International Project Management B2
Unit 1: Listening and Note-taking Skills
Listening Skills and Strategies
Listening will not only help you to improve your listening skills, but also will improve your
speaking, your grammar and your range of vocabulary. Here are some tips and strategies:
In general…
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Listen a lot.
Listen to challenging material, eg., news broadcasts, academic lectures
Choose topics which are interesting to you, but also add unfamiliar topics every now and
then, eg., science, technology, the social sciences, the humanities.
Listen to a variety of accents.
Listening strategies…
Listen actively
What is the conversation, presentation or lecture about? - What is the main idea?
What is the structure of the conversation or lecture? - How are the ideas presented, supported and
connected?
What is the purpose of the conversation or lecture? - What is the speaker’s attitude?
Preview
Listen carefully to the introduction for the conversation or lecture to find out what type it is and
what subject it’s about.
Take notes to help you find the main idea, major points and structure of a conversation or lecture.
Listen for meaning
Try to understand phrases and sentences rather than individual words.
Listen for key words and phrases, use contexts
Listen to tone of voice and stressed words to help identify the attitude and purpose of the
speaker.
Make inferences
Use the facts and clues in the conversation or lecture to make a logical conclusion about what is
meant.
Make connections to what you have heard and what is coming next.
Module – Introduction
Unit 1 Introduction
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International Project Management B2
Note Taking Skills and Strategies
Taking notes is an important academic skill. Taking notes effectively will help you to concentrate
and stay focused on the content of what you are reading or listening to, and to organize,
prioritize and remember information.
Here are some tips and strategies:
In general…
Take notes whenever you listen to videos, podcasts and programmes or read texts.
Try different methods of taking notes to see what suits you and the type of listening or reading
source.
Why do you want to take notes?
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Helps focus attention on listening or reading passage
Organizing notes helps to develop a well-organized speech or essay
Taking notes helps to remember important information
Good source of information to refer back to
Good note taking includes
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Writing quickly
Understanding what is important in a passage
Using an effective method to take notes
Taking notes from spoken text
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Develop effective listening skills:
o Listen for signal words and phrases that indicate important information
o Try to anticipate what will come next
o Quickly organize your notes with a method of your choice
Signals in conversations
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One speaker asking another for an explanation
One speaker disagreeing/agreeing with a point made by the other speaker
One speaker adding details to a point made by the other speaker
One speaker presenting information that conflicts with a point made by the other speaker
Module – Introduction
Unit 1 Introduction
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International Project Management B2
Useful note-taking methods
Create a mind-map
Note the main idea in the middle, with important details or examples in branches coming off the
main idea, and subsidiary details in branches off each of the details or examples.
Note key-words under headings.
Create a chart
Use rows or columns, write headings and categorize information or note steps.
Create an outline
Organize information in a logical sequence, note major points with details underneath, perhaps
indented the information.
Create a diagram
A flow chart or pyramid can help to organize, group, classify and show relationships of
information.
Use abbreviations and symbols instead of full words to save time.
Module – Introduction
Unit 1 Introduction
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