Listening Exercises A2 - Study habits and goals

Advice session

1. Nigel is Mayuki’s English teacher. He gives Mayuki advice about how she can improve her English outside the classroom. Listen and tick what they talk about.

reading ◻

listening ◻

writing ◻

speaking ◻

vocabulary ◻

pronunciation ◻

grammar ◻

Answer

listening, speaking, vocabulary, pronunciation

2. Listen again and complete Nigel’s notes. You can write more than one word in each gap.

Student Advisory Session

Name: Mayuki Nagasaki

Advisor: Nigel

What student does:

Teacher’s suggestions:

● speaks English to ^a……………… but thinks it’s difficult to speak English.

● thinks in Japanese and then ^c………………

● watches ^d……………… in English.

● don’t worry about ^b………………

● keep practising speaking.

● watch part of a movie three or four times ^e(……………… minutes)

1st Listening – listen for general meaning

2nd Listening – understand more ^f………………

3rd Listening – use ^g………………

4th Listening – listen for ^h……………… and pronunciation

Answer & Transcript

a friends

b mistakes

c translates

d DVDs

e five or ten

f detail

g subtitles

h vocabulary

Transcript

(Mayuki = Japanese)

Nigel: So what are you doing outside class to improve your English?

Mayuki: Ah. Speaking. I try to speak a lot. I talk English with Japanese friends. Only English.

Nigel: Oh cool. That’s really good because sometimes it’s really hard to speak English to people who speak the same language as you.

Mayuki: Yes. Erm … it’s difficult to speak English.

Nigel: Mmm. Don’t worry if you make mistakes when you’re talking. It’s important people understand you, and a few little mistakes often don’t matter.

Mayuki: OK. I want … it is not easy to speak English. First I think in Japanese and translate to English.

Nigel: It will get easier. Just keep practising your speaking a lot. OK?

Mayuki: OK … but um … I want to study listening this week. I want to watch DVD.

Nigel: I think it’s important to watch DVDs in English. Do you do that?

Mayuki: Yes. I like to. When I watch DVD I can listen to English, natural English and vocabulary and pronunciation.

Nigel: So when you watch DVDs … um, what do you do? Do you use the subtitles or … how do you do it?

Mayuki: Of course I use subtitles!

Nigel: And do you watch all of the movie?

Mayuki: Yes.

Nigel: OK. What some students find really useful is to watch part of a movie. But you could watch this part three or four times. Just watch maybe five or ten minutes. And so you’re not watching the whole thing, just, um, a short section. And the first time why not listen for general meaning only? Don’t try and understand everything. And the second time, the second time listen and try to understand more detail, what each person’s saying. And then, the third time, turn the subtitles on. OK, so the first two times watch it without subtitles. OK? So then you’ll be listening really carefully. Um, and then after that you could listen again a fourth time and focus on vocabulary or pronunciation. So rather than watching the whole thing … it’s still useful but … actually focus on a short section and watch it again and again and focus on different things each time. Does that sound useful?

Mayuki: Yes it does. I’ll try that.

Learning outside the classroom

1. Nigel talks to Mayuki two weeks later. Listen to their conversation.

1 What does Nigel talk about? Listen and tick a, b or c.

a the study Mayuki has done in the last two weeks

b Mayuki’s progress

c what Mayuki can do to improve her English

2 What are Mayuki’s learning goals about? Tick a, b or c.

a work

b personal life

c both

Answer

1 c 2 c

2. Look at the advice sheet Nigel gave Mayuki. Listen again and complete the missing information.

Advice sheet: Planning your learning

Set ^a………………

e.g. Speaking – on the ^b……………… and in everyday conversations

Listening – to the news, seminars, ^c………………

Find material

e.g. listening and speaking books in the self access centre, ^d……………… groups etc.

Ask yourself questions

e.g. What ^e…………………………….?

How ^f……………………………..?

Do ^g………………………………..?

Answer & Transcript

a goals

b telephone

c presentations

d conversation

e did you learn?

f useful was it?

g you need to change anything?

Transcript

Nigel: OK Mayuki, here’s an advice sheet that will help you. First you need to set some goals, um, you need to think about what you need to do in English. You’ve said that speaking and listening are important for you, so think, um, in a bit more detail about what kinds of speaking and listening are important for you. So, er … for speaking, for example, you know, do you need to talk on the telephone or in everyday conversation? And for listening, what sort of things do you want to listen to? The news, seminars, erm presentations? So think about your speaking and listening in more detail. Ah so for you … what are your goals?

Mayuki: Hmm … My main goal is to talk to foreign visitors easily when they visit our company. I need to talk about my job. Ah … I also want to talk to people when I go overseas on holiday.

Nigel: OK, good. Next you need to find things to help you reach your goals. Find material. Use listening and speaking books in the self-access centre, er conversation groups, friends … lots of things help. I’ll show you some things later.

Mayuki: OK.

Nigel: And then, once you’re studying, once you’re actually using those things, er, … you need to … to stop and think about your learning. Ask yourself questions about what you’ve done. Er, what did you learn? Maybe you learned a lot or maybe you didn’t learn anything new. How useful was it? If it was useful, then you will probably use it again. Do you need to change anything? If it wasn’t useful, you need to decide if you will do things differently next time. You might want to make it a little bit easier next time or more interesting. You need to stop and think about what you studied. OK?

Mayuki: Mmm, OK.

Nigel: If you do this, it will make your learning a lot better and a lot easier.