TOEFL
listening section, tests the ability of a student, especially a non-native
English speaker, to understand spoken English (accentuated) in educational
setting. Listening is an important skill to understand the concepts and ideas.
Only when the concepts are understood completely it becomes a lighter task to
score in the listening section of TOEFL test. In order to develop the listening
skills for TOEFL, there are certain set of listening strategies or steps. They
are explained in detail given below.
Requirements for TOEFL Listening
Strategy
Listening
strategies for TOEFL aims at providing each and every minute detail that are
required to respond to all the questions within the given time in this section.
Responding to the questions in time is very important because, it will help
TOEFL candidates to save time, which they might spend on, one specific part of
the test section.
There
are certain steps in strategies that would help in managing time in each part
of listening test section (recordings). There are some basic requirements for
listening skills which serves the steps in TOEFL listening strategies as
detailed below:
Basic Comprehension
When students listen to a recorded lecture
or a conversation, they should understand the central or main idea in it. Then
they should skim the recording for key points, important facts, purpose and the
relevant details that connects the key points.
Practical Understanding
It may also be called as “pragmatic
understanding” where the meaning of a word should be taken, according to the
context. Students are needed to find the intended meaning of the speaker i.e.
from his point of view. A wide range of vocabulary is necessary for this
process because, the recordings in listening test are usually from academic background.
Practical understanding also becomes a must to find the purpose of a lecture or
a conversation.
Relate Ideas given in multiple
information sources
Relating ideas is the final state where the
key points and the important facts are compared to find the relationship
between them. This method would initially lead to construct an argument. Then a
string of supportive and non supportive elements are categorized and as a
result the causes for the events are traced. This is where a student would end up
identifying the conclusion which is expressed indirectly.
Inference
Inference is to find the implied conclusion
in recordings from the author’s point of view. The conclusion might be implied
or expressed indirectly anywhere in the passage.
These
are the basic requirements necessary, in each part of the strategy of listening
section, which consists of two recorded lectures and one long conversation.
These fundamentals are to be followed, in the following few preparatory steps.
Strategies in Preparation
Spoken
English From Various Sources And Accents
There
are variations between the accents of English. It is the best to listen to
English from various sources like television, music, radio etc. And also it is
good to listen to the native speakers of English with different pronunciation
and dialect. By doing this students would be able to improve their listening
skills and also they will get used to different kinds of accents. It will be
helpful very much if they listen to academic passages or conversations.
Making Notes
While
listening to a recording, notes should be jot down. These notes would help you
to remember the important points given by speaker. The reason is also that,
during the test you will be given only one chance to listen to a passage. Note
making will help you to remember the details and the clues effectively.
Main Idea
The
main idea of a passage should be identified in a recording, as a first task
while taking notes. Main idea of a lecture is usually given in the introductory
part. The other details would be given in the rest of a lecture. Once the main
idea is found it becomes a lighter task to find the purpose of the speaker.
Pointer Words, Important Facts And
Relationship Between The Facts
The
pointer words may be defined as signal words or clues, given by the speaker.
These keywords should be collected along with important facts and events. This
should be done in order to compare them and identify the relationship between
them. In turn this would give you the cause of the events.
Summary of Observation
Give a summary of the recording which was
listened, using the notes that are taken down. During this process, only
important facts, relevant details, main idea and the key facts are covered.
This is a good time saving technique, to prevent going through the notes again
and again.
Building your Vocabular
Above all it is also important to build a
student’s vocabulary, to find the meaning of a word, according to the context
of the speaker. Students should get familiar with the words which they consider
as new ones and practice them in their everyday life.
The
steps and the requirements in TOEFL strategies for listening section, which are
elaborated above should be followed and practiced to manage time while taking
up the test. The most important part in listening section is to concentrate on
the subject of the speaker, and a student does not have to be distracted by the
accent.
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