General Listening Strategies

June 13, 2023

General Listening Strategies: Conversations
• Strategy 1: Pay attention to organization
• Strategy 2: Be prepared for delayed answers in conversations.
• Strategy 3: Create one column for each speaker in your notes to avoid
confusion when you read them.
• Strategy 4: Focus on the student’s need or desire.
• Strategy 5: Listen for the official or teacher’s suggestions or comments.
• Strategy 6: Listen for complicating factors.
• Strategy 7: Use the questions of each speaker as clues to anticipate
information.
• Strategy 8: Pay attention to any conclusions or final decisions.
Strategy 1: Pay attention to organization
• The basic organizing principle of a conversation is the turn. A turn
occurs when a person speaks and the other responds.
e.g. Student: Good morning, Professor. I hope I’m not disturbing you.
Professor: Of course not, Steve. Come on in.
Strategy 2: Be prepared for delayed answers
in conversations.
• A question may require one or more other turns before it is
answered.
Strategy 3: Create one column for each speaker in your
notes to avoid confusion when you read them.
• In order to stay organized on your notes, create one column for each
speaker in the conversation.
Strategy 4: Focus on the student’s need or
desire.
• A student is usually direct to give a reason in a conversation with a
professor. However, you need to infer the conversation.
Strategy 5: Listen for the official or teacher’s
suggestions or comments.
• Don’t rely on brief answers to requests or questions. Infer another
speaker’s suggestions, directions, or comments.
Strategy 6: Listen for complicating factors.
• Complicating factor include school rules, schedules and deadlines,
class or professor demands, students’ needs, or family
responsibilities. Please infer the complicating factor effect.
Strategy 7: Use the questions of each speaker
as clues to anticipate information.
• Anticipating information means being aware of what the speakers
might say next. Clues such as vocabulary in the question (verb,
pronoun): what, who/whom, whose, which, when, where, why, and
how.
Strategy 8: Pay attention to any conclusions
or final decisions.
• A conversation does not end with expressions like in conclusion or to
wrap up which is common in a lecture; instead, there are verbs like
decide, intend, plan, or choose. However, verbs like take, postpone, or
extend is used.
General Listening Strategies: Lectures
• Strategy 1: Use the typical organization of a lecture to help you follow
the lecture and connect ideas.
• Strategy 2: For a lecture with comments, use turns as clues to key
points.
• Strategy 3: Be prepared to stop taking notes during dense parts of a
lecture or discussion.
Strategy 1: Use the typical organization of a lecture to help you follow the lecture and
connect ideas.

• A lecture is organized into paragraphs:

First paragraph: Introduction
Middle paragraphs: Body paragraphs
Last paragraph: Conclusion
Strategy 2: For a lecture with comments, use turns as clues to key points.

• The professor starts a lecture and it is interrupted by students. The

questions and answers are clues to topic shifts and new supporting
points.
Strategy 3: Be prepared to stop taking notes during dense parts of a lecture or discussion.

• For dense parts (including actors, actions, parts, steps, et.) rely on
memory and focus on understanding the concepts rater than taking
notes.
Listening Strategies: Question Types
• Question Type 1: Main Idea Questions
• Question Type 2: Function Questions
• Question Type 3: Detail Questions
• Question Type 4: Inference Questions
Question Type 1: Main Idea Questions

• Strategy 1: Be familiar with some of the possible topics and the related
vocabulary.
• Strategy 2: Use the opening remarks, or hook, as a clue, but don’t
confuse the hook and the main topic.
• Strategy 3: Listen for a thesis statement after the hook as a clue to the
main idea and supporting points of a lecture.
• Strategy 4: Use a student’s opening request or question as a clue to
the main idea of a conversation.
• Strategy 5: Anticipate key points and details based on the introduction.
• Strategy 6: Note the type of lecture or academic discussion.
• Strategy 7: Follow repeated and related vocabulary to understand the
main idea.
• Strategy 8: Don’t confuse the supporting ponys/details with the main
idea.
• Strategy 9: Listen for the main topic to be repeated in the conclusion,
but don’t rely on the conclusion to paraphrase the thesis or
summarize the whole conversation or lecture.
Question Forms
• A main idea question can be identified by these question forms and
vocabulary:
What is the talk mainly about?
What are the speakers mainly discussing?
What aspect/part/type/element of … does the professor mainly
discuss?
What does the student ask for/need/want from…?
Distracters
• Distracter 1: The answer choice is too specific.
• Distracter 2: The answer choice is too general or vague.
• Distracter 3: The answer choice refers to the wrong kind of passage.
• Distracter 4: The answer choice rearranges ideas from the
conversation or lecture.
• Distracter 5: The answer choice is too opposite of the correct one.
Practice
• Play Track 1 No. 1
• Play Track 2 No. 2, 3, and 4
Question Type 2: Function Questions

• A function question asks about the speaker’s purpose or hope of the

conversation or lecture accomplishment
• A function question includes the main idea and the type of passage.
Strategies
• Strategy 1: Understand the main idea.
• Strategy 2: Recognize the kind of passage.
• Strategy 3: Place the lecture Strategy 1: in a broader context.
• Strategy 4: Be prepared to identify the function as an infinitive phrase.
Question Forms
• A function question can be recognized in the question form “why.”
Why does the student go to see her professor?
Why is the professor giving the lecture?
Why are the speakers discussing/talking about X?
Distracters
• Distracters are incorrect answers.
Distracter 1: The infinitive refers to the wrong action or state.
Distracter 2: The function is too specific.
Distracter 3: The function is too general.
Distracter 4: The function rearranges ideas.
Distracter 5: The function reverses a positive or negative, or uses
antonyms.
Practice
• Play Track 3: No. 5 and 6
Question Type 3: Detail Questions

• Detail questions ask about the people, places, things, definitions,

descriptions, and reasons in the conversation or lecture.
Strategies

Strategy 1: Be familiar with thee various types of detail and the related
vocabulary. (See the table provided on pp. 127 -128)
Strategy 2: Identify the main idea, and anticipate the subpoints, or
supporting points.
Strategy 3: Focus on the most important details, not minor ones.
Strategy 4: Use the turns in a conversation or academic discussion to
identify important points and details.
Strategy 5: Relate a detail to the main idea.
Strategy 6: Listen for key words.
Distracters
• Distracter 1: The answer choice repeats exact vocabulary , phrases,
and clauses from the passage.
• Distracter 2: The answer choice rearranges details.
• Distracter 3: The answer choice doesn’t match the main idea.
Question Forms
• Recognize detail questions from the interrogative pronouns.
According to the professor, 5W + 1H…?
5W + 1H does the professor?
5W + 1H does the student?
Practice
• Play Track 5: No. 7 & 8
• Play Track 6: No. 9 & 10
Question Type 4: Inference Questions

• Inference is an important skill in the Listening section and the TOEFL.

• Inference is understanding unspoken ideas based on logic and facts. It
relates to implication (unstated ideas). Speakers (and writers) imply,
and listeners (and readers) infer.

Professor: If you won’t be back on campus in time to take the bus

with the rest of the class, do you have a vehicle of your own?
Student: It’s in the shop (An idiom meant It’s being fixed).
Professor: I see, well …
Strategies
• Strategy 1: Listen actively.
• Strategy 2: Think critically about details.
• Strategy 3: Use context to infer correctly.
• Strategy 4: Recognize and use idioms.
• Strategy 5: Think about details together, not individually.
• Strategy 6: Be prepared to perform some action to connect details
correctly.
Question Forms
• Inference questions can be recognized by their forms and the related
vocabulary.
What comparison/contrast does the student make?
What comparison/contrast does the professor make?
What does X demonstrate/show/indicate?
What does the student/professor imply about X?
What can be inferred about X?
It can be inferred that …
Distracters
• Distracter 1: The answer choice is illogical or impossible.
• Distracter 2: The answer choice is the opposite of the correct
inference.
• Distracter 3: The answer choice is too extreme or takes an inference
too far.
• Distracter 4: The answer choice uses an incorrect meaning of a word
or phrase.
• Distracter 5: The answer choice rearranges detail from the passage.
Practice
• Play Track 7: No. 11
• Play Track 8: Track 9 No. 12 &13
• Track 10: No. 14
• Track 11: No. 15
• Track 12: No. 16