TUGAS 1
Listening assignment is considered to be one of the most difficult. That is why practicing and improving your listening skills is a vital necessity when preparing for the TOEFL.
Listening assignment is considered to be one of the most difficult. That is why practicing and improving your listening skills is a vital necessity when preparing for the TOEFL.
There
are two main ways to improve your listening skills:
•
listen to the English language as often as possible (CD, audiotapes, English
movies and radio, etc);
•
read a variety of academic materials (scientific journals, periodicals,
literature).
When
train your listening skills, pay attention to three basic purposes of listening:
1. Listening
for Basic Comprehension
•
Learn new topical vocabulary.
•
Pay careful attention to the content, don’t get distracted by the speaker’s
voice, accent, tone, etc.
•
Try to predict what the person will say next using this as a technique to stay
focused on the subject of the conversation/text.
•
Be active by asking yourself questions about the text.
•
Write down three different columns under the headings “main idea,” “major
points,” and “important details.” While listening fill the columns with appropriate
answers. Then listen for the second time and check your answers.
•
Listen to a part of the text and summarize what you have heard. Gradually
increase the length of the text for summarizing.
2. Listening
for Pragmatic Understanding
•
Try to analyze the purpose of each speaker’s conversation. Does the speaker
apologize, suggest, command, etc.?
•
Notice the style of the speakers. Differentiate between formal and informal
language; determine how confident or emotional the speakers sound.
•
Listen for deviations made in the topic line (if there are any).
•
Pay attention to different stress and intonation patterns that are used for
different meaning.
3. Listening
to Connect and Synthesize Ideas
•
Determine the organization of the text you are listening to. Notice specific
words that indicate the introduction, major ideas, examples, and the
conclusion.
•
Identify the relationships between ideas, e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast,
steps in a process, etc.
•
Listen for words that convey relationships between ideas.
•
If the information is recorded, stop it in different parts and try to predict
what will be expressed next.
•
Outline the information you heard
