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LISTENING AND NOTE TAKING SKILLS

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Title: LISTENING AND NOTE TAKING SKILLS

1

LISTENING ANDNOTE TAKING SKILLS

2
I- RECOGNIZING THE MAIN PARTS OF THE LECTURE

In a talk, there are certain key words and
phrases which signal the topic, main ideas and
the conclusion. These key words and signal words
can act as road signs, helping you predict what
kind of information is going to follow.
A- TOPIC
What Im going to do is .
Id like to talk to you
The topic of todays lecture is
I will discuss
As you have probably guessed, our topic today
is
In this lecture, first Ill explain and then
Ill .
Practice What I am going to do this
morning is to give a brief
introduction to the topic of
development, in a number of
aspects and I hope that .
(Answer Topic introduction to the
topic of development )

Predicting the content
Sometimes you can predict a great deal from
the title of a lecture. Doing this will usually
increase your listening comprehension.
e.g. The title of the lecture you are going
to
listen to is DISASTER RISKS.

B- MAIN POINTS
Well, to start with
First let me explain .
Lets first talk about
Before I go into , Id like to point out that
Moving on now to
Second/Secondly .
The last point/problem/reason etc. is that
Right, one reason/problem is that
Words like Well / Right / Now
/ So / Ok / Alright / Then, etc
often signal the start of a new
section.
Practice Id like to move on now to the third
sub-heading that I
mentioned before, and thats
economic development, and what
I want to do is to take the case
of tourism

Inference
When you listen to people speak, you must not
only think about what they tell you directly but
also be aware of what they communicate
indirectly. Drawing inferences, or gathering
information beyond what a speaker actually says,
is a critical aspect of listening.

C- CONCLUSION
And this is how Im going to finish
In short, / In brief, .
To summarize,
To end this talk .
Let me just add one last comment
In conclusion,
So, to sum up
Practice It seems to me, and this is how I
am going to
finish, that aid is largely a
question of how much,
what form and who for
(Answer Conclusion Aid - a question of
how much,
what form and who for)

II- RECOGNIZING SENTENCE CONNECTIONS A-
REFERENCES
It is important to identify the reference words
clearly and link them back to the previous
information given.Practice you often find,
for instance, in large urban areas in developing
countries, children watching cars and so on and
asking for tips from their owners when they come
back (What does their refer to?) B-
ADDITION
Some phrases which signal the listener that
an additional idea is coming areIn addition,
/ Moreover, / Similarly, / Not only . but
also, etc.Practice It is well-known that the
Japanese try to combine the best of the Japanese
and western ways of life. The people eat not only
Japanese but also western food.

C- CONTRAST
But, Although, However, On the other hand,
Yet, On the contrary, Whereas, While, Despite,
etc.
Practice Although Doctor King came from a family
which had strong religious beliefs and was
directly connected with the Church, he didnt
study religion when he went to university in
1944.
(What is the contrast?)
D- CAUSE AND EFFECT (RESULT)
Therefore, So, Consequently, Because, Because
of, As a result, etc.
Practice So many people from Italy, especially
the poor south of the country immigrated the
USA in the late 19th century. This was because of
the poor quality of the agricultural land in the
South, which is also an extremely mountainous
region.
(Why did Italian people immigrate
to the USA?)

E- EXPLANATIONS AND DEFINITIONS
In other words, that is (to say), In fact,
Namely, which means, What I mean by that is,
Let me put that in a different way , etc.
Practice However, after this period of time,
Doctor P. developed diabetes, (pause) the disease
in which sugar harms the body.
(What is the definition of diabetes?)
F- REPETITON
Let me repeat that, As I said before
(earlier), I must again point out that, As we
have seen, It is important to remember that, etc.
Practice Coagulation, as we have seen, means
making a liquid thicken by clotting and is the
first step in the process of deriving rubber
from latex.
(Which information is being repeated? ?
definition of coagulation)

NOTE-TAKING SKILLS
Notes are your personal, brief record of
important facts and ideas. There are three
important elements in note-taking
I- Discovering the lecturers main ideas
II- Noting the ideas in shortened form
III- Using your own words
I- DISCOVERING THE LECTURERS MAIN IDEAS
This element has been widely studied in the
previous section, therefore we will not discuss
it here.

II- NOTING THE IDEAS IN SHORTENED FORM
Some common abbreviations are
A- Letters and words
e.g. (for example) prob. (problem)
i.e. (thats) esp. (especially)
vs. (versus, against) ref (reference)
max. (maximum) min. (minimum)
diff. (difference) etc. (et cetera)
govt (government) approx. (approximately)
hosp. (hospital) abt. (about)
You can also use the first syllable or
initials of long words and names.
Com communication nvc
nonverbal communication
fb feedback BS Bernard Shaw
MD medical doctor TV
television

B- Symbols
(and, in addition) - (minus, less)
? (a doubtful point) lt (is smaller
than)
gt (is greater than) ? (is caused by )
? (It causes ) ? (It decreases )
? (It increases ) (the same, equal)
? (is not the same as) (per cent)
(heart) (and)

Practice The population of America is
greater than a hundred
million.
pop. of Ame gt 100 mil.
Practice Bankruptcy has the same meaning
as declaration of
inability to pay.
Bankruptcy dec. of inability to pay
Practice Cardiovascular disease means heart
attack.
CVD attack

You may adopt some of those symbols and
abbreviations, and you will probably also want to
invent (devise) some of your own, depending on
the content of the lecture you are hearing.
When you devise symbols and abbreviations, it
is important to review your notes as soon as
possible after the lecture, while their meanings
are still fresh in your mind.

III. USING YOUR OWN WORDS
There are mainly three purposes for using
your own words
1- By translating material into your own words,
you do active learning.
2- You remember your own words better than the
words of others.
3- You can simplify and therefore condense.
In order to be able to use your own
words you have to ask yourself two questions
- What does this mean?
- How would I say this in a telegram?

As a student, you will often need to
restate information that you have heard. This
task requires you to grasp the message completely
enough to paraphrase it- that is, to express the
same ideas with different words. When you
paraphrase, you are showing not only that you
remember what you heard but also you understand
it.

USING MORPHOLOGY AND CONTEXT TO GUESS THE MEANING
OF UNKNOWN WORDS IN THE LECTURE
When you hear words that you do not know
1- Pay attention to the surrounding words for
clues to their meaning.
e.g. The immune system is compromised, damaged,
by certain stressors
a) improved b) assisted c) hurt
2- Use morphology. Morphology means dividing a
word up and looking for
parts that you already know.
e.g. indivisibility
If the lecturer uses a word like
indivisibility, dont panic. You know that
in means not, and ibility is related to
ability, or something being
possible. Divisi- may remind you of other
words in the same family,
such as division and divide. So you see,
you have enough information
to figure out what indivisibility means.

TAKING BETTER NOTES
1- Organizing main ideas and supporting details
There are two main purposes for taking
lecture notes
- To help you concentrate
- To record information that you can review
later
Taking organized notes is very important,
especially for the purpose of review. It can be
helpful to write the main topics on the left side
of the page. Indent the main ideas slightly to
the right, and indent the supporting facts,
details, and examples even farther to the right.
e.g. Differences Still Exist Between
U.S. U.K. English
-U.K. Speech varies with social class
-U.K. Uses more moderate language than U.S.
- really good (U.K.) but awesome
(U.S.)

2- Listing and Numbering Items
When you take notes, grouping related items
together will help you understand and remember
them. One way to group related items is to list
them. You can also number the items in the list.
For example, in a lecture on memory, the
speaker discussed three techniques for improving
memory. One student listed and numbered the
techniques as follows
IMPROVING MEMORY
1. Use written information-memos, calendars,
schedules
2. Use imagery- associate the information with
mental images.
3. Concentrate- think carefully about
information you want to
remember

3- Making charts or drawing pictures/sketches
You may have heard the expression, A picture
is worth a thousand words. Sketches can be very
powerful because they help you to visualize and
remember ideas. Sometimes it is easier to draw a
simple sketch than to write down information,
especially if the information is complex.
After listening to a lecture, sometimes
making a chart can help you to organize
information. A chart can help you to understand,
summarize, and compare ideas.
For example, the chart below summarizes part
of a lecture about traditional and modern Chinese
weddings.

5- Noting examples
When giving lectures, speakers often provide
examples to clarify or make their points more
interesting and real. The words and phrases below
are used to signal examples
for example/instance, such as, as an
illustration, etc.
Practice Mexicans and Americans follow
similar fashions for example, most probably
watch the same television shows, eat fast food,
enjoy similar sports, and have the same heroes.
Common fashions
- e.g. TV, fast food, sports heroes

4- Noting processes
In lectures, it is common for the speaker to
describe a process (a series of steps you take to
reach a goal). When listening to an explanation
of a process, you can increase your understanding
by remembering that all the steps in the process
have a logical order and each step has a
boundary. Typical words and phrases used to show
boundaries are
First, second, third, etc. After
(that) Afterward
To start / begin with The First /last step
Next, etc.
For example, the steps for making a movie can be
listed as follows
MAKING A MOVIE
1. find property - i.e., the story 4. start
filming
2. prep. Script 5. edit film
3. choose cast - i.e., actors actresses

WHILE LISTENING
You are given questions. You focus on the
information demanded in the questions while you
are listening to the lecture.
Listening for specific information is a useful
skill to practice for almost every kind of
listening task. Whether we are at school, on the
phone, or shopping, we usually listen for
specific information, not for every word.

PRACTICE While Listening
1- Which one is NOT of children with attention
problems?
a) talking too much b) losing things c)
forgetting easily
d) not be able to finish tasks e) fighting with
others
2- What does the cause of A.D.D (Attention
Deficit Disorder) involve?
a) stressful life b) chemicals in the brain c)
psychological problems
d) sensible choices e) headache
3- How many children did the new study testing
the connection between
watching television and attention problems
involve?
a) 130 b) over 1300 c) 1300 d) 1200
e) 1030
4- According to some doctors, children ____ may
watch TV.
a) under the age of 2 b) over 2 c)
at the age of 7
d) over 7 e) none of them
5- Fatness and aggressiveness are connected with
_____ .

PRACTICE While Listening-ANSWERS
1- Which one is NOT of children with attention
problems?
a) talking too much b) losing things c)
forgetting easily
d) not be able to finish tasks e) fighting with
others
2- What does the cause of A.D.D (Attention
Deficit Disorder) involve?
a) stressful life b) chemicals in the brain
c) psychological problems
d) sensible choices e) headache
3- How many children did the new study testing
the connection between
watching television and attention problems
involve?
a) 130 b) over 1300 c) 1300 d) 1200
e) 1030
4- According to some doctors, children ____ may
watch TV.
a) under the age of 2 b) over 2 c)
at the age of 7
d) over 7 e)
none of them
5- Fatness and aggressiveness are connected with
_____ .

NOTE TAKING
Lecture note taking is a complex skill, and
developing it requires a great deal of practice.
One of the first things you have to learn is that
when you listen to a lecture, it is not possible
to write down everything. And even if you could,
doing so wouldnt be a good idea! Many lecturers
repeat themselves, go off the topic, and tell
unrelated personal stories.
Good note takers can recognize what is
important and what is not. They are able to get
the information down on paper in as few words as
possible, using abbreviations and symbols. At the
same time, they organize the information on the
page to show what is a main point and what is a
detail or example.
The first step, however, is to learn to
listen to several sentences of a lecture and
quickly summarize the information in your own
words. You must also train yourself to leave out
unnecessary words, such as articles,
prepositions, relative pronouns, the verb to
be, and other linking verbs. In other words, you
need to learn to use what is called telegraphic
language.