ENGLISH: FORM FOUR: Topic 2 - LISTENING FOR INFORMATION

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TOPIC 2: LISTENING FOR INFORMATION                                                      

Objectives

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:  

1. Respond appropriately to instruction. 

  

2. Give effective and sensible instructions.

   

3. Listening to main ideas and taking notes 

        

4. Make summaries   

        

5. Write down what you hear correctly

LISTENING TO INSTRUCTIONS

Skills on listening to instructions will help you to understand exactly what you are supposed to do either in examination or in other daily activities. Failure to understand exactly what the instructions need you to do may even result into death suppose you see a sign which reads “cross here” when lights are green and you cross when the lights are red and car is coming what would happen.

Listening for Information from Different Sources

In order to benefit from any listening activity, you need to do two things:

1. Pay attention: Ignore all other signals and focus on what the speaker is saying. Take note of how the voice changes, the facial expressions, the gestures and other body movements.

2. Have a reason: You need to focus on specific information so that you can be able to answer the questions.

 

Listening to the instructions

GIVING INSTRUCTIONS

Listen carefully to your partner who reads the instructions below. Ask at least two questions on what you find not clear.

How to apply for MAME scholarship

The first thing to do is to visit a MAME office and collect the application form. The application form has four sections, after filling in section A. You take the form to your school head to complete section B. The village secretary or ward executive officer will then complete section C. As you return the form, attach copies of your certificates and testimonials.

Activity               

If you were to apply for MAME scholarship what more information would you need?

There are five things you should note when giving instructions:

1. Be clear on the purpose of the instructions (e.g. to find the way to a place or to perform a particular action).

2. Use simple clear sentences.

3. Organise the steps well and cover each step fully.

4. Allow time for the listener to ask questions.

5. Give the listener a chance to repeat the instructions to be sure that the listener heard them correctly.

LISTENING FOR MAIN IDEAS AND TAKING NOTES

Making summary notes:

Developments is the way of bringing changes to a society, so people should remember that development is brought up by cooperation and working hard as well as eradicating ignorance. As a result of equality, all people are equal, women and men need to unite to bring about positive change. You can bring about change in many ways; you can help three people and those three people help other people so that the whole community is impacted. You can also stand against the exploitation, oppression of others and empower those who need help. If all people unite and cooperate they can bring changes and acquire development as a nation.

Exercise                

Take summary notes from the text above.

Listening and taking notes

DICTATIONS                                                                                                                             

Dictation is the process/ act of writing down what is read by another individual.        

Types of Dictation      

1. Reading and writing dictation.      

2. Picture dictation.                                                                                                                                

Picture dictation: Is when someone is given a picture so that he/she can explain what the picturemeans.

Importance of Dictation 

        

1. Improves listening skills.

   

2. It helps one to practice one’s grammar. 

3. It creates awareness or concentration.  

     

4. It improves pronunciation.

   

5. It creates awareness of punctuation.                                                                                       

Punctuation marks to observe during dictation:

Full stop (.): Is used at the end of sentence unless the sentence is a question or an exclamation.

Question mark (?): Written at the end of direct question.

Comma (,): Shows a slight pause in sentence.

Exclamation mark (!): Used at the end of sentence which expresses surprise, enthusiasm or shock.

Colon (:): Used to introduce something.

Semicolon (;): Used to separate two contrasting part of sentence.

Apostrophe (“): Show that either a letter is missing.

Quotation marks (‘’ “or “): Used to show the words that somebody said.

Hyphen (-): Used to join two words which together form one idea.

Dots /ellipsis (…): Used to show that words have been left out, especially from a quotation or at the end of a conversation.

Dash (_): Used to separate a phrase from the rest of a sentence.

Brackets ( ): Used to keep extra information separate from the rest of sentence.

Example:

Dictation about energy

Human beings needs energy to stay alive and to move around. Energy is used for all activities that are the basic for human survival such as cooking and pumping water. We also need energy to improve the quality of our lives: for transport, light, communication, refrigeration and so on. As a country develops, still more energy is needed for industry and business, for school, and hospitals.

 

Writing Dictation