Hello, my friend! Welcome to the second Section of your TOEFL. Welcome to the Listening Section! First thing to keep in mind: with practice listening becomes easier and easier. I promise you. I was (maybe I still am!) very bad with listening, I had to repeat things many times before I could really get the content. By insisting and studying I've become much more comfortable with this ability. I'm sure it'll be the same with you, my friend.

To be successful in your academic studies, you will probably need to do things like follow a conversation, recognize attitudes and opinions, and understand the class lecture. Learning to listen in an academic setting can be challenging, but that's OK. I'm here to serve you.

This TOEFL PREP is here to help you familiarize yourself with the listening skills required and how they are measured on the TOEFL Test. We will provide you with a lot of information to help you build your listening skills.

I spoke to a few students (just like you) about their concerns, challenges, and successes as they learned to listen to English. Read what they told me:

"I can understand English quite well when I read, but sometimes I can't understand everyday conversations in English. What should I do?"

"When I listen to a talk in English, it seems as if the speaker goes very fast. It's hard to keep up with what they are saying, and to not get distracted if I don't understand some of the words."

"Slowly and slowly, the more news I listen, and the more movies I watch, it was easier for me."

"Oh, when I listen to English I find it difficult to understand different accents, depending on who the speakers are. So, to improve my listening, I started watching American TV shows, and the subtitles really helped too. If I don't understand, I look at the subtitles and then I learned how to say it."

"I used to have trouble concentrating when I listened to lectures, but now I take some notes to stay focused while I listen and to remember important details."

"I think it's a challenge in listening, because we don't really know the context and we have to really process information fast to understand what's going on".

As students we face the same challenges, my friend. When I heard "I can't understand and I get distracted" I almost said, "hey, that's me!". Listening is like any other ability. To give you an example from my personal life, it's like playing a musical instrument. Right now I'm learning to play the accordion. Man… it is challenging! And it is fun, too! I often start laughing when I'm practicing because I feel my brain is boiling! LOL! With TOEFL it'll be the same. We'll practice, practice, practice and you'll see your performance improve.

We just have 2 types of listening materials on the Listening Section: conversations and lectures. Both are based on the actual speech that is used at universities in which English is the language of instruction.

There are 2 to 3 conversations and 4 to 6 lectures. Yes, my friend. We need to practice your resistance to keep focused during this part of the exam. Good news: after the Listening Section you'll have a break ;).

You will hear the passages only once.

What kind of conversations will I listen to, Felipe Dib?

Those that occur on university campuses in which English is the primary language spoken. For example, there may be a conversation between a student and a professor about course requirements or the content of a lecture. There may also be a conversation between a student and a university staff member about nonacademic matters, such as registering for a class or paying for housing Each conversation is about 3 minutes long and has 5 multiple-choice questions.

And the lectures?

The lectures represent the kind of language used when professors teach in a classroom. The content of the lectures reflects the content that is presented in introductory-level university courses and cover a broad range of subjects and topics. Here are a few examples:

• Arts: architecture, music history, literature, ceramics

• Life Science: botany, animal behavior, nutrition, aquatic organisms

• Physical Science: weather, astronomy, pollution, technology

• Social Science: anthropology, business, child development, history

You will not be expected to have prior knowledge of the subject matter. The information you need to answer the questions will be contained in the lecture. Each lecture is about 5 minutes long and has 6 multiple-choice questions.

You will have 60 to 90 minutes to complete the Listening section. During that time, you cannot return to previous questions to review or change your answers. The questions must be answered in the order they are presented.

What do the TOEFL writers say?

There are two kinds of listening passages. Conversations and lectures. For both conversations and lectures, the first thing you need to do as a listener is to get oriented. The image on the screen and the narrator's words will help you figure out what the situation is. Conversations always start with a statement that tells you who the speakers are. For example, you will see this photo of the speakers and hear the narrator say something like, "Listen to a conversation between a student and an employee at the university career center." This introductory line from the narrator lets you know where the conversation is taking place, and it helps you make some initial predictions about the content of the conversation. For a lecture, you will first see an image indicating the basic subject area of the lecture. For example, geology. In this case, you would hear the words, "Listen to part of the lecture in the geology class." This introduction will help you get ready to listen to a topic in geology. As you listen to both conversations and lectures, your goal will be to identify 3 things:

1- The main idea or purpose of the conversation.

2- Second, key points that the speakers make to develop that main idea, or the points they make to achieve their goal.

3- The attitudes or opinions that the speakers express.

You may find it helpful to take notes on the key points as you listen. But don't try to write down everything you hear. Some of the best advice I can give you is to make an effort to keep listening to the lecture, even if you miss a name, or a number, or a fact. The questions will not be about insignificant details. They're about the important ideas and details that support the main points. Often the term you may not know will become clear in the context of the lecture.

So train yourself to keep listening and not to worry about an unfamiliar term or a detail you missed. So remember, get yourself oriented. Listen for the main idea and key points. Listen for attitudes and opinions. And keep listening, even if you miss something. If you can do these things you will become more successful at the TOEFL iBT listening tasks.

Are you still there, my friend? It's amazing to see your progress! I want to see you shining, my Champion!!! Check these additional tips below, before you move on to the break, please:

Visuals in Lectures

Lectures have more content than conversations, so there is some additional support for you as a listener. In some of the lectures, words may be presented on the screen as if written on a chalkboard. These words will be the kinds of terms or proper names that a professor might write down for the class while giving a lecture, like this:

Sometimes a content visual will appear as it would if the class were looking at an illustration in a textbook or on a screen, like this illustration of a chromosome:

Interactive Lectures

In some of the lectures, the professor is the only speaker. In others, students make comments or ask questions. In the case of these interactive lectures, you may be asked about what a student said or about a student’s attitude or opinion. You may also be asked about the professor’s attitude or opinion. So it’s important to listen for all of the attitudes and opinions expressed as well as for the facts and ideas presented.  

Do Key Points Support the Main Idea?

Sometimes the key support for the main idea is quite obvious. The professor may make a statement that is the main idea of the lecture. Then she may list two or three reasons why that statement is true, elaborating on each one. Each reason could be a supporting point that is tested in a listening lecture. But be careful: Not all of the key points will be directly related to the main point or purpose. They may be a well-developed sub-topic or an aside. 

The same is true of conversations. Here’s an example: in a conversation, a student may complain to the resident advisor about the trouble he has sleeping at night. He explains that his roommate plays music late at night and the students in the next room talk loudly until midnight. The resident advisor may offer concrete suggestions on how to deal with the situation. These concrete suggestions would be directly related to the main point—they directly address the problem the student is having.  

But maybe instead, the resident advisor gives an illustration of how she solved a similar problem with her roommate in the past. You might be asked a question about why the resident advisor tells the story about her roommate. She tells this story as an illustration of how the man might approach the problem he has. In this case, the resident advisor’s story is a well-developed aside. It does not directly address the student’s problem, but it is related to addressing the problem. You need to be able to follow the conversation and see how the ideas presented relate to each other.

Taking Notes 

When you practice with songs (you have more than 100 songs available here: https://www.voceaprendeagora.com/curso/aprender-ingles-com-musica/18), movies or any other listening material, start out by listening twice to each practice lecture and taking notes. Your notes should be brief; don’t try to write down everything you hear. The first time through, take notes on the main idea and key supporting points for that idea. The second time you listen, try to fill in more of the supporting details in your notes, paying attention to how the ideas connect with one another. Remember that in the real TOEFL iBT test you will hear the lecture only once, so you will also need to practice taking notes on lectures while listening just once. See if taking notes helps you answer the questions or not. Some test takers find that taking notes is helpful, but others find that they miss too much of the lecture while trying to take notes. Determine which approach works best for you.

Notes help me a lot, but maybe (and hopefully!) your memory is better than mine. If they help you, take them. If they distract you, forget about them.

Listening to Academic Materials

The more listening you do in English, the easier it will be for you to follow conversations and lectures in English, including those on the TOEFL iBT test. So listen to academic material in English as much as you can—radio and TV broadcasts, podcasts, documentaries, and audio books. If you want to improve the ease with which you can process material you hear in English, increase the amount of time you spend listening to academic material in English. Have you ever watched TED Talks? Check them, my friend. They're nice and a great listening practice.

Now let's see the 7 types of questions you have on TOEFL:

Gist-content/purpose questions: you answer about the main idea of the passage;

Detail questions: you answer about specific (but relevant) information from the passage;

Function questions: you answer about the speaker's intention, his intended meaning. If you've watched our https://www.voceaprendeagora.com/aulas classes this will be easier to you, once you'll see the Conversation Strategies applied;

Attitude questions: you answer about the speaker's position or opinion about something.

Organization questions:  you answer about the organization, sequence or relationship between two parts of the listening passage (can be conversation or lecture, ok?).

Connecting content questions: you answer about the relationships among different ideas from the listening passage from both conversation or lecture.

Inference questions: you answer about a conclusion you have, based on the information you heard. Example: I eat well and exercise every day. From this information you infer that I am ___.

Let's practice? I like to learn by doing, and I invite you to watch our video at least 3 times, my friend. First time you understand, second time you write everything on your notebook and on the third time you repeat everything you hear in English. Listen to your voice speaking English so we'll improve your speaking and listening abilities at the same time.

I am here to serve you, my friend. If you need my support, please send me a message on my personal cell phone: +55 67 9 9646-1112.

God bless you. All the best and see you next class!