Study Tips for Listening
- Practice listening to American English as much as possible. Documentaries, news programs, movies are excellent sources of listening.
- When you are studying and practicing for the listening section of the Toefl, listen to the material only once, and then answer the questions. Then review the answers while listening a second or third time. Following the transcripts while listening would be a helpful practice as well.
- Keep such things in mind as the main idea, the development and support of the main idea, and the speaker’s reasons for mentioning certain points.
- Develop your note-taking skills. While listening, try to write down key points in an organized way.
Listening Question Types
1. Main Idea Questions
Main idea questions assess your understanding of the overall topic or basic idea of a lecture or conversation. You are supposed to understand the speaker’s general purpose of giving a lecture or having a conversation as well.
- In a lecture or discussion, pay attention to expressions that indicate the topic:
“Today’s talk is on…”
“Today, we’re going to discuss…”
“Now, we’re going to talk about…”
- In a conversation, listen for cues that will indicate the speaker’s main purpose:
“How can I help?”
“What do you need?”
“Can you help me with…?”
- Listen for key words that are emphasized or repeated.
2. Detail Questions
Taking notes of major points and important details of a lecture or conversation is important to solve detail questions
- Since answers to questions are found in order in the passage, take notes in order of what you hear.
- Listen for signal expressions that identify details, such as for example, the reason is, on the other hand, however, I would say, etc.
- Detail questions do not require inference. Choose what speakers actually say.
Incorrect choices may repeat some of the speaker’s words, but do not reflect correct information from the lecture or conversation.
3. Function Questions
In this type of question, you listen again the part of the lecture or conversation, and then answer the question. Function questions assess your understating of what a speaker is trying to achieve through what is said.
- You should be careful about the tone of voice, intonation and sentence stressthat a speaker uses to show his or her intended meaning.
- Listen for the overall organization of the lecture or conversation and think about whether the purpose is to describe, explain, compare, or give an opinion.
4. Stance Questions
Stance questions ask about the speaker’s general feeling about what is discussed.
- You should recognize words or phrases that indicate the speaker’s feeling or opinion.
- You should also recognize tone of voice, intonation, and sentence stress that the speaker uses to show his or her feeling or opinion.
5. Organization Questions
Organization questions assess your understanding of organization of information in a lecture or conversation.
- You are supposed to recognize the sequence of information as well as the main steps of a process.
- Use diagrams, arrows and outline format while taking notes to indicate the organization of information.
- Listen for transitions that indicate sequencing of information, such as first, now the first step is, next, then, so now, the last step is, finally.
6. Content Question
Content questions assess your ability to determine if a certain point is discussed in relation to a category. Identifying key category words is required to solve these questions.
- Take notes while listening as questions with tables will only appear after the lecture or conversation.
- Pay special attention to category words, the characteristics of categories and examples.
- Keep in mind that there are different types of tables to complete. Some in which you need to click YES or NO, and others in which you need to click the correct category.
7. Inference Questions
Inference questions assess your ability to guess the implied meaning or to draw a conclusion based on the main points of a lecture or conversation. Inference questions include the words, infer, imply or suggest.
- Try to guess the implied meaning of the given information. The correct answer is not directly stated.
- Pay attention to clues expressed by certain words, word stress, intonation, or pace of what is said
simple conversation for listening test :
Situation : An Indonesia is giving directions to Japanese colleague to go to his house for a discussion and a barbeque on sunday.
Bima : Ken, this is a simple map to my house
Ken : Thanks Bima...Wait a minute. Can you ( 1.Explain/explaining) it to me ? i'm going to drive myself, so i dont want to (2. got/get) lost
Bima : Well, Okay..Look,this is the toll road to Labuan.Stay (3.in/on) it until you come to the toll gate. Go straight ahead.Dont..
Ken : Hold on..How much (4.do/must) i have to pay the gate ?
Bima : Nothing. You take the ticket there. (5.Get/getting) out at this exit, pay Rp.1000,- and go straight until you come to this bridge. (6.Behind/after)the bridge you will see a shopping mall on the right
Ken : Exit, follow the road, cross the bridge, a mall on the right. Got it
Bima :Make sure you keep (7.go/going) on the left side of the road. There's atraffic light here. And this is my housing complex, about 200 meters from the traffic light. This is my house, (8. across from / in front of ) a playground.
Ken : Okay. the housing complex (9. is / will )be on the right side of the road. Anything that i can bring (10.to/for) the BBQ ?
Bima : No,thanks. just be there at 10:00. By the way, could you (11.pick/picked) up jimmy and sandra at thier apartement ?
Ken : I'm affraid not. I'm (12.plan/planning ) to take my wife and my daughter with me. if you dont mind.
Bima : No, no.Not at all. The more the merrier
Ken : Great. See you on sundar.
1. explain
2. get
3.on
4. do
5. get
6.after
7. going
8. across from
9. is
10. for
11. pick
12. planning
SOURCE : student book LIA conversation in english lv.3 pg.78
