Little by little, we learn English (including listening) from what real life provides to us。

　　Now, we are talking about listening exams!!! They are driving us nuts。

　　Enough patience to wait for the day when your English finally sees an improvement, but it could be your sixtieth birth-day. Before that, you surely got to take a lot of listening exams。

　　I think the fundament of English ability is static for a person during a considerable period of time. (Things do not always have sky-rocketing upgrades unless a stack of steady storages precedes。) So, no matter how hard you work, you are working for an improvement in a god-knows-when day. It might well go beyond all your exams。

　　And the KEY POINT is that, you work hard, you feel no improvement and you get nervous at the same time you listen to the tape. This is VITAL!!! Being nervous has proven to be the cold blood killer of listening exam takers。

　　You may have this experience in a listening test: There is an occassion of being stuck in a problem when you are not sure about its proper answer. Maybe the tape has left you a vauge pronunciation or maybe you simply do not know that word or phrase. Now, you stop and ponder over it. But the exam goes on and the tape waits for no one. You lagged behind. You then put away the former one. But it’s too late, you have missed half of the next problem. This is exact the time to trigger your nervousness in the listening part。

　　As I have stated at the very beginning, the English base is the premise to every individule sub-ablilities. If you don’t know a lot of words, you are listening nothing but mysterious codes. You will be mad. Well, no one can save you. Don’t take listening exams then, ’coz you are never going to pass it unless you made up your mind to put enough time and energy to work on your BASE。

　　If you are well based yet still find yourself ultra-strained in the exams, perhaps the following methods I shared with you is going to give you a helping hand out of it:

　　1. At the beginning of self-training, don’t listen to the exam tapes. The atmosphere you create for yourself is not healthy to relax. It will add up to your nervousness。

　　2. You use some 80%-accessible materials , for instance, some American movies with translated illustration at the bottom of the screen. You listen to that, referring to the translation, and imitate the speaking -- pronunciation, intonation and guesture as well. These will help you to form stronger IMPRESSION of natural English in your brain。

　　3. Do (2) for some enough time. Then you are going to try some exam materials. Do not take too much, just a slice to let you get the proper feel is OK。

　　4. This phase might seem weired to you, but it’s effective: Try to listen to the tape under various mood and spirit: For instance, after a long run, you haven’t even settle down, you put on your earphone and listen to it. You wake up at midnight, you pick up the earphone and listen to it. You make a phonecall to your best friend or simply finish the kissing of your brouse. You pick up the earphone and listen to it. Please note that this is not the behaves of a moronic. In fact, this teaches you how to handle the nervousness with easy since you have experienced all psycho-status but still with sanity to listen to the tape and continue with it. At last, I hope you will make it well. There’s a will there’s a way. The moment when you reach the summit and look back down on the harsh rocky ways you have survived, you are at the top of your happiness, your confidence and your will。

　　Listening Tips

　　Tip 1:

　　If you don't understand something right away, don't give up. Keep listening. The speaker might say something later that will help you understand the main idea。

　　Tip 2:

　　Listen for key words. Key words are stressed. They are louder, longer, and higher pitched than other words. These are the words that the speaker thinks are most important in a sentence. For example, notice the stress and intonation in this dialogue: A: I went to the store. B: Which store?

　　Tip 3:

　　Think about the situation and ask yourself these questions: Who is speaking? What is the relationship between the speakers? What are they talking about? Where are they? How do they feel?

　　Tip 4:

　　Pay attention to body language, gestures, and facial expressions. This may give you a better idea about what someone is saying。

　　Tip 5:

　　Listen with a specific purpose in mind. Ask yourself what you are listening for. Are you listening for general understanding of the whole lecture or conversation? Or are you listening for specific information?

　　Tip 6:

　　Think about the speaker's attitudes or feelings. Is the speaker certain, uncertain, angry, happy, serious, joking? The tone of voice can help you understand someone's feelings on a topic。

　　Tip 7:

　　Check your understanding by asking the speaker questions. For example, use expressions like Could you repeat that? and I'm sorry, I didn't catch that when you want the speaker to repeat something。

　　Tip 8:

　　Write down new words and phrases you hear. Don't worry about spelling. Then look the new words up in a dictionary or ask a native speaker to explain what they mean。

　　Tip 9:

　　Notice how spoken English is sometimes different from written English. Many words and expressions, such as phrasal verbs and idioms, are more common in spoken than written English。

　　Tip 10:

　　Don't worry about hearing every word. Often, English words are linked together or shortened so you cannot hear every word clearly. For example, speakers often use contractions (can't instead of cannot) and reductions (wanna instead of want to). Try to focus on the most important words and you will understand the main idea。

　　Tip 11:

　　Listen to how speakers' voices go up and down. This is called intonation. What kinds of questions are they asking you? What kinds of responses do they expect from you? Listening to the rise and fall of their voices can help you understand more clearly。

　　Tip 12:

　　Listen for new thoughts. When speakers finish one thought and start a new one, their voices fall to a slightly lower pitch and they may pause between the two thoughts. Also, the words within one thought are often linked together and sound like one big long word。

　　Tip 13:

　　Listen for organization words such as first, then, next, after that, and finally. These words can tell you that a speaker is explaining something in chronological order。

　　Tip 14:

　　Listen to songs in English. Songs can help you get a better feeling for the rhythm of the language。

　　Tip 15:

　　Use closed captioning when watching English-language TV and videotapes. First listen and read the dialogue at the same time, then listen again without reading。