Listening for main ideas
Posted on September 29, 2015 by 14E2 iTUTOR Program
#VSteplistening Listening for main ideas In the previous post, we have mentioned the format of listening test in VSTEP exam. Today, we will have a closer look at a typical type of question in Listening: Listening for main ideas which is included in part 2 and part 3 of VSTEP. Two certain kinds of main idea question are: • “What is the subject of the conversation?” • “What is the purpose of the conversation?”
Often the main idea is stated at the beginning of conversation or lecture, however, it is not always true because with some recordings we have to listen to the whole conversation or lecture to get the main meaning. Now we will show you an example which you easily make mistakes in main idea questions:
Look at the beginning of a lecture below:
Professor: OK, everyone, we’ve already noted the difficulties that historians have faced in trying to establish where the Pictish people, who inhabited much of Scotland two thousand years ago, actually came from. It seems to be a problem that will never be definitively solved.
From this opening, you may think that the lecture is about the origins of the Pictish people and the difficulties historians have had in trying to discover where their roots were. Just from these two opening sentences that would seem to be correct.
However, the lecture continues: Professor: OK, everyone, we’ve already noted the difficulties that historians have faced in trying to establish where the Pictish people, who inhabited much of Scotland two thousand years ago, actually came from. It seems to be a problem that will never be definitively solved. Today, I want to look at the origins of the Scots, the second great people to come to Scotland, and indeed, the people who gave the country its name. The beginnings of the Scots are much clearer to historians and we can be sure that ………
It is now clear that the lecture is NOT about the origins of the Pictish people. That was just a recap of a previous lecture. Today’s lecture is actually about the origins of the Scots: a completely different people.
As you can see, you are easy to make mistakes in the main idea questions, therefore, we hope that the below tips will help you to master listening for main ideas:
1. Concentrate and focus on the listening text, especially some signal words and phrases such as: “The main point is …”, “now let us turn to …”, “Remember this …”, “today we will discuss..”,… 2. Try to listen with a purpose and grasp the gist of the text. Decide what information we should listen for. Look for the key words. 3. We need not try to understand every word the speaker is saying in order to understand the general message the speaker intends to get across. 4. Learn to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by paying attention to the context in which they occur. To practice listening for main ideas, we would like to offer you a link on youtube channel:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6342080255144325
We hope you can develop the listening strategies above and apply these useful tips in the exams! Compiled from some sources including Soka University