Listening Study Guide for the TOEFL Test

Improving Listening Skills

We hear all sorts of things in daily life, but actually listening to them requires skill and focus. This is especially important if you are trying to understand a language that is not native to you. Purposeful listening practice will enhance the meaning of spoken language. Here are a few ideas to help.

Vocabulary Development

Listening can be frustrating if you don’t know the meaning of the words you hear. If you increase the number of words you understand in English, you will gain greater meaning from lectures and conversations. Your understanding of the entire spoken passage will improve. Here are a few ways you can add to your listening vocabulary.

Read Widely

Reading is the best way to improve and grow your vocabulary. Find short academic passages, or read from technical, business, or industry magazines. Read the same article over and over again until you fully understand it. When you come across words that you don’t know, underline them and look them up. Write your new words in a list. If you need to, you can translate the word, term, or phrase into your native language, but do that on another list. Your vocabulary development will slow down if you are always referring to your native language.

Study Word Lists

Study your self-made word lists every day. The best way to study new words is to write them down on an index card. Write the new word on one side and the definition on the other side. Each day, go through your cards and say the word aloud and define it or use it in a sentence. If you can do that without looking at the back side, put the card down in one pile face up. If you must look at the back to remember the meaning, put that card in another pile. Then focus on the more difficult list of words. Your goal is to have all the cards in the first pile. You can also find many sites with TOEFL vocabulary words.

Active Listening

You can do several things to practice being a critical listener instead of just hearing what is said. The specifics of these strategies have been discussed previously in this guide. They are repeated here as reminders of practice strategies.

Take Notes

Practice taking notes from any source. You can take notes of conversations you hear in your daily life or while listening to the news (in English). Even English-speaking TV programs and documentaries can help you identify themes and important information, as well as connect ideas and summarize and organize information. Taking notes while listening to movies or shows will also develop your vocabulary. Shorter programs may be better, because you can watch them over and over again until you understand what is being said.

Focus on the Speaker

Whenever you are in a position to listen to someone speak on any topic, practice gearing your focus toward the person speaking. Look for previously discussed components, like tone, volume, and indicators of purpose and assurance. You can do this in meetings, religious gatherings, classes, etc.

Connect and Compare Ideas

Apply the practice of making connections and comparisons to conversations and lectures you experience in daily life. You won’t be taking notes for most of these, but you can attempt to study any speech to practice making comparisons and connections between ideas.

Listening Practice

It is important to practice listening to English often to more easily comprehend what you hear. You will become more comfortable with, and better able to gain meaning from, a language you hear a lot. There are many opportunities to do this, including several things you probably do daily. Listening to television and radio broadcasts can serve as a good practice technique as long as you are focused on what you hear.

Sources

For listening practice, sources with a written transcript of what is being said are ideal. These can be found all over the internet, including on many news sites, where posts often contain a video as well as a written account of the report. This way, you’ll have two forms of language input to solidify your understanding.

Pausing

Numerous sources on the internet include a pause feature for listening. Practice using this to organize your thoughts while listening and refine your note-taking skills.

Summarizing

Try to make sense of everything you listen to. You can do this quickly by asking yourself questions like, “What was his main point?” or “Did she support her argument with facts, and what were those facts?”

Other Ideas

• Join conversation clubs at local language centers or universities. You can practice your speaking and listening skills in a natural environment.

• Listening to the radio (in English) is another excellent source for casual, natural language.

• Get online and search for expats in your country. They are always looking for language partners to help them with their new language, and they can also help you to improve your vocabulary, speaking, and listening skills.

• Buy a movie and watch it over and over again until you understand everything said in it, even if you need to watch it 30 times. That’s actually good, because you will gain accent acquisition, learn vocabulary that isn’t taught in an ESL book or language course, and become accustomed to natural speed and tone. All of that will help you in the Listening section of the TOEFL.

• Finally, another good listening resource is motivational talks on YouTube. They are usually less than 20 minutes long and are an excellent way to listen and practice summarizing, taking notes, organizing information, and connecting ideas.