How to improve CELPIP listening skills
This article gives you an idea about one of many ways of improving your listening skills on CELPIP.
Listening could be one of the most challenging tasks in communication, not necessarily because of language fluency but because of distraction and lack of concentration. Having said that, how could it be overcome?
Here are some strategies to improve your listening skills that would help you not only in the CELPIP test but in your daily life communication.
Let’s get started:
As a trainer in CELPIP, I have seen a lot of students admit that they couldn’t focus on the content as well as take notes on the keywords. So how could they approach the tasks, particularly on Task 3 and Task 6 which are Listening to Information and Listening to Viewpoints, respectively? Some may also say Task 4, which is Listening to News Item.
We suggest some of the ways to get the context and the answers correct.
Step No.1: Understand the Listening Module
- Know the format of the listening module.
- Know the time limit for each task.
- Understand the tasks– know the speakers, their relationship with each other, and the idea/problem which they are talking about.
- Question types – General meaning, Specific information and inference types of questions will be asked.
CELPIP Listening Module Format
| Tasks | No of speakers | No of questions | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice task (Unscored) | 1 | 1 | 1 minute |
| Part 1: Listening to Problem Solving | 2 | 8 | 8 minutes |
| Part 2: Listening to Daily life conversation | 2 | 5 | 5 minutes |
| Part 3: Listening to Information | 2 | 6 | 6 minutes |
| Part 4: Listening to News Item | 1 | 5 | 5 minutes |
| Part 5: Listening to a Discussion (Video) | 3 | 8 | 9 minutes |
| Part 6: Listening for View points | 1 | 6 | 8 minutes |
Step No. 2: Understanding the Conversation
Part 1 to Part 3 is different from Part 4 to Part 6. Let’s look into these in detail.
The Content audio and Questions audio are played on separate screens. You can’t see the questions until you hear out the Content Audio which is roughly 1.5 to 2 minutes long. It will be played only once and you cannot pause the audio as well as hear it again.
All the questions will be played one by one. It will move in the forward direction. You can’t go back to the previous question or answer any questions in random order. Each question will have 30 seconds to hear and answer. These questions are MCQ-type questions.
For Parts 1 to 3, the following steps could be followed to understand the content. You can take notes or answer without taking notes by just listening to the information/conversation. Part 1 is further divided into 3 audio clips of 1 to 1.5 minutes of conversations. Each will have 2-3 questions. Whereas, Parts 2 and Part 3 have only one audio of 1.5 to 2 minutes.
1. Previewing and Predicting
- Do the speakers know each other
- Where will the conversation take place
- What level of formality do you expect
2. Identifying Main Ideas and Key Details
- How do the speakers know each other
- What is the problem?
- What solutions are suggested?
- Has it been agreed or disagreed?
3. Inferring Feelings and attitude
- How does the speaker with the problem feel?
- What was the tone in describing the problem
- How does the other speaker respond
4. Some Useful skills
- Recognising Paraphrases – audio content and the questions/answer options won’t be of the same words always. They will be often paraphrased.
- Eliminating method – if you couldn’t identify the answer, try to eliminate the irrelevant answers and choose from the narrowed-down options.
- Most importantly, never leave any questions unanswered. e
Question Format of Parts 4 to 6
- Most questions are Sentence completion type questions
- You must read the questions and the 4 answer choices before listening to the audio.
- All questions appear on the same screen.
- A set amount of time is given to answer all questions on the screen
- You can answer the questions in any order.
Compared to other parts, Part 5 is different as it is the only task in video format. There will be 3 speakers discussing a common topic. They will be discussing various ideas with which they might agree or disagree with each other. Eventually, they will arrive at some conclusions. Now the note-taking method has to be in a different format.
| Before Listening | During Listening | After Listening |
|---|---|---|
| Set up your notes for 3 speakers before the audio starts | Identify the topic of the conversation | Pay careful attention to the time. Give yourself roughly 30 seconds to answer each question |
| Label them according to the speaker as positioned in the screen | Identify how each speaker feels about the situation and why | Answer questions you feel confident about first. |
| - | Note what speakers agree and disagree with each other about. | - |
| - | Focus on what the speakers say. You will not be tested on visual details unrelated to the conversation | - |
| - | Use facial expression and body language to assess the attitude and feelings of the speakers. | - |
Step No.3: Get your direction in the content.
Have you heard about “signpost words” ever? Well, now you have. Let’s think that you are going along a road and looking for directions. What would you search for? Yes, signposts, for direction. Likewise, in communication also, you should look for the direction in which the conversation is going. So, how would you identify the direction?
Listening to certain words such as:
- To begin with
- To summarize
- Additionally
- Subsequently
- Eventually
- Therefore
And so on will give you the direction in which the conversation is moving.
These will be used at the beginning of a paragraph or a sentence where a new idea is introduced, or the other dimension of the current idea is discussed.
| Overall, Generally | Considering, Regarding | Firstly / Secondly | Additionally/Furthermore |
| Similarly / Likewise | Alternatively / On the contrary | Therefore / Consequently | Above all / especially |
| For Instance / to illustrate | If/ Although / unless | What i mean is / In short, | to clarify / in essence |
| Regardless of / Despite of | Absolutely / Undoubtedly | Hence / Because of | Besides / Similar to |
Ex. 1:
Running is an excellent exercise for people of all ages; however, it might not be suitable for people with conditions such as arthritis or knee injury.
The word “however” is used when a contrasting idea is discussed about a topic. Other examples are “although”, “though”, “on the flip side”, “nonetheless”, “on the contrary” and so on.
Ex. 2:
Running is an excellent exercise for people of all ages. Additionally, walking can also be done as it gives the same effect as running.
The word “Additionally” is used to introduce another idea. Other words such as “furthermore”, “moreover”, “in addition to”, and “besides” can also be used to introduce new ideas.
Step no.4: Taking Notes
Now the million-dollar question is how to take notes of keywords from the audio. Keep Steps 1 to 3 in your mind and put them into practice. Take notes in the sequence in which the information is being given. You cannot take every piece of information into the note. So don’t worry if you have missed any.
Whatever information you hear,
- try to get the keywords about the topic.
- Investigate the signpost words to identify the shift in topic.
- Include the person/persons who spoke about the topic or idea.
- Any conclusion /agreement/disagreement of ideas the speakers arrive at.
- Use point form or bullet form. Avoid writing in sentences.
- Use abbreviations which you could easily remember.
Step no.5: Give your best shot at answering the questions.
- Look at the questions and understand the meaning rather than simply looking at the words given in.
- Compare the options with your notes.
- Look out for paraphrased questions as well as answer choices.
- Look out for the auxiliary and causative verbs to understand the question.
- Choose the best answer.
- Still, if you couldn’t arrive at any answer, you can use the elimination method. Eliminating the options which are not true gives you a narrowed-down answer to choose from.
Last but not least. This is not the only method you can do the listening task. There are lots and lots of ways to approach this. You need to analyze which method works better for you. Let us know if you have a better plan, do write to us, and we will discuss it.
All the best.
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