Listening practise 1

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Period 4

Listening test

Macbeth argumentative essay

The Giver - combination Checkpoint

Listening practise 1

Lesson aim

Practise listening and answering questions using strategies

TAKE NOTES!

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.

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. 

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.

 

4. Inferring meaning

Come to your answers 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.

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. 

Assignment:

What topics do you think this listening assignment will cover:

'The mind explained: how to focus'

Link

Let's check the answers.