Listening comprehension Note and taking

1.      Listening comprehension Note and taking

a.      Introduction

Like many students, you may be initially very worried about your listening skills. Academic listening usually involves trying to follow a lecture or discussion in English and writing adequate notes on it. If you have difficulties in doing this, you may not be sure whether the problems are listening problems or language problems. In any case, much listening to lectures or similar texts is essential.

There is also a need for you to be aware of the way lectures are organised, the particular kind of language that is used in lectures and making sure you know the language, particularly the pronunciation of familiar words, of your own subject. I think the most important skill is for you to learn to recognise the structure of lectures - the main points and subsidiary points.

You need to practise:

• How to take notes.
• Recognising lecture structure: understanding relationships in the lecture - reference; understanding relations within the sentence/complex sentences; importance markers, signposts.
• Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words and word groups - guessing.
• Recognising implications: information not explicitly stated; recognising the speaker's attitude. Evaluating the importance of information - selecting information.
• Understanding intonation, voice emphasis etc.
• Listening skills: skimming - listening to obtain gist; scanning - listening to obtain specific information; selective extraction of relevant points to summarise text; learning various ways of making sense of the words you hear.
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b.      Advice

Your listening will improve quickly if you hear English often - so make sure you do - films, television, anything. Any kind of comprehension is also part of a scheme :

• understand  learn  have knowledge  understand more  learn more  have more knowledge  understand more etc.

So read around the topic before the lecture - or read the newspaper if you want to understand the news on the radio.

For academic listening, particularly listening to lectures, it will also be useful to learn about how the language works in lectures in your subject. You can learn the language you need, learn about how lectures are structured, and the various processes you go through to make sense of the words and phrases you hear.

c.       The Process of listening

1.    Introduction

You listen with your brain and your ears. Your brain makes meaning out of all the clues available. When you are listening sounds are an important clue. But you also need to make use of your knowledge.Your ears pick up sounds; your brain makes the meanings.

The two main parts of the listening process are:

• bottom-up listening

bottom up listening means making as much use as you can of the low level clues. You start by listening for the individual sounds and then join these sounds together to make syllables and words. These words are then combined together to form phrases, clauses and sentences. Finally the sentences combine tgether to form texts or conversations.

• top-down listening

top down listening means making as much use as you can of your knowledge and the situation. From your knowledge of situations, contexts, texts, conversations, phrases and sentences, you can understand what you hear.

2.      Interaction

Of course, good listeners need to make use of the interaction between both types of listening. For example, if you hear the sound /ðɛə/, it is only the context that will tell you if the word is "there", "their" or perhaps "they're". Your knowledge of grammar will tell you if /kæts/ is "cats" or "cat's", which may be "cat is" or "cat has".

d.      Summarising and note taking

1.      Purposeful

Listening is purposeful. The way you listen to something will depend on your purpose. You listen to different texts in different ways. In everyday life, you usually know why you are listening. You have a question and you read to find the answer. You usually know how the news programmes on the radio or organised - usually a quick headline followed by details. You know the sports results follow the main news items, so if you want to know the sports results, you wait until it is time.

You do not listen to every word of the news items. When you read a story or a play, it is different. You start at the beginning and listen to the end. In academic listening, you need to be flexible when you listen - you may need to listen carefully at the beginning to find out what is going to come, then listen less carefully until you hear what you want to know.

General efficient listening strategies such as scanning to find the correct part of the lecture, skimming to get the gist and careful listening of important passages are necessary as well as learning about how texts are structured in your subject.

2.      Interactive

Listening is an interactive process - it is a two-way process. As a listener you are not passive but active. This means you have to work at constructing the meaning from the sounds heard by your ears, which you use as necessary.

You construct the meaning using your knowledge of the language, your subject and the world, continually predicting and assessing. You need to be active all the time when you are listening. It is useful, therefore, before you start listening to try to actively remember what you know, and do not know, about the subject and as you are listening to, to formulate questions based on the information you have. Title, sub-titles and section heading can help you formulate question to keep you interacting.

e.      Recognising lecture structure

Several studies (e.g. Chaudron & Richards, 1986; DeCarrico & Nattinger, 1988) have suggested that explicit signals of text structure are important in lecture comprehension. Listening for these signals can therefore help you understand the lecture.

Signals

The tables below show some of the most common signals used in lectures to indicate structure (Leech & Svartvik, 1975). Listen for them in your lectures.

1. Introducing
2. Giving background information
3. Defining
4. Enumerating/Listing
5. Giving examples
6. Showing importance/Emphasising
7. Clarifying/Explaining/Putting it in other words
8. Moving on/Changing direction
9. Giving further information
10. Giving contrasting information
11. Classifying
12. Digressing
13. Referring to visuals
14. Concluding

1. Introducing

At the beginning of a lecture, or a section of a lecture, the lecturer will give you some idea about the structure of the lecture. Listen for these signals as it will help you understand what the lecturer is saying.

What I intend to say is What I'd like to do is to discuss What I intend to do is to explain In my talk today, My topic today is Today, I'm going to talk about I'm going to talk to you about My colleagues and I are going to give a short presentation on  Today I want to consider In this talk, I would like to concentrate on The subject of this talk is The purpose of this talk is to This talk is designed to

.

2. Giving background information

Before the new information is given, the lecturer will often summarise what you are expected to know about the subject to be covered. This could refer back to a previous lecture or to some background reading you should have done.

As we know As we have already seen As we have all read It's clear that It goes without saying We all understand It is understood You'll remember

.

3. Defining

In a lecture, it is often necessary to define the terms that will be used. This is important as familiar words can have specific meanings in different subjects.

X	is is called is known as may be defined as is a type of Y that/which	.
By X, I mean
This term is used generally to mean In the field of Y, the term refers to
A type of Y which . is X.

4. Enumerating/Listing

The lecturer will often be explicit about the order in which new points will be mentioned. To make the order clear we use various links and connectives.

Firstly  Secondly Next Then Thirdly Lastly Finally			.
First of all In the first place For one thing To begin with In the second place For another thing
The	first second next last	point I'd like to make is

5. Giving examples

In lectures, it is common to make generalisations. These generalisations are often supported with examples. These signals can help you to understand which generalisations the examples refer to.

This .	is	shown exemplified illustrated		by	.
For example, For instance, You only have to think of Remember,
A key experiment			shows exemplifies illustrates				this.
							.

This is shown by the following examples: The following are examples of this: The following is a case in point: Let me give you a couple of examples:			.
X	is a case in point.

Take		X	for example for instance
.	such as			.

6. Showing importance/Emphasising

When you are taking notes, you cannot write down every word. You need to distinguish between important and less important information. The lecturer can use these signals to draw your attention to the important points.

I want to stress I want to highlight I'd like to emphasise I'd like to put emphasis on It's important to remember that We should bear in mind that Don't forget that The crucial point is The essential point is The fundamental point is	.
Furthermore, What's more, This supports my argument that, It follows, therefore, that What (in effect) we are saying is			.

7. Clarifying/Explaining/Putting it in other words

The lecturer will try to explain the meaning of difficult concepts. To do this he or she may repeat the information using different words. It is important for you to recognise that this is the same information expressed differently and not new information.

In other words, Or rather, That is to say, Basically To put it another way, If we put that another way, By which I mean Or you could say The point I'm making is That is to say, That is, Namely, i.e. That means			.
What I	'm suggesting 'm trying to say meant to say should have said	is
Let me put it another way.

8. Moving on/Changing direction

The lecture will be organised around several different points. It is important to notice when the lecturer moves from one point to the next. Listen for these signals.

That's all I want to say about X. OK Now All right
Having looked at ., I'd now like to consider I'd like now to move on to Turning now to So let's turn to Moving on now to I now want to turn to The next point is Another interesting point is The next aspect I'd like to consider is I'd now like to turn to Let's now look at If we could now move on to	.

9. Giving further information

These signals show that the lecturer is proceeding in the same direction and giving more information.

Furthermore, An additional point Another point A further point A similar point In addition Moreover Similarly Apart from, Not only ., but We can add I could add that Further As well as, Besides			.
.	also. too. as well.

10. Giving contrasting information

These signals show that the lecturer is proceeding in a different direction and giving unexpected or contrasting information. It is important to listen to this.

Although However On the other hand Whereas Despite Nevertheless But Alternatively

.

11. Classifying

When we classify, we arrange members of a group. The lecturer may use the following signals to show that a classification is being made.

There are		N	types kinds classes categories sorts varieties		of X		: Y and Z. . These are Y and Z.
The							are Y and Z.
X	consists of comprises can be divided into			N		categories classes kinds types varieties		. These are Y and Z. : Y and Z.

Y and Z are	classes kinds types categories varieties		of X.
X may be classified		according to on the basis of depending on			.

12. Digressing

Sometimes the lecturer may leave the main subject of the lecture for a while and then come back to it.

Incidentally By the way While I remember Before I forget

.

13. Referring to visuals

The following signals can be used to refer to a handout or an OHT or PowerPoint slide.

On this graph, Take a look at this. Let's have a look at this. I'd like you to look at this. I'd like to draw your attention to Here we can see The . shows The graph illustrates The horizontal axis represents The vertical axis represents As you can see, If you look closely, you'll see

.

14. Concluding

The lecture should end with a summary of the main points made. The following signals will help you to identify this.

So, We've seen that First we looked at . and we saw that Then we considered . and I argued that In short, To sum up In conclusion, I'd like to emphasise that	.
That completes my lecture.