On Listening Skills

I. Thinking ahead of the speaker Anticipation helpsListening is a temporally extended activity in which the listener continuously develops more or less specific readiness for what will come next.

I. Thinking ahead of the speaker Anticipation helpsAn effective listener:constantly setting up hypothesis in his mindconstantly testing his hypothesis by matching it with what he has heard

I. Thinking ahead of the speaker Anticipation helpsThe skill to anticipate depends on:the listeners familiarity with the theme of the messagethe listeners knowledge of the speaker as well as the setting

I. Thinking ahead of the speaker Anticipation helpsTraining focus: pre-listening preparationdiscuss the topicread related materialsdo some vocabulary work

II. Letting things go Speed and vocabulary The good language learner is the one who can tolerate vagueness and incompleteness of knowledge.

II. Letting things go Speed and vocabulary The difficulties with listening:the listener cannot control how quickly a speaker speaksthe listener is not always in a position to get the speaker to repeat what has been saidthe choice of vocabulary is in the hands of the speaker

II. Letting things go Speed and vocabulary Train focus: keeping up with the speakerlet things that have passed go do not dwell upon half-missed pointswait for the second, or even third chance to fill the gap in the message

III. Cant remember so much? Learn to select, learn to simplify The inability to produce an item should not be taken to mean that the learner cannot comprehend it.

III. Cant remember so much? Learn to select, learn to simplifyOne common unpleasant / frustrating experience with listening:while listening, you seem to understand everything that you hear, but as soon as the voice stops, all is gone!

III. Cant remember so much? Learn to select, learn to simplifyTwo perspectives:differences between comprehension & production3 communication states: one-way, partial two-way and full two-way1st goal: to comprehend what is being said to uspossible traps on effective listeningAre we paying equal attention to every element in each utterance?Are we attempting to memorize and repeat and write down all the details in a passage?

III. Cant remember so much? Learn to select, learn to simplifyTraining focus: learning to select and simplifylisten with a purpose grasp the key words and the main points turn the complicated sentence structures into simple ones, interrogative into affirmative, passive into active

IV. Focus on the main idea He who hesitates is lost!

IV. Focus on the main ideaWhat is a main idea? the central or most important idea which gives the paragraph purpose and direction purpose: to inform, to explain, to narrate, to compare, to argue, to persuade, etc.?

IV. Focus on the main ideaTraining focus: recognizing the main ideastated in a topic sentencemore often than not: the first sentence of a paragraphdifficult idea / to persuade and convince: at the end of the paragraphhinted at by the sentences in the paragraph as a whole

V. Dont attempt to write too much Note-taking is essential in listening. It helps us organize facts and retain concepts for later use.

V. Dont attempt to write too much Two requirements: recognize the main topicswrite down the important details and supporting examples

V. Dont attempt to write too much The general principle for note-taking:reduce the language by shortening the words and sentences write the minimum to give sufficient meaningchoose an appropriate time to writelay them out clearly

V. Dont attempt to write too much Training focus: note-takinguse abbreviations and symbols write down different speakers words in separate spaces, e.g. separate columns or lines

V. Dont attempt to write too muchSome useful abbreviations and symbols :From Latin:cf. compare (with)e.g. for exampleetc. and so onet al. and othersibid. in the same place (in a book or article)i.e. that isN.B. note well (something important)Viz. namely (naming someone or something you have just referred to)

V. Dont attempt to write too muchSymbols: therefore, thus, so because= is equal to, the same as is not equal to, not the same as+ plus, and, moreminus, less> greater than< less than much greater than much less than equal to, or greater than leads to, causes, results in comes from, results from, develops fromgrowth, increase, risingdecrease, reduction, dropping, declining variation

V. Dont attempt to write too muchAbbreviations:apt apartmentacc accountantacpt acceptad advertisementadv adviceamap as much/many as possibleamt amountapv approveasap as soon as possible

V. Dont attempt to write too muchbal balancebldg building cert certificatecfm conformcncl cancelcnf conferencecmi commissioncmp comopletecmpe compete/competitivecmu communicaitonconc concern/concerning/concernedcond conditionco. - company

V. Dont attempt to write too muchdept departmentdisc discountdpt departureexch exchangeext extentflt flightfrt freightfyr for your referencegd goodguar guaranteeh.o. home office

V. Dont attempt to write too muchinfo informationimps impossibleimp(t) importantincd includeindiv individualins insuranceintst interestedi/o in stead ofiou I owe youivo in view ofmanuf manufacturemdl modelmemo memorandummgr managermkt marketmsg - message

V. Dont attempt to write too muchnlt no later thanobs observeobt obtainord ordinarypat patentpc piecepkg packingpl people pls pleaseposn positionposs possibleprod productqlty qualityquty quantity

V. Dont attempt to write too muchrcv receiveref referenceregl regularrep representativeresn reservation rpt repeat respon responsible sec sectionsitn situation std standard

V. Dont attempt to write too muchtel telephonetemp temporary tgr telegraphtho thoughtks thanks trd tradetrf trafficttl totalu youur your wk weekwl willwt weightxl etra large

VI. Be careful with numbersFailure to get a correct number, sometimes a mere mistake in digit, can seriously affect the understanding of the whole story and therefore cause severe losses.

VI. Be careful with numbersThe use of numbers: telephone numbersaddressespricestemperaturestime and datesscientific storiesstatistics updatereports about ongoing events

VI. Be careful with numbersTraining focus: identifying numbers differences between million and billion, -teens and -tys different ways of number presentations: seventeen point five million / seventeen million five hundred thousand / seventeen and one half millionsaying numbers over to yourselves after you hear them: 1,234,567

VI. Be careful with numbers31,563 777,8003,400,00056,345,000322,700,0002,175,000,00078,000,000,000422,000,000,0004,500,000,000,000

VI. Be careful with numbers

VI. Be careful with numbers0.80.3230.0009%9.00798.53%

VII. Making use of them Signals and fillersA speaker has many ways to indicate that he or she is moving from one point to another, or giving an example, or repeating a point, or whatever.

VII. Making use of them Signals and fillersSignals: expressions like Secondly, Thena pause a gesture or a slight move increased loudness or a change of pitch a different intonation

VII. Making use of them Signals and fillersFillers: erermand er

VII. Making use of them Signals and fillersTraining focus: explaining the use of signals and fillerslearn to listen to and watch the speaker for the signals in order to connect the various parts of a speechlearn to recognize the fillers and know that they are not part of the essential message

VIII. How is it being said Formal or informal language? Between the extremes, a range of formality or informality exists.

VIII. How is it being said Formal or informal language? Distinct division: formal: lecture / public addresswell-organized structured language with notes or even a complete text to guide the speakertowards written language informal: chat / spontaneously produced speech / everyday talk

VIII. How is it being said Formal or informal language? Indistinct division:formal lecture informal aside / anecdoteformal description of medical condition informal explanation

VIII. How is it being said Formal or informal language? Formality or informality depends on:social settingagesstatus of the speaker and listenertheir attitudes to each othertopicto what extent they share the same background knowledge

VIII. How is it being said Formal or informal language? Training focus: focusing not only on what is said, but also on how it is being saidhave limited experience of informal language have difficulty when switching to informal language within a formal situationhave problem in judging the importance of these scattered informal utterances

IX. Represent the ideas clear and clean Outlining In listening, the skill of outlining reflects, to a certain extent, the listeners ability in understanding how the facts or ideas, or the scattered pieces of information are related to one another.

IX. Represent the ideas clear and clean Outlining Outlining:a method of classifying and organizing ideaa skill to language learners when they are taking lecture notes, reading, or writing a papera comprehensive and effective method in language learning, particularly for advanced listeners

IX. Represent the ideas clear and clean Outlining Systems:Roman numeralsArabic numbersletters

IX. Represent the ideas clear and clean Outlining Training focus: outliningsymbols usedplacement of the topics indentationpunctuation

IX. Represent the ideas clear and clean Outlining The blank form of an outline looks like this: I. ______________________________________________________A. _________________________________________________1. __________________________________________a. ___________________________________b. ___________________________________(1) ___________________________(2) ___________________________2. __________________________________________B. _________________________________________________II. ______________________________________________________

X. The Inverted Pyramid in news reporting Broadcasting news in English has some particular characteristics, such as its style, its structure, the choice of words, and the logical order of presentation, etc.

X. The Inverted Pyramid in news reporting The Inverted Pyramid:the most important information is usually included in the news leadeach succeeding sentence becomes less significant, providing further information

X. The Inverted Pyramid in news reporting Summary of a news item:This news item is about somebodys view on something.Its about the relationship between country A and country Bwords like comments, remarks, attitudes, analysis are useful

X. The Inverted Pyramid in news reporting Experiment reports:subjectstest or experiment proceduresobservationsfindings or results

X. The Inverted Pyramid in news reporting Training focus: understanding news items and reportswho, what, where, when and howvocabulary