SOCIAL SCIENCE
How Can You Listen and Understand More? Do you think you are a good listener? Good listeners hear many details but also focus on the main point. Good listeners can paraphrase, or tell in their own words, what they have heard. Review these listening strategies, and then test your skills.
1 Set a Purpose for Listening Decide whether you are listening to be entertained or to get information.
• If you are listening to an entertaining story, focus on the main events or problems, the main characters, and important dialogue.
• If you are listening to an informative report or speech, focus on main ideas, which usually come first. Then listen for details that support the main ideas.
2 Listen Quietly You cannot listen carefully if you are making noise. Be quiet during the speaker’s presentation. You will hear and understand more. It is also important to focus on the speaker’s pauses or stops. These brief silences usually let you know that a main idea has ended and a new main idea is going to start.
3 Paraphrase Use your own words to tell the main ideas you heard. Does everything make sense?
4 Listen to a Report Listen to a partner read his or her tiger report from the Research/Speaking activity or a short report on tigers that has been downloaded from the Internet. Follow the listening strategies in Steps 1–3 above.
You said that the Sumatran tiger has been around for a really long time.
5 Get Feedback Have your partner tell you if you heard the main points correctly. Did you miss anything? If so, repeat Steps 1–3.