every unit in Q Skills for Success
has a listening skill these listening skills
are strategies tools or
tips that you can use to help improve your ability to listen and
understand in English the listening skill
for unit 1 is listening for main ideas
not I'm not sure how this works in your language
but in English when we start a conversation
we generally start it very wide
almost like a funnel and here
at the very beginning of the conversation we will have
a very general statement that usually tends to be
the main idea as the conversation goes on
it will become more and more specific
and the way we do this is by adding details
and these details often consist
of examples so we have our main idea at the very beginning
and then we add details and examples to become more
and more specific so
let's take a look of how this general main idea topic
becomes more and more specific using details
and examples so if we met each other and I said to you you know
haven't been feeling very well then
I might go on in the conversation and tell you I've had
a runny nose and
cough and a sore throat
so these examples
of my symptoms or details
all explain more about this
main idea I haven't been feeling well
alright so let's take a look
at the listening skill for unit 1 so we've already talked a little bit
about how English conversations tend to start very
generally and list the main idea and then go on to become more specific
so of course when you're in college
you will be listening to a lot of lectures and presentations
and they also begin in a similar way
to English conversations they generally
begin with the topic or the main idea
for that particular lecture or presentation
now it's really hard when you're listening to lectures to remember
everything but it is very important to be able to identify the main ideas
and the details that support the main ideas
so the most important things that the speaker want you to understand and
remember
are the main ideas so how do we
recognize a main idea well usually
its part of the introduction just as I mentioned
in a conversation we usually start with the main idea
in the introduction to a lecture or presentation
that's where we find the main idea or what the speaker will talk about
and we can identify it if we can recognize
some of these signal phrases or words that a speaker uses
when they want to introduce a main idea so here's a couple of examples
you might hear something like today we will focus on
or this morning we'll consider
or today I'm going to talk about
or finally for today's lecture
we're going to look at so this is how
you will know what the topic or the main idea
of the talk will be as the talk goes on
you will get more details but you may also get
additional main ideas and you will know that they are main ideas because these
will be the things that will be repeated
often in the lecture or possibly rephrased
which means that the lecture will use
different words to say pretty much
the same thing so when you hear
things rephrased or repeated you know you probably have
a main idea
so after you listen and you take notes you want to go back
and review your notes try to see hmm... which were the ideas that were repeated
or perhaps really described even more
or rephrased and that will help you to identify
the main idea
okay so let's get some practice in identifying main ideas
below we have two introductions to presentations now remember we talked
about
introductions being the place where you're probably going to hear the main
idea
and some of the signal words that the speaker might use
to let you know what that mean idea is
so let's look at number one
for most people business meetings are boring but they don't have to be that
way
today I'm going to give you a few tips on how to run an effective business
meeting
although every tip might not work for you meetings
don't have to put everyone in the room to sleep
okay so let's look at some of these possible main ideas
business meetings are boring because they're too long
and waste too much time all
well let's go back and let's think about the signal words we heard
yes today I'm going to
and this is how they have introduced our
main idea so
what was it a few tips on how to run
an effective business meeting so let's see if we can find something
that rephrases that idea
tips on how to run an effective business meeting
hmm... well boring isn't part of it
business meetings are often boring but
there are ways to make them worthwhile
hmm... that's a possibility business meetings are often boring
so we should find ways to eliminate them
did the speaker say anything about eliminating
or not having business meetings no
so that leaves us with B
business meetings and are often boring which we see stated right at the beginning
but there are ways to make them worthwhile
that's kind of another way of rephrasing
tips ways run
an effective meeting make them worthwhile
so we've kind of just rephrased in B
the main idea that we saw introduced by the phrase
today I'm going to and we knew there was going to be a main idea
Let's look at the introduction for presentation two
hiring the right employees can be a real challenge
many managers add a new person to their staff
who is not a good choice let's consider some techniques
to evaluate potential employees and explore ways to successfully pick
the best people to hire okay
so in looking at this introduction
is there a phrase that we've seen before
that may be introducing the main idea
how about let's consider
some techniques to evaluate potential employees
and pick the best people to hire
well we know that consider is often a word that's used
at the beginning of a talk to introduce the main idea
let's see if we can identify one of
these sentences down here that describes that mean idea
let's look at many people hire employees for the wrong reasons
soon they regret their hiring decisions
hmm... I didn't see anything up there
about hiring people and regretting decisions so I would eliminate that one
it is important that managers learn to recognize that someone is not
a good hiring choice hmm...
I don't see anything in our main idea that
says that we're gonna be looking at recognizing someone
is not a good choice so we'll eliminate that
so that must leave us with C let's see what that says
hiring employees can be difficult but
this presentation will teach skills
let's consider some techniques looks like techniques and skills
are similar words so ways to rephrase the main idea
and what did the skills for choosing
the best possible employees
well up here we had pick the best people to hire
so pick and choose is another way to rephrase
and best possible employees is another way to rephrase
best people to hire so here we can see that
C is the main idea of this introduction
okay let's look at the last introduction to a presentation
there are many job finding tools available online
for instance some web-sites tell job searchers
about positions that are available while others give tips
on writing a resume or answering questions in a job interview
today I'd like to focus on how to make the best use of these online tools
online job resources are valuable but they will help us much
if we don't know the best ways to use them
okay can you identify a phrase in the introduction
that lets us know what the main idea of the presentation will be
you got it today I'd like to
focus on and we know focus on was one of those
signal words or phrases on what
how to make the best use of online tools
okay let's see if we can find one of these statementsA B or C that kind of
rephrases that mean idea
let's look at it job searches should learn
how to answer interview questions and write
resumes well that might be true
but we don't see that anywhere in making the best use of the online
tools so I'll eliminate that
how about this job searchers should learn how to use
online job finding tools effectively
hmm... well if we go back to our main idea
we seeing that making the best use
of online tools is a very important part of it
do we see something similar down here maybe a rephrasing
learn how to use can make the best use of that looks like a rephrasing
online job finding tools
so it looks like we've got online tools
same thing that we saw up here and effectively
well that kind of takes care of that best use
because a way to rephrase best would be
effectively so we're gonna choose
B as the main idea
of presentation number three