Taking accurate notes quickly is the most important skill on the TOEFL. It is both a mental and a physical skill. It is physical because by moving your hand faster and writing faster, you can write more notes than another person can. Additionally, it is mental because you need to summarize sentences, shorten words, identify the most important parts of a sentence and throw out unnecessary statements.
Write down:
– Main points that the lecture has said
– Details about main points
– Facts that are difficult to remember, but can be asked about (often in the conversations there is one question about an inconsequential fact from the beginning)
Do not write down:
– Function words (like ‘the’ or ‘a/an’)
– Words signaling the organization of the passage (‘The first reason the Maldives are beautiful is…’ or ‘The main idea is..’)
2. Know the Organization
Another important aspect of the TOEFL Listening is to know the organization of the Lectures. ETS has even listed the types of organization on its website.
First, there are two main structures:
Lecture or Presentation where there is a clearly defined Introduction, Body and Conclusion, and
Narrative where there is a Beginning, Middle and End.
In the Greenhouse Effect Listening above, we saw a Lecture/Presentation type where the idea of the Greenhouse Effect was described, then it was described more in detail with differing versions (pos + neg) then its actual effect in the world was detailed.
Then we look at the different styles of organization:
- Theory and Evidence
- Cause and Effect
- Steps of a Process
- Comparison of Two Things
As you might have guessed, our Greenhouse effect lecture was the Theory and Evidence type.
When you are listening, remember to listen for the General Ideas (like the Greenhouse effect and the enhanced greenhouse effect) as well as the details: Facts, Examples and Opinions (like the fact that the ocean absorbs heat, the study that showed it was warming and the opinion on whether we know if it is bad or good).
3. Listen to Audio
An important way to practice for the TOEFL Listening is to actually listen to audio all around you. The television is good, specifically documentaries or channels like Animal Planet and National Geographic.
4. Signals
We may have mentioned it above, but signals are very important to pay attention to when you are listening to a TOEFL conversation or lecture.
ETS lists words that signal type of information in the phrases below:
- Opinion (I think, It appears that, It is thought that)
- Theory (In theory)
- Inference (therefore, then)
- Negatives (not, or words that begin with ‘un’, ‘non’, ‘dis’, or ‘a’)
- Fillers (non-essential information like uh, umm, or er)
Additionally, keep an eye out for conjunctions and signal words like:
- reasons (because, since)
- results (as a result, so, therefore, thus, consequently)
- examples (for example, such as)
- comparisons (in contrast, than)
- an opposing idea (on the other hand, however)
- another idea (furthermore, moreover, besides)
- a similar idea (similarly, likewise)
- restatements of information (in other words, that is)
- conclusions (in conclusion, in summary)
Remember that often the speakers will use pauses and changes of speed to provide clues as to how to organize and group information.
5. Practice, Practice, Practice
Most importantly, remember to practice. The TOEFL listening section is a very quick and tricky section. Even native speakers need to train themselves for this section because it does not come naturally. So the best way to get better at it is to practice a lot.
Sumber : https://www.icon-plus.com/news-and-media/blog/toefl/five-tips-to-improve-your-toefl-listening-score
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