While your TOEFL Listening score measures many different
factors, from your understanding of the prompts to your ease with English,
there are a few tips that will serve you well on each and every task! Here are some
helpful TOEFL Listening tips and tricks for achieving a higher score on test
day.
Pay
Attention to Intonation
Recognize the intonational rhythm of English. You don’t have
to study intonation as much as you would for TOEFL Speaking.
However, knowing the tones of important words
and sentence transitions is key to understanding what you hear.
Distinguish
Between Sounds
Be able to hear and recognize the sounds in English. You
don’t need to study every sound as intensely as you would for spoken
pronunciation. But you should make sure you can hear the difference between
slightly different but distinct sounds in English, such as “d” and “t,” “b” and
“v,” “l” and “r,” etc.
Practice
Paraphrasing and Inferring Meaning
As you listen to TOEFL lectures, conversations, and audio
recordings in practice and on practice tests, think about other words the
speaker could have used. This will come in handy on test day, when the correct
answer choice is often a paraphrase of the text, instead of an exact quotation.
Similarly, there may also be times when the speaker uses a word you don’t know.
Listen
Better by Taking Good Notes
The fastest way to answer questions more accurately on the
TOEFL Listening test? Become a good note-taker. Learn to keep pace with what
you hear, taking notes attentively
but quickly. This includes knowing which information is important and which
information you can probably ignore. Effective note-taking also involves proper
pacing. Below are a series of note-taking tips.
While these general tips will set you on the right path for
success on test day, another way to raise your score in this area is to become
familiar with the test format. The Listening section has very specific types of
passages and questions, and understanding them before you set foot in the test
center will lead you to a more comfortable experience!
TOEFL
Listening Tips and Tricks: Test-Taking Skills
Now that you have a general understanding of how to approach
TOEFL Listening, let’s get into how you can use the format of the section to
your advantage. The TOEFL is a standardized exam: it presents similar material
in the same way to each and every test-taker in order to provide a valid
assessment. Because of this, there are a few TOEFL Listening tips and tricks
that you can use to master the exam that are more about the test than your
fluency in English!
Know the
Tasks
One of the most basic TOEFL Listening tips and tricks is
also one of the most important! Be familiar with the different kinds of Listening passages on the TOEFL. You’ll hear
conversations that involve opinions, problem-solving, and student life. You’ll
also hear academic lectures, some that include student participation, and some
that don’t. Be aware that different kinds of recordings require different
approaches from the test-taker. The important points in different task types
will look very different!
Know the
Questions
Know how to answer the different types of TOEFL Listening questions. Understand the
different requirements and strategies for questions related to detail, attitude, function, organization, main ideas, inference, categorizing, and so on.
Understand
How to Approach Conversations
On the TOEFL, you will listen to two types of speech:
lectures and conversations. Lectures are fairly formal and well-organized. In
fact, lectures actually have a structure similar to straightforward
academic writing.
Conversations are not so straightforward. There are a number
of features in conversational English that make conversations hard to follow at
times. Below is a list of some of the common “sloppy” features of
conversational English.
Verbal pauses: Conversation
has verbal pauses. Speakers use these pauses to buy
themselves time as they think of what they’ll say. Many verbal pauses are non-words that don’t really have any meaning.
Other verbal pauses are real words
and phrases, but they are stripped of most of their meaning. English speakers
say things like “so, okay,” “now,” “I suppose,” and so on, just to give
themselves more time to think before they say something more meaningful.
Repetition: One of the first
things you’re taught about writing in English (and probably about writing in
your native language) is to avoid repetitive wording.
In writing, you don’t want to repeat the same words and phrases over and
over. Transitions need to vary, and so do adjectives,
conjunctions, and other language pieces. In speech, however, repetition that
would seem just awful in writing is a lot more common. That said, when an
English speaker says the same phrase a few too many times in a short period of
time, ideas can sound too repetitive
and “run together” a bit.
Interruptions: In English
conversation (and conversation in any language!) people interrupt each other. Someone can be abruptly cut
off mid-sentence by another speaker. Excessive interruptions are rude. But a
little interruption here and there is normal and unavoidable in conversation.
“Talking over”: This is
closely related to interruption. There are times when speakers “talk over” each
other—that is, they talk at the same time while saying different things. A
conversation with lots of “talking over” is
almost impossible to understand. But that doesn’t happen very often—except
maybe in heated arguments or other kinds of excited speech. Instead, “talking
over” is minimal and quick. But it often happens in more emotional, more
interesting parts of a conversation, so it can cause important keywords to get
“lost.”
Misspeaking: Sometimes a
speaker will say a completely incorrect word or phrase, so that the meaning of
the speech changes in a way that’s unintended, and may not even make sense in
context. This can happen in lectures, too. In fact, some official TOEFL
lectures will include misspoken words from the professor. Misspeaking is even
more common in conversations, because conversations are more fast-paced and not
as planned, compared to lectures.
TOEFL conversation tracks have fewer “messy” features than
real-life conversations. But the messy features are still there, and you will
be expected to know how to handle them on the exam.
In part because of the natural, fast-paced nature of TOEFL
Listening passages, many test-takers notice that the TOEFL Listening section
can go by very quickly. This is such an important part of the test-day
experience that it requires its own section! Next, let’s take a look at how you
can use the timing on TOEFL Listening to your advantage.
TOEFL
Listening Pacing Strategies
The challenge with TOEFL Listening practice materials is
that not all materials perfectly emulate the real test-day experience. Even
official TOEFL materials sometimes reflect the old TOEFL Listening section, and
surprisingly, no TOEFL Listening practice, official or otherwise, has an
onscreen timer that matches the one you’ll see on test day. This can make it
particularly difficult to perfect your TOEFL Listening pacing. But by
understanding the differences and following the TOEFL Listening tips and tricks
below, you can make sure you’re making the most of your time.
Practice Listening to Audio One Time Through
You need to brace yourself to stay as attentive as possible
because you can’t pause, rewind, replay, or slow down the speed of an audio
track on the real test, even though you can do these things in TOEFL Listening
practice. Your goal during practice should be to reach a point where you aren’t
dependent on practice-only features. Listening to a TOEFL lecture or
conversation one time through and answering the questions well is an important
mark of success in managing your TOEFL Listening time.
Ideally, you’ll pay attention perfectly for the duration of
the test, understand all of the main ideas the first time they’re mentioned,
and understand the context of every recording. But practically speaking, this
may not be possible. If you miss some information, how do you ensure the
highest possible score? We’ll look at that in the section on making the most of your
TOEFL Listening time after losing focus.
Be Wary of the Practice TOEFL Listening Timer
Now that you’ve mastered the
timing of TOEFL Listening, we’ll take a look at another important part of
getting a high score on TOEFL Listening: note-taking. Good note-taking skills
can help you maximize the brief time available to you on test day, making the
most of the time you do have!
TOEFL
Listening Note-Taking Strategies
As we’ve just seen, TOEFL Listening can feel a lot faster
than other sections, like Reading, because of how quickly each task goes by.
There are a couple of other ways in which your strategy on the Listening
section will be different from that of the Reading section.
First of all, of course, you can’t go back to the recording as you answer the
questions. That’s why note-taking during TOEFL Listening is such a powerful
tool.
However, it can also be a double-edged sword when it comes
to managing TOEFL Listening time. So it’s important to develop good note-taking
habits. Here are our top tips and tricks!
Strike a
Balance in the amount of Notes You Take
When you take notes, make sure you take just enough notes to
remember the key points in the lecture or conversation. If you take too many
notes, you can actually find yourself frantically focusing on writing all the
words down, to the point where you lose focus on what the lecture actually
means. And needless to say, you should only work on your notes while the
lectures and conversations are playing. Never let note-taking time cut
into your TOEFL Listening time to answer questions.
Adjust
Your Note-Taking Style Based on the Prompt
When you compare conversations to lectures, there are a
couple of advantages. Conversations are usually much shorter (just a few
minutes long). The subject matter may be academic or non-academic, so you’re
more likely to get a topic that you already know something about. And best of
all, if you miss something one speaker says, the other speaker’s response will
probably give you a clue as to what you missed. Whereas in lectures it’s
important to understand as many words as possible, the conversations reward
people who may not get every word, but who are good at interpreting implied
information, idioms, and tone of voice.
On the other hand, you have very little time to figure out
what’s going on, as the structure of a conversation moves very quickly and
doesn’t usually return to a point made at the beginning. What’s more, the
greater emphasis on informal language requires you to know a different
vocabulary set than the rest of the lectures and readings on the TOEFL.
Taking Notes on Lectures
Conversations usually deal with information that is fairly
familiar to the speakers. Lectures are a little different: the professor is
teaching, so of course, s/he will use words and discuss concepts that are
unfamiliar not only to you but to the (imaginary) students s/he’s lecturing
to. So if you get confused, relax and look for ways that the professor may be
explaining those new words and ideas. If s/he defines a key concept and you
miss the definition, don’t worry too much. The professor will probably give
some examples to clarify his or her point. Listen for clarifications given
after the new, unknown words or phrases.
Sometimes, you will need to answer
questions about the overall structure of a lecture. Try to preserve the
original structure of the lecture in your notes so that you don’t get stuck
when an organization question comes up. Yes, you may skip around (as some
lecturers inevitably will) to place details and examples under the appropriate
heading, but make an effort to at least write the headings in the same order
that the professor mentions them.
Remember that a lecture is a lot like a
passage. In TOEFL class lectures, the professor puts forth academic information
in a way that’s similar to a TOEFL Reading passage. There are main ideas,
organized into paragraphs, with supporting details. As you listen to the
lecture and take notes, imagine you are outlining a passage. Listen for topic
sentences, supporting ideas, transitions, and other “markers” that you would
also see in an academic text. In other words, think of the exercise as “reading” a TOEFL lecture.
Finally, keep in mind that a lecture is
not the same thing as a “Listening discussion” on the TOEFL. Some classroom
talks in the TOEFL Listening section are really discussions between a professor
and some students. These talks will still be similar to a reading passage in
some ways because the professor’s speech takes up the majority of the audio
track. But the professor will also have direct interactions with students. And
these interactions are conversation-like. In TOEFL Listening discussions, each
speaker plays a different role and offers different kinds of information. Once
you get to the questions, be ready to identify specific ideas related to the
words of individual speakers in the discussion.
<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6385949638069410"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
Comments
Post a Comment