LECTURE NOTES

ENGL6163
English Professional

Week 1
Sesssion 2

Getting the Main Ideas and Details

ENGL6163 - English Professional

 LEARNING OUTCOMES

On successful completion of this Course, students will be able to:

LO 1: Demonstrate the Intermediate-level Academic English Listening skills of Basic

Comprehension, Pragmatic Understanding, and Connecting Information (a minimum of
iBT TOEFL Listening scaled score of 15 of scale 30)
LO 3: Demonstrate the Intermediate-level Business English speaking skills in terms of Delivery,
Clarity and Appropriacy (a minimum of BINUS English Speaking scaled score of 15 of
scale 30)

OUTLINE:

INTRODUCTION
DISCUSSION
1. Introduction and overview of the course
2. Listening Skill 1: Getting the gist of the passages
3. Listening Skill 2: Catching the details of the texts
4. Speaking Skill: Retelling the main and detail information of the listening
CONCLUSION

ENGL6163 - English Professional

 INTRODUCTION

What is TOEFL? TOEFL which stands for Test of English as Foreign Language is
actually a test for every non-English-speaker if they want to go to United States of America. At
first the old TOEFL test has three sections. They are; Listening, Reading, and Structure. This
kind of TOEFL test is called PBT or Paper-Based TOEFL. Over the time, TOEFL has evolved
and has changed into what we call as IBT or Internet Based TOEFL. The new IBT has four
sections, which are listening, reading, speaking and writing. In our first online class, we will
discuss about the overview of the course, listening skill 1, listening skill 2 and retelling.

ENGL6163 - English Professional

 DISCUSSION

1. Introduction and overview of the course

English Professional is for lower-intermediate students with a PBT TOEFL score of 467 –
497 (IBT TOEFL: 51 – 59) to achieve a minimum PBT TOEFL: 497 (IBT TOEFL score of 60)
with intermediate-level Academic and Business English receptive and skills and intermediate-
level of Business English productive skills. Since TOEFL IBT become the core of this subject,
the lesson later will cover four skills’ development especially listening, reading, speaking, and
writing.
The TOEFL IBT test, is an important part of your journey of study. The TOEFL IBT test
measures your ability to use and understand English at the university level and it evaluates how
well you combine your reading, listening, speaking and writing skills to perform academic tasks.
In other words, this exam measures the English proficiency and academic skills of non-native
speakers of English. It is required primarily by International or English-language college and
university.
Beside the core subject, each of course in the study program contributes to the graduate
competencies that are divided into employability and entrepreneurial skills and study program
specific outcomes, in which students need to have demonstrated by the time they complete their
course. BINUS University employability and entrepreneurial skills consist of planning and
organizing, problem solving and decision-making, self-management, team work,
communication, and initiative and enterprise.

2. Listening Skill 1: Getting the gist of the passages

In IBT Listening TOEFL Test, there are six basic skills. The first skill is about how to
understand the gist. Many Indonesian people don’t know about what the gist is. In simple terms,
when we are about to make an orange juice, first we take off the peel. Next, we squeeze the
oranges to get some juice. Basically, that is what we call as the gist. It is the essence from
something.

ENGL6163 - English Professional

 In this context, gist questions are questions that ask about the overall ideas of a passage as
a whole. They may ask about the subject, topic, or main idea of a passage. They may also what
overall purpose the passage serves. It is important to understand that the gist of a passage may be
directly stated in the passage, or you may have to synthesize (bring together) information from
different parts of the passage to understand the overall gist.
To get the main idea or overall idea of the listening, there is a simple strategy that can be
applied. The strategy to answer gist questions are pay attention to the beginning of the
conversation or lecture or sometimes, you can form an overall idea of the gist. Listen to any
particular words that the speaker emphasizes or stresses (pronounces more loudly than other
words). This emphasized words indicate the important information.
Key Points of Understanding the Gist
Frequency of question type There will usually be one gist question after ever passage,
and it is usually the first question after the passage. If there
is a gist question, there will only be one per passage
How to identify the question What is the subject of the passage?
What is the topic of the passage?
What is the main idea of the passage?
What is the purpose of the passage?
Why… in the passage?
Where to find the answer Information to help you understand the gist may be directly
stated at the beginning of the passage. It may also be
necessary for you to draw a conclusion about the gist upon
information provided throughout the passage.
How to answer the question  Listen carefully to the beginning of the passage to
develop an initial idea about the gist of the passage
 Then, as you listen to the rest of the passage, adjust your
idea of the gist of the passage as you consider what the
speakers are saying.

3. Listening Skill 2: Catching the details of the texts

Inside of IBT TOEFL Listening, there are questions that ask you about specific piece of
information that are stated in a passage. As you listen to each passage, you should focus on the
details from the passage because questions about details quite commonly accompany the

ENGL6163 - English Professional

passages. Multiple-choice questions are used to test details, and these multiple-choice questions
may have one correct answer or two correct answers.
The strategies to answer details questions are listen for the details that are discussed, not
just the overall ideas. After that think about different ways to restate the details. Find the answer
choice that accurately restate the information. You can also focus on the 4W 1 H Questions
(Who, What, Where, When and How) while listening to the passage and be ready to get the
answer since the question and answer are commonly arranged in order.
Key Points of Understanding the Details
Frequency Detail questions are the most common question type. Ever
passage will have at least one and they are quite common for
lectures
How to identify the question What is stated in the passage ...?
According to the speaker, ...?
What does the lecturer say about ...?
Why does the man suggest …?
How, When, Where, did …?
Where to find the answer Information needed to answer detail questions is directly stated
in the passage. The answers to detail questions are generally
found in order in the passage.
How to answer the question  Listen carefully to the details in the passage
 Look for an answer that restates the information from the
passage.
 Eliminate the definitely wrong answers and choose the best
answers from the remaining choices.

4. Speaking Skill: Retelling the main and detail information of the listening
Retelling strategy can be used to determine how well someone comprehend the materials.
This strategy can help students to improve the comprehension skill. It helps students for studying
the major points and specific details of the passage. In this section students are guided to pay
attention more on the general idea and also the details of information. After understanding the
content, the students should reconstruct the given information and share the information through
an oral production using their own language.

ENGL6163 - English Professional

 CONCLUSION

In this first meeting, it is important to know the course details and purposes before going
to the discussion. synthesizing information from all different parts of a dialogue to get the main
idea of a passage and listening carefully to the details of a passage are also crucial. To get the
essence of the passage, paying attention on the beginning and ending of the listening can be
helpful. To get the details of a passage listen to the whole specific parts of the text is needed.
Lastly, in order to comprehend the materials better, retelling strategy can be one of the good
strategies to be applied.

ENGL6163 - English Professional

 REFERENCES

1. Deborah Phillips. (2014). Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test: IBT. 3rd
Edition. Pearson Longman. New Jersey. ISBN-10: 0133248127/ ISBN-13: 978-
0133248128
2. https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zDlZD73_24
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4xohaoB6KU

ENGL6163 - English Professional