has a listening skill these listening skills

are strategies tools or

tips that you can use to help improve your ability to listen and

understand in English the listening skill

for unit 1 is listening for main ideas

not I'm not sure how this works in your language

but in English when we start a conversation

we generally start it very wide

almost like a funnel and here

at the very beginning of the conversation we will have

a very general statement that usually tends to be

the main idea as the conversation goes on

it will become more and more specific

and the way we do this is by adding details

and these details often consist

of examples so we have our main idea at the very beginning

and then we add details and examples to become more

and more specific so

let's take a look of how this general main idea topic

becomes more and more specific using details

and examples so if we met each other and I said to you you know

haven't been feeling very well then

I might go on in the conversation and tell you I've had

a runny nose and

cough and a sore throat

so these examples

of my symptoms or details

all explain more about this

main idea I haven't been feeling well

alright so let's take a look

at the listening skill for unit 1 so we've already talked a little bit

about how English conversations tend to start very

generally and list the main idea and then go on to become more specific

so of course when you're in college

you will be listening to a lot of lectures and presentations

and they also begin in a similar way

to English conversations they generally

begin with the topic or the main idea

for that particular lecture or presentation

now it's really hard when you're listening to lectures to remember

everything but it is very important to be able to identify the main ideas

and the details that support the main ideas

so the most important things that the speaker want you to understand and

remember

are the main ideas so how do we

recognize a main idea well usually

its part of the introduction just as I mentioned

in a conversation we usually start with the main idea

in the introduction to a lecture or presentation

that's where we find the main idea or what the speaker will talk about

and we can identify it if we can recognize

some of these signal phrases or words that a speaker uses

when they want to introduce a main idea so here's a couple of examples

you might hear something like today we will focus on

or this morning we'll consider

or today I'm going to talk about

or finally for today's lecture

we're going to look at so this is how

you will know what the topic or the main idea

of the talk will be as the talk goes on

you will get more details but you may also get

additional main ideas and you will know that they are main ideas because these

will be the things that will be repeated

often in the lecture or possibly rephrased

which means that the lecture will use

different words to say pretty much

the same thing so when you hear

things rephrased or repeated you know you probably have

a main idea

so after you listen and you take notes you want to go back

and review your notes try to see hmm... which were the ideas that were repeated

or perhaps really described even more

or rephrased and that will help you to identify

the main idea

okay so let's get some practice in identifying main ideas

below we have two introductions to presentations now remember we talked

about

introductions being the place where you're probably going to hear the main

idea

and some of the signal words that the speaker might use

to let you know what that mean idea is

so let's look at number one

for most people business meetings are boring but they don't have to be that

way

today I'm going to give you a few tips on how to run an effective business

meeting

although every tip might not work for you meetings

don't have to put everyone in the room to sleep

okay so let's look at some of these possible main ideas

business meetings are boring because they're too long

and waste too much time all

well let's go back and let's think about the signal words we heard

yes today I'm going to

and this is how they have introduced our

main idea so

what was it a few tips on how to run

an effective business meeting so let's see if we can find something

that rephrases that idea

tips on how to run an effective business meeting

hmm... well boring isn't part of it

business meetings are often boring but

there are ways to make them worthwhile

hmm... that's a possibility business meetings are often boring

so we should find ways to eliminate them

did the speaker say anything about eliminating

or not having business meetings no

so that leaves us with B

business meetings and are often boring which we see stated right at the beginning

but there are ways to make them worthwhile

that's kind of another way of rephrasing

tips ways run

an effective meeting make them worthwhile

so we've kind of just rephrased in B

the main idea that we saw introduced by the phrase

today I'm going to and we knew there was going to be a main idea

Let's look at the introduction for presentation two

hiring the right employees can be a real challenge

many managers add a new person to their staff

who is not a good choice let's consider some techniques

to evaluate potential employees and explore ways to successfully pick

the best people to hire okay

so in looking at this introduction

is there a phrase that we've seen before

that may be introducing the main idea

how about let's consider

some techniques to evaluate potential employees

and pick the best people to hire

well we know that consider is often a word that's used

at the beginning of a talk to introduce the main idea

let's see if we can identify one of

these sentences down here that describes that mean idea

let's look at many people hire employees for the wrong reasons

soon they regret their hiring decisions

hmm... I didn't see anything up there

about hiring people and regretting decisions so I would eliminate that one

it is important that managers learn to recognize that someone is not

a good hiring choice hmm...

I don't see anything in our main idea that

says that we're gonna be looking at recognizing someone

is not a good choice so we'll eliminate that

so that must leave us with C let's see what that says

hiring employees can be difficult but

this presentation will teach skills

let's consider some techniques looks like techniques and skills

are similar words so ways to rephrase the main idea

and what did the skills for choosing

the best possible employees

well up here we had pick the best people to hire

so pick and choose is another way to rephrase

and best possible employees is another way to rephrase

best people to hire so here we can see that

C is the main idea of this introduction

okay let's look at the last introduction to a presentation

there are many job finding tools available online

for instance some web-sites tell job searchers

about positions that are available while others give tips

on writing a resume or answering questions in a job interview

today I'd like to focus on how to make the best use of these online tools

online job resources are valuable but they will help us much

if we don't know the best ways to use them

okay can you identify a phrase in the introduction

that lets us know what the main idea of the presentation will be

you got it today I'd like to

focus on and we know focus on was one of those

signal words or phrases on what

how to make the best use of online tools

okay let's see if we can find one of these statementsA B or C that kind of

rephrases that mean idea

let's look at it job searches should learn

how to answer interview questions and write

resumes well that might be true

but we don't see that anywhere in making the best use of the online

tools so I'll eliminate that

how about this job searchers should learn how to use

online job finding tools effectively

hmm... well if we go back to our main idea

we seeing that making the best use

of online tools is a very important part of it

do we see something similar down here maybe a rephrasing

learn how to use can make the best use of that looks like a rephrasing

online job finding tools

so it looks like we've got online tools

same thing that we saw up here and effectively

well that kind of takes care of that best use

because a way to rephrase best would be

effectively so we're gonna choose

B as the main idea

of presentation number three