Listening Strategies

What are the strategies we all use when we are listening?
Listening is an interactive skill - when we listen to something, we invariably respond in some way. If we are watching a comedy on TV, we laugh; if a friend is talking to us, we reply. Usually, our response is oral; however, for exam purposes it isn't possible to evaluate students' listening in that way. Instead, written responses are required and these responses are kept very short and simple.

There are a number of factors that we all bring to any listening experience. Here are some of them, and how they relate to the FCE Listening test.

Whenever we listen to something, we have expectations about what we are going to hear and how it will be presented to us. The FCE Listening test gives clear introductory information to candidates so they can prepare themselves mentally for what they are going to hear.

We always listen with a purpose, whether it is to find out news or to build a social relationship. The FCE Listening test gives tasks with clear purposes which reflect the ways we understand things we listen to in real life.

We rarely listen with the intention or need to understand every detail of what is being said; rather, we aim to understand the overall meaning. The FCE Listening test focuses mainly on testing candidates' ability to understand the general message from a spoken text or select specific detailed information.

Spoken English is not as direct and well-organised as written English; listeners have to deal with repetitions, mistakes, paraphrasing, words and phrases with no real meaning and so on. The FCE Listening test uses natural styles of speech from a wide range of sources, including phone conversations, discussions, anecdotes, announcements, talks, interviews and so on.