← 📝 English as a Second Language
Listening skills
Strategies for understanding short talks, conversations and interviews, and answering gap-fill, matching and multiple-choice listening questions.
📌 Key points
- Use the time before each recording to read the questions and underline key words.
- Predict the type of answer: for a gap-fill, decide whether you need a number, a date, a name, a noun or a verb.
- Each recording is played twice: use the first listening to find answers and the second to check them.
- Listen for distractors: speakers often mention a wrong answer first, then correct themselves ('It's on Tuesday — no, sorry, Wednesday').
- Speakers usually paraphrase the words in the question, so listen for meaning rather than the exact words.
- Signposting words such as 'first', 'however', 'the main reason' and 'finally' tell you what kind of information is coming.
- Be careful with numbers that sound similar, such as thirteen (stress on the end) and thirty (stress on the start).
- In gap-fill notes, write words that fit grammatically and keep to the word limit; spell names correctly when they are spelled out.
- If you miss an answer, do not panic: move on to the next question and fill the gap on the second listening.
📖 Key terms
- Prediction
- Thinking about the likely answer or type of answer before you listen.
- Distractor
- Information in a recording that seems to answer a question but does not.
- Signposting
- Words that show the structure of a talk, such as 'firstly' or 'to sum up'.
- Gap-fill
- A task where you complete notes or sentences with words you hear.
- Paraphrase
- Expressing the same meaning with different words.
- Stress
- The emphasis given to one syllable or word when speaking.
✏️ Worked example
Notes: 'Swimming lessons start at ______ on Saturdays.' You hear: 'Lessons used to start at nine, but from this term they begin at half past ten on Saturdays.' What do you write?
- Before listening, predict: after 'start at', you need a time.
- You hear two times: 'nine' and 'half past ten'.
- 'Used to start at nine' refers to the past, so nine is a distractor.
- 'From this term they begin at half past ten' gives the current time.
- Answer: 10.30 (half past ten).
The first answer you hear is not always correct. Keep listening until the speaker has finished the point, because they may change or correct the information.
Test yourself8 questions from a bank of 14. A new mix every time.
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