Rain
It looked like rain. The sky was gray. It was almost noon, but the sun was hidden by a gray blanket. It was cool. There were no birds flying anywhere. A couple of birds sat on the telephone wire. Bob was standing outside talking to Bill. They both had their hands in their pockets. They knew that it was probably going to rain shortly. A sudden breeze blew some leaves off a tree onto the sidewalk.
A young woman wearing a dark blue coat and jeans walked by. She was walking a small dog. It was pure white, and pretty. It sniffed at a tree trunk. The woman waited patiently. Finally, the dog lifted its leg.
Bob said that he liked the rain. It was a nice change from the usual hot Los Angeles weather. And the plants could always use the extra water. Bill said the only thing he didn’t like about rain was that all the motor oil on the streets would get washed into the ocean, and so would all the trash.
“But that never stops the surfers,” Bob said. “They don’t seem to care what’s in the water, as long as there are waves to surf on.”
Trip to the Thrift Shop
Jim went to the thrift shop. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular. He liked to go there just to browse. A big sign on the front door said OPEN. The shop was closed on Sunday and Monday. The rest of the week, it opened at 10 a.m. and closed at 2 p.m.
Two women worked inside. They rang up sales and put the items into plastic bags for the customers to carry out. At the back of the shop was a big room where another lady worked. She sorted the new donations and put price tags on them. At the end of each day, she would bring the new donations out to the main part of the shop.
Everyone who worked at the thrift shop was a volunteer. The only “payment” they received was that they had the opportunity to see, and buy, any items in the shop before the customers did.
When Jim entered, the lady at the register told him hello. He smiled and said hello. She knew Jim because he was a regular customer.
Jim said, “What’s new?”
She laughed and said that nothing was ever new at a thrift shop. “It’s always old and it’s always used,” she smiled.
Jim looked at the watches in the glass case. He saw one that he liked.
“Could I look at that one?” he asked.
Marriage Proposal
Jill answered the phone. It was Jack.
“Jill, will you marry me next week?”
“What?”
Jack repeated his question.
“Of course not,” she replied. She wondered why he was asking her that question. They had already agreed that when people get married, they immediately start to take each other for granted. They don’t do the “little things” like opening the car door or holding hands. They get too comfortable. They treat their partner like an old shoe. And eventually, they get bored with each other and get divorced.
“We already agreed that we don’t want to get married because we don’t want to get divorced.”
Jack agreed. But he argued that they were special. They were different from other couples. They loved each other too much to end up in a divorce.
“Yes, that may be true. But still, why next week? Why can’t we think about it for another year or two?”
“Because I had two dreams the last two nights. In both dreams, you left me for another man. In fact, you left me for two different men. I want to get married now so I don’t have these dreams anymore.”
“Hmm. What did these men look like?”
Five essential listening skills
1. Predicting content
Imagine you’ve just turned on your TV. You see a man in a suit standing in front of a large map with the symbols of the sun, clouds, and thunder. What do you imagine he is about to tell you? Most likely, this is going to be a weather forecast. You can expect to hear words like ‘sunny’, ‘windy’, and ‘overcast’. You’ll probably hear the use of the future tense: ‘It’ll be a cold start to the day’; ‘There’ll be showers in the afternoon’, etc.
Depending on the context – a news report, a university lecture, an exchange in a supermarket – you can often predict the kind of words and style of language the speaker will use. Our knowledge of the world helps us anticipate the kind of information we are likely to hear. Moreover, when we predict the topic of a talk or a conversation, all the related vocabulary stored in our brains is ‘activated’ to help us better understand what we’re listening to.
Practice predicting content:
Watch or listen to a recorded TV program or clip from YouTube. Pause after every few sentences. Try to predict what is going to happen or what the speaker might say next.
Tip:
If you are taking a listening test, skim through the questions first and try to predict what kind of information you need to listen out for. A question beginning with ‘How many..?’, for example, will probably require you to listen for a specific number or quantity of something.
2. Listening for gist
Imagine you are a superhero flying in the sky. From that height, it is possible to see what the entire area is like how densely populated it is, and the kind of houses in each area.
When listening, it is also possible to get the ‘whole picture’ but with one crucial difference: information comes in a sequence. And in that sequence of information, there are content words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs) that can help you form that picture. We often call this listening for gist.
For example, the words ‘food’, ‘friends’, ‘fun’, ‘park’, and ‘sunny day’ have their own meanings, but when you hear the words in sequence, they help form the context of a picnic.
Practice listening for gist:
Find a short video with subtitles on a topic that interests you. Use the title to help you predict the content and then listen out for the content words. Go back, and listen again with the subtitles. How much did you understand the first time? Return to the video a week later and try again.
Tip:
When you learn new words, try to group them with other words used in a similar context. Mind maps are good for this.
3. Detecting signposts
Just like the traffic lights on roads, there are signposts in language that help us follow what we’re listening to. These words, which link ideas, help us to understand what the speaker is talking about and where they are taking us. They’re particularly important in presentations and lectures.
For example, if a university lecturer says: ‘I am going to talk about three factors affecting global warming…’ then later on you might hear the phrases ‘first of all’, ‘moving on to’ and ‘in summary’ to indicate the next part of the talk. Other words and phrases can function in a similar way. For instance, to clarify (‘in other words’, ‘to put it another way’); to give examples (‘to illustrate this’, ‘for example’), and so on. Take a look at this list of phrases for more examples.
Practice detecting signpost language:
Most course books for learners of English come with a CD and audio script. Find an example of a business presentation or lecture and see how many signpost phrases you can identify (listen more than once, if necessary). Then check your notes with the audio script.
Tip:
In your notebook, group signpost phrases according to their functions, and continue to add new expressions as you come across them.
4. Listening for details
Imagine you are a detective taking a closer look at those buildings you saw earlier on as a superhero. This time, rather than taking in the big picture, you’re looking for something specific and rejecting anything that does not match what’s on your list.
Similarly, when listening for details, you are interested in a specific kind of information – perhaps a number, name, or object. You can ignore anything that does not sound relevant. In this way, you are able to narrow down your search and get the detail you need.
In a listening test, if you are asked to write down the age of a person, listen for the words related to age (‘old’, ‘young’, ‘years’, ‘date of birth’, etc.) or a number that could represent that person’s age. If it is a conversation, you might wait to hear someone beginning a question with ‘How old…?’
Practice listening for details:
Decide on a type of detailed information you want to practice listening for and watch programs where you would expect to get that information. For example, you could listen to a weather report to get details about the weather, or you could follow the sports news to find out the latest results.
Tip:
If you are taking a test, as soon as you get the question paper, skim through the questions, underline the important words, and decide what kind of detail you need to identify in the listening text.
5. Inferring meaning
Imagine you are a tourist in a country whose language you do not speak. In a restaurant, you hand over a credit card to pay for the bill, but the server seems to say something apologetic in response. Even though you don’t understand his words, you can probably conclude that the restaurant doesn’t take credit cards, and you need to pay with cash instead.
This is the technique of inferring meaning: using clues and prior knowledge about a situation to work out the meaning of what we hear.
Similarly, we can infer the relationship between people from the words they use, without having to find out directly. Take the following conversation:
A: Tom, did you do your homework?
B: I did, sir, but the dog ate it.
A: That’s a terrible excuse. You’ll never pass your exams if you don’t work harder.
We can infer from the use of the words ‘homework’ and ‘exams’ that this is a conversation between a student and his teacher. By using contextual clues and our knowledge of the world, we can work out what’s being said, who is speaking, and what’s taking place.
Practice inferring meaning:
Find a YouTube clip from a popular television show, for example, Friends. Now, rather than watch it, just listen to the dialogue. How much can you infer about what is taking place, who is talking, and what their relationship is? Now listen to the clip a second time but watch it too. Were your conclusions correct?
Tip:
The next time you hear a word you don’t understand, try to guess its meaning using the context or situation to help you. But don’t worry if you don’t get it the first time. As with everything in life, the more you practice, the better you will get.
Bueno para mejorar
En CUU English Language Center, entendemos que el tiempo es valioso, por lo que ofrecemos horarios flexibles que se ajustan a sus necesidades.
Nuestros tutores pueden venir a su lugar de trabajo, su casa, o en nuestras aulas para impartir clases privadas en el momento que sea más conveniente para usted.
