Listening you can actually do
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| selection | 取舍 | qǔ shě |
| listening for gist | 泛听 | fàn tīng |
| predicting | 预测 | yù cè |
| context clues | 上下文线索 | shàng xià wén xiàn suǒ |
You will miss words. That is the plan
- Nobody catches every word of a lecture in a second language. Nobody needs to.
- Listening is selection 取舍: deciding what to catch and letting the rest go.
- The students who understand most are not the ones who hear most. They are the ones who choose best.
Gist before detail
- Listening for gist 泛听 is one pass for the overall point: what is this mainly about?
- Listening for detail is hunting one item: a price, a date, a name.
- Read the question first. Knowing what you are hunting turns noise into a target.
You have one listening and a question asking what the talk is mainly about. Which technique fits?
Gist is one pass for the overall point. Hunting details on that pass makes you miss the point itself.
Predict, then listen
- Predicting 预测 the topic loads the words you are about to need.
- A word you expect is far easier to hear than a word you do not.
- Thirty seconds of thinking "this is about transport, so: fare, route, delay, platform" changes what you hear.
Put these in the order that gets the most out of one listening.
Everything before the audio starts is free preparation, and it is where most of the gain is.
A talk is announced as being about airport delays. Which words are worth loading in advance? Choose all that apply.
Predicting is topic-driven. Loading unrelated words wastes the thirty seconds you have.
Never stop on a missed word. The sentence after it usually explains it, and the three seconds you spend wondering cost you that sentence too. Mark it, move on, come back at the end.
Context clues do the rest
- Context clues 上下文线索: what came before, what the speaker does next, the tone of voice.
- A speaker who says a word then rephrases it has just given you a definition for free.
- ⚠ Guessing from context is a skill you are marked on, not a shortcut you should feel bad about.
"The train was cancelled, so we took the bus instead and arrived two hours late." What does cancelled mean here?
A bus was taken instead, and the arrival was late. The rest of the sentence defines the word.
Translating each sentence into Chinese while you listen helps you understand more.
Translation is slower than speech, so it costs you the next sentences. Understand roughly, in English.
Write one English sentence saying what you will do next time you miss a word while listening.
Example: "I will mark the word and keep listening, because the next sentence usually explains it."
You hear: "The train was cancelled, so we had to take the bus instead, and we arrived two hours late."
You do not know cancelled. You do know that a bus was taken instead, and that the arrival was late. So the train did not run.
That is the whole technique, and it is worth more marks than any vocabulary list.
Do not translate in your head while you listen. Translation runs slower than speech, so by the time you have rendered one sentence into Chinese, two more have gone past. Listen for meaning in English, even when the meaning is rough.