Minggu, 14 April 2013

TOEFL STRATEGIES FOR LISTENING SECTION


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 Vocabulary

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.

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.

As for other sources that explain strategies for listening part of the toefl. The following is Listening Methods. Let’s see      

  • Only Study The English That Toefl Uses

Strictly English's tutors only focus on the English you need for the Listening Section of the TOEFL. For example, because almost every TOEFL lecture uses adverbials and adverbial phrases to introduce an opposing point of view, we make sure that you understand that grammatical pattern.

  • Improve Your Knowledge Of Academic Content

The TOEFL listening section has you listen to lectures and class discussions from various academic subjects like biology, psychology, art history, geology, literature, etc. This is why our Listening Package gives your close to 300 lectures on various academic topics. These lectures will make you more confident when listening to university lectures.

  • Strengthen Your Listening By Reading. Presenting, And Transcribing

Many people think that the best way to improve your listening is to listen, listen, listen. And, yes: this will help. But listening to English is just one of four ways to improve your listening. In addition, we have our students read academic lecture, give presentations on academic topics, and copy written versions of lectures.

  • Ear Training

Many students have trouble understanding lectures and conversations because they are unable to hear the words that native speakers of English either verbally contract together or "swallow" when talking. Our ear training exercises help you hear these verbal contractions and these swallowed words so that you will have a better understanding of what you're listening to.

  • Explain Wrong Answers

It's not only important to know which answer choice is correct. It is also very important to know why a wrong answer choice is wrong. As we train you to explain why an incorrect answer choice is wrong, you will strengthen your critical ability to answer questions more quickly.

  • Write Toefl Test Questions

If you can begin thinking like a TOEFL-test writer, then you'll be able to identify the tricks and traps TOEFL puts into their answer choices. So we have you wr ite your own TOEFL questions to various TOEFL lectures.

  • Align The Toefl Books From Easiest To Hardest

Because some TOEFL books are more advanced than others, Strictly English has sequenced the TOEFL books on the market from easiest to hardest so that as your study of Listening will become more challenging as you go.

That some TOEFL STRATEGIES FOR LISTENING SECTION from a variety of sources that I can describe. may be useful for all of us.

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