Chapter 3.3: Litening Test Section 3 - Conversation

Section 3 is usually a conversation between 2 to 3 speakers. It's a conversation that takes place in an academic or educational situation, like a tutorial or seminar for example. And although this section of the test has the same number of questions as sections 1 and 2, it is more difficult. So what are you being tested on in this section of the Listening Test? Well, Section 3 tests your ability to follow a discussion. It also tests your ability to listen for and understand facts, reasons, and ideas. On top of that, it's designed to see how well you can understand the opinions and attitudes of speakers, and understand agreement between speakers.

Sentence Completion

 

With this type of task, you need to fill in a gap in a sentence with words containing important points from the Listening text. The gap could be at the start, middle or end of the sentence and it's important that you keep within a word limit. This type of question can appear in any of the four sections of the Listening Test.

How to do sentence completion tasks:

Before you listen:

• Step 1: Read the instructions carefully - how many words and/or numbers can you write? 

 (Example: NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS)

• Step 2: Highlight keywords in the sentence and think of synonyms/paraphrases you may hear. 

You need to write down the missing word or missing words in exactly the same form as you hear them. You should not change the words in any way. But the sentences on the question paper are a paraphrased form of what you hear in the recording. That is, you will hear different words in the recording to what you see on the page, but their meaning will be the same.

• Step 3: Look at the gap and think of the type of word(s) which may complete it.

You should also think about the type of word that might complete each gap. For example, could the missing word be a time, or maybe an amount? Could it be a noun or an adjective perhaps? Then, listen for the synonyms of the written sentence keywords that you have thought of. These will help you find the answer. When you think you have the answer, write it in the gap with the correct spelling.

While you listen:

• Step 4: Listen for the keywords/synonyms you have thought of to help you find the answer.
• Step 5: Write the answer in the gap. Check spelling and grammar.

 

Another important step which you should do after listening is to read the complete sentence to make sure it's grammatically correct. But what if you see that your completed sentence is not grammatically correct? Well, you may have made a mistake for one of the following reasons. The first reason could be that you have not heard the correct form of the word.

Example:
The ______(Ans filled: Table)_____ in the classroom are used by students and lectures.

 

As you can see in this example, you think you heard 'table' in the recording, but the speaker actually said 'tables', which is the plural form of table. So this answer cannot be correct. (It said: are used by, so need to be tables not table)
Another reason that your answer might be wrong is because you have chosen the wrong word from the listening. For example, if the words 'furniture' and 'tables' were used by the speaker and you chose furniture, then this answer is wrong because, in this sentence, it is grammatically incorrect. That is, furniture is an uncountable noun and so it doesn't fit the gap. 

 

As you have seen, grammar is particularly important in this question type. So, by being careful about your grammar, you can improve your chances of getting a higher score.

Another Example:
The teacher believes that checking students' ............. is useful. (Essay, Assignments) Chose the correct answer Essay or Assignments?

Ans: Assignments, because the singular cannot be used here with this noun. Students' means many students. So, must be plural.

Classification:

This type of task is distinctive because the question numbers have different features given by statements, words or phrases which will be heard in the Listening Test, and you need to put them into a category which is labeled A, B, C or D. In this task, it's also possible for the same answers, that is letters A, B, C, etc for the categories, to be used more than once. In all classification tasks, the categories are of the same type, like people, location etc.

 

Example Question:

‘Who likes to study in the following locations?’

A. only Aurthur
B. only Mark
C. both Aurthur and Mark 

 

1. Library                 -----

2. The Lecture Theater     -----

How to do classification tasks:

Before you listen:

• Step 1: Read the complete task carefully - what is the topic?
• Step 2: Read the task question. Which words refer to categories?
• Step 3: Read the task question. Which words refer to the features or statements?

 First, the word "who" refers to the categories, which are the names of people. So, notice Who, Aurthur,  Mark. 

And, If we go back to our example again, you can see that the word ‘locations’ refers to the type of feature next to the question numbers. So, notice Locations, Library, The Lecture Theater.
 

While you listen:

• Step 4: Notice the different speakers and their attitudes and opinions.
• Step 5: Write ONE category letter (A, B, etc) next to the features/statements. 

As you listen, you will need to recognize who is speaking at any one time, especially if the classification task appears in Section 3 because there will be two or more speakers in this section. You need to notice the following about each speaker: the quality of each person’s voice. That is, for example, how high the voices are. Are the voices male or female? You also need to notice the speaker's accent.
And finally, and most importantly, you should be able to understand the opinion or attitude of each speaker. For example, is the person disagreeing or agreeing? Or does the speaker sound surprised by something? Once you have recognized the speaker and his or her attitude and opinion, you should be able to choose the letter of the correct category and write it next to the question number. The ability to recognize speakers and their attitudes is most important in Section 3 of the Listening Test, and the classification task is often used to assess this skill.