Academic Listening

By Angela Tsai2010.6.12

Part 1 - English for Academic Purposes : Introduction

At the beginning of the programme, I invited youto reflect on some of the problems that studentsexperience - and asked you to think about howthey might cope. I wonder how accurate yourpredictions were. Next time you listen to someEnglish - whether it’s a radio programme or auniversity lecture - listen out for clues about wha

t’scoming next… and see if it helps.

Part I : Problems Understanding lectures - academic

English is quite high level of speaking therefore the first was to become familiar with the listening understanding.

I think the pronunciation of English people is not the same as I learned at school.

You know how to express yourself in your own language - you know what you want to say but it's difficult to put it in the exact words.

Tips on effective learning In this first programme, we focus on a special

kind of English course, designed to prepare students for their studies. It’s called EAP.

If you study EAP, you’ll practice special language skills for studying at a high level, and you’ll gain a number of useful strategies to make your learning more effective.

An EAP course introduces you to the special language associated with the academic world – common words, expressions, particular structures. It provides a range of advanced study skills.

Tips on effective learning The listener is paying so much attentio

n to decoding words that they recognise and phrases that they recognise – it's almost like trying to do a word-by-word translation.

You have to get a global picture, as well as looking at individual items. The student pays so much attention to the language that they miss out on the content.

Tips on effective learning Get hold of some texts, perhaps

over the internet, or through a library, or through journals or magazines that might be available in newsagents, or through friends, and then study recurring specialist words in those texts.

Tips on effective learning Preparation is the key. Be prepared! To obtain an English-English dictionary,

and maybe a subject dictionary - of Medicine, of Law, of Linguistics.

Listening to the radio, watching TV Try to read books related with your sub

ject. Even material you already know in your language. You have to read it in English to see if you notice substantial differences.

Part 2 - Lectures: Introduction The main point of a lecture for students

must be to acquire information on a topic in a quick and efficient way.

The purpose of a lecture is probably to stimulate students to do work by themselves.

Learners need to know that’s the aim of their course – that they’ll become individual and independent learners.

Part 2 - Lectures: Problems

It can difficult to hear what a lecturer is saying because you’re sitting in a large, echo hall. Speakers may have a strange accent; they might speak too quickly or too quietly.

The main problems is the really difficult skill of listening for the main points, understanding the main points and processing the main points and actually taking notes at the same time.

Part 2 - Lectures: Tips

First : lecturer’s intonation. The sound of their voice is going to fall, quieter at end of a topic.

use marker words, such as “right”, “OK”, “good” – the sort of thing you often hear teachers say in a school classroom.

Then there’ll be a marker phrase such as: “I’d like to move on now”, or “turning now to”, or “let’s now consider” – the speaker is self-consciously saying what they’re going to do next in speech terms, in language terms.

Part 2 - Lectures: Tips These are the three key points:1. Understanding the purpose of a

lecture can help students know where to focus attention

2. Preparation can help students understand the language and content of a lecture

3. We’ve demonstrated ways in which speakers can guide listeners to important information, using intonation, stress and marker phrases.

Part 3 - How lectures are organised We’ve focused on the structure of

lectures. We’ve discovered that knowing what the lecturer is going to talk about, knowing when they’re moving from one point to the next and when they’re starting the individual sections of their lecture will help you understand it better.

Part 3 : Problems

It's easy when you listen to something very well structured. But when you go to lectures, people generally prefer to talk about the subject. They're not preparing the structure of their English, basically - then, it's difficult.

Part 3 : tips

Most lectures follow a simple structure: they have a beginning, middle, and an end.

Recognising structures will help the student to orientate themselves, and to notice when to take down ideas, and how to organise their notes. Recognising the type of lecture – whether chronological; division of ideas; or situation, problem, solution, evaluation – is really useful in helping you to predict content and the way it’s organised, the kind of content that’s going to come up.

Part 4 - Lectures: Introduction We’ve focused on the important first

section of a lecture: the introduction… and in which we’ve heard some advice on effective note-taking

Part 4 - Lectures: Problem

A problem is that if you try to take notes you can lose concentration and maybe you can write but when you try and read again later it won't make sense. So I tried to use specific words to make sense of the lecture.

Part 4 - Lectures: tips Good note-taking technique is a

matter of confidence. It's no good trying to write down everything because you won’t then understand what’s important and what can be left out. What is important is to understand how things fit together. So it’s trying to keep a balance between understanding and having detail – in other words, knowing what the general ideas are and having concrete examples to back up those ideas.

Part 4 - Lectures: tips

You don’t need to keep a complete record – otherwise take in a tape recorder. Partly it's a matter of digesting what’s being said, of understanding the main points and also, a revision aid. It's going to be useful to reconstitute the information into essays and other texts, to manipulate this material: either for assessment purposes – essays or exams - or formulating a list of questions you want to put to the lecturer or tutor in future meetings. This might help you in future study directions.

Part 4 - Lectures: tipsRemember: a good student will be looking for answers to questions like these: What’s the context of today’s lecture? How is the speaker going to organise his talk?

How many sections will there be, what sort of approach is he going to take?

How does the speaker define any key terms? How does he plan to limit the scope of his talk so he can finish on time?

Finally, why is the professor doing this talk today? Does he have a particular interest in the subject, for example? Does he think it’s something I need to know for an exam or a tutorial discussion?

Part 5 - Lectures: marker phrases We’ve focused on marker phrases

and suggested that an awareness of a wide range of these linking phrases can help you.

Part 5 - Lectures: tips If he says 'so' then you know that

you're going to expect the result. It could be a contrast, so if you're listening for contrasting words it would be a word like 'although', 'nevertheless' or 'however'. If he uses semantic markers like 'moreover', 'in addition', then you know he's going to make another point and it could be another main point - so it's very important to listen for those kind of words when you're listening to a lecture.

Part 6 - Lectures: the conclusion Focused on the final section of a

lecture, and on the role of the student. As we’ve heard, it’s important for students to participate as active and critical listeners, and to be prepared to ask questions.

Part 6 - Lectures: the conclusion problems If I think it's something very

important, I ask the lecturer, and in another situation I can ask my classmates. Sometimes it's not easy to ask - you might feel shy...

We always looked at lecturers and after the class said - he's a good journalist but he's not a speaker, or he might be a good journalist but he's not a good lecturer. Sometimes and we spent most of our times sleeping in class!

Part 6 : tips

Sometimes it’s difficult to know what sort of questions are welcome. Knowing when to ask, and what sort of questions to ask is an important skill to develop. It’s always a good idea to ask questions. Firstly, it helps you to clarify things in your mind – in order to get a question ready – therefore helping you to digest information and to order it. Secondly, it shows the lecturer they’ve managed to get over information and stimulate the students.

Never study English, But learn 第一階段 打通耳朵 完全聽清 第二階段 聽寫並重 熟練發音 第三階段 善用辭典 大聲朗讀 第四階段 聲像結合 活化英語 第五階段 文化融通 全盤掌握 http://murphymind.blogspot.com/2002/03/never-study-english-but-learn.html