge of the world helps us anticipate the kind of information we are likely to hear.
• The vocabulary stored in our brains is 'activated' to help us better understand what we are listening to.

Predicting content

Imagine you've just turned on your TV. You see a man in a suit standing in front of a large map. What do you imagine he is about to tell you?

Write down 8 words that you expect to hear.

TIP: It's winter!

• Now watch the short weather clip and underline the words that you have predicted.

The more you hear of something, the richer your vocabulary becomes.

Let's try this again with a subject you have seen so much of lately, you must have an excellent vocabulary! Write down 5 words that you expect to hear and underline the ones that come up during the clip.

2. Listening for details

When listening for details, you are interested in a specific kind of information. You can ignore anything that does not sound relevant. In this way, you are able to narrow down your search and get the detail you need.

For example, 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. 

Let's practise listening for details and listening for gist:

First, let's activate your vocabulary!

Copy the questions and underline the specific information that will help you narrow down your search.

1. The red Colobus monkey primarily eats ______________________.

2. _________ forms the biggest threat for these African monkeys.

3. Guinea pigs are considered ___________ in their home country.

4. Possibly, bears could make competent world ________________.

5. Blue whales find __________________________________ confusing.

Copy the questions and underline the specific information that will help you narrow down your search.

1. The red Colobus monkey primarily eats leaves.

2. Deforestation forms the biggest threat for these monkeys.

3. Guinea pigs are considered snacks in their home country.

4. Possibly, bears could make competent world leaders.

5. Blue whales find double-decker buses confusing.

3. Listening for gist

Understand what is happening even if you can’t understand every phrase or sentence.

When listening, it is possible to get the ‘whole picture’: 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.

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.

 

Listening for gist

Watch a clip about an explosion and come up with one question that looks at the 'whole picture'.

Try not to get distracted by the explosion.

4. Inferring meaning

Deduce or conclude (something) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.

For example, someone has a diaper in their hand, spit-up on their shirt, and a bottle warming on the counter. You can infer that this character is the parent of a newborn baby.

Practice

After playing a short clip of a commercial 

you have to answer what it was about.

BUT!

Half the class turns around or covers their eyes 

and the other half looks at the screen.

Write down what the advertisement was about.

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What gift did the graduate receive?

5. Detecting sign posts

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. 

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. 

Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?

We’re going to watch a TedEd video called: 

‘Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?’

Take 2 minutes to discuss with your classmate the following:

• How do you expect it to be organised, in other words:                                  what is the structure of the talk going to be like?
  
• Examples of signpost language that you expect to hear.

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