TOEFL LISTENING COMPREHENSIONStrategies 1

TOEFL LISTENING PARTS

There are 50 listening comprehension questions in the TOEFL exam divided into three parts:

A. Dialogs (30 questions)

B. Extended conversations (8 questions)

C. Mini-talks (12 questions)

About Dialogs

The first part of the Listening Comprehension section consists of spoken dialogs (conversations) between two speakers. A third speaker asks a question about what was said or implied in the conversation. You must decide which of the four answer choices printed in your test book is the best answer for the question you hear and then mark that choice on your answer sheet. There is always a twelve-second pause between each of the dialogs.

Strategies for Part A (Dialogs)

1.- Concentrate on the conversation.

Each speaker speaks only once in the conversation. Do not try to answer choices at the same time you are listening. Do not work on other items when the conversation is being spoken. You can only anticipate if you have remaining time in the twelve-second pause between dialogs.

2.- Concentrate on the context.

The first speaker sets the context, and the question usually relates to how the second speaker responds. The question about context is:

“ What does the woman/man mean?”

3.- Concentrate on the purpose.

Many of the questions concern the speakers’ purpose. Concentrate on details which indicate the dialog is about an apology, a request, an offer, an invitation, or an opinion.

4.- Listen for meaning.

A wrong answer may confuse you by having words that sound similar to (or the same as) those in a spoken statement in the conversation for example “moth” and “month”. Be careful with punctuation remarks, for example when the spoken statement is a question or an exclamation.

5.- Listen for vocabulary.

A wrong answer may confuse you by using the same word in a different way. For example:

“Jane overcooked Tony’s dinner” and “Jane cooked dinner over at Tony’s”. The first one means Jane cooked too long and the second one means Jane cooked at Tony’s house.

6.- Listen for structure.

A wrong answer may confuse you by being slightly different in the word order or in the words used. For example:

“Never have I been so worried” and “ I have never been worried”. The first means the speaker was never this worried before and the second means the speaker has never been worried in his/her life.

7.- Know what works for you.

If you are uncertain about which answer is correct, you can do one of two things:

a) Use your intuition.

b) Guess.

Intuition means you have an unexplained feeling that one of the answers is correct.

If during practice you notice your intuition is usually correct, trust it when you take the TOEFL test.

Remember wrong answers will not count against you. When you use a Guess letter (A,B,C, or D), just choose one to answer all items you don’t know. You are more likely to get some correct answers with one letter used consistently than if you use all letters randomly.

8.- Use every second wisely.

Don’t waste time thinking about something you don’t know. For example, if in the spoken statement they pronounce a word you haven’t ever heard and you start wondering what it means. It is the same if you see an “alien” word in the choices printed in your test book. Just answer the question, and prepare yourself to concentrate on the next item.

Be aware of:

Sound confusion. Homonyms and words with multiple meanings. Idiomatic expressions (P.81-100) Expressions of agreement or disagreement. Expressions of suggestion, invitation, offer, and request. Expressions of contradiction, assumption, and question. Expressions of activities, plans, topics, and problems. Special verb forms: Causative and Used to.

In short:

• Be familiar with the directions in Part A (Dialogs).• Remember that the answer for the questions is generally

contained in what the second speaker says.• If you are not sure of the answer, eliminate as many

answer choices as you can.• If you have remaining time in the twelve-second pause

between dialogs, use it to preview the choices for the next item. Try to anticipate what the question will be about by the form of the answer choices.

• If you don’t understand all or part of a conversation, follow your intuition or guess and go on.