Hi I'm Ai-Lin. Today,
we're going to learn how to listen for specific
information.
This type of listening is known as listening for meaning.
First, we will try and predict what we're going to hear.
Then we will work out the purpose of listening. And finally,
we will go through what we need to look out for while listening.
The first thing we need to do is look at the title or any pictures provided,
and start thinking of what vocabulary you are likely to hear.
For example, if you are watching an update on the weather,
you might see a title like tomorrow's weather or this week's
weather forecast. You might hear words related to the weather,
such as temperature, high of, low pressure system,
rain and so on.
You can also predict what grammar will be used here. For example,
a weather forecast will most likely use future tense.
This will activate the related vocabulary and grammar you have stored in your
mind to better understand what you're going to listen to.
When you think about the purpose of listening,
then you will know what information to look out for.
There are two main purposes of listening.
You might be listening to get certain information or
you might be doing a listening comprehension exercise or assessment.
If you were doing a listening comprehension exercise or listening
assessment,
familiarise yourself with the types of comprehension questions you might come
across. Here are some examples: short answers,
fill in the blanks, true,
false not given and multiple choice.
Read the questions carefully to understand the information you need
to listen out for. For a short answer question,
if the question begins with when,
you need to be listening for a day, date or time.
For a fill in the blank question,
if the sentence says: the process...
up to 10 hours,
you need to be listening out for a verb.
So knowing sentence structures and parts of sentences is
important. In a true, false, not given question,
think of which part of the given sentence makes it true or false to
confirm you have chosen the correct answer. For example,
in a passage about shoes,
if the sentence states that shoes can be worn forever,
read the question really carefully so that you can work out if any
words in the sentence make it true or false.
And if you don't hear the information at all,
you can choose not given. In a multiple choice question,
you can sometimes eliminate the answers you are sure are
incorrect before you listen.
Or if you do the first listening,
you can cross out one or two options which leaves you with the other
two to choose from. So here's a multiple choice question.
All scientists ensure they're doing the best research by... You
can see immediately that a and c are not relevant
and can be eliminated.
That leaves you with two options to listen out for.
If you are listening to get certain information,
you should list the information that you need to collect and listen out for
words that would lead to that information.
So if you're catching a train to the city,
this is the information you're listening for.
Here are some things to look out for when listening for meaning.
Speakers will use signposts words throughout the conversation or
explanation to indicate where they are up to in their dialogue.
So for example, they might start with a greeting. Good morning,
everyone!
And that indicates the speaker is greeting their audience and is about to start.
And I have listed a few more here.
You might need to infer meaning from sentences or expressions you hear.
For example, in the conversation,
listen to the opening and closing of the conversation to understand the
relationship between the speakers and where they are.
For example, the conversation here.
This part of the conversation indicates that the speakers are at work and
they are colleagues.
You can also sometimes guess the meaning of words from the intonation of a
speaker's voice. Louder words, such as nouns, verbs,
adjectives and adverbs usually carry the most important
information. So for example,
If the speaker wants to make sure the listener gets a particular word,
verb or point that's important,
they might actually say it a little bit louder and slower,
or they might repeat it in two different kinds of sentences so that you
definitely get their point. Finally,
pay close attention to repeated terms and pauses.
These are cues for possible key points in the conversation or explanation.
OK, now are you ready to try listening to something and use what we've learned?
Let's listen to a train announcement.
Immediately that should tell you that we're listening for meaning.
We're not listening for an assessment. Good morning all customers.
The next Glen Waverley train on platform. One is the 7:30 AM train.
This train runs direct to Richmond stopping all stations to Glen Waverley.
Please note that there is a delay of five minutes.
So the train is scheduled to depart at 7 35.
The train after the 7:30 train will not be departing until 8:00 AM.
OK. Let's now think about the important information we heard there.
The purpose of listening to this is to find out when the train is departing and
where to go to catch it.
Did you hear that it was the Glen Waverley train line?
What about the platform number? Yes. One.
And the departure time? Hm.
It was meant to leave at 7:30 but there is a five minute delay so
that makes it 7 35.
How is it going to Glen Waverley? It's going via Richmond.
What time is the next train to Glen Waverley? 8:00 AM.
Did you get all of that right? Well done if you did.
When
you're listening for comprehension or an assessment,
underline or highlight the important words in a question,
which you need to focus on while listening. And remember,
practice, practice, practice.
The more you expose yourself to different listening activities,
the better you'll get at it.
Thanks for joining me today.
I hope you've learned how to listen and get details from what you're listening
to. Good luck.