LISTENING FOR GIST (THE OVERALL IDEA)

a. Understanding this listening sub-skill

Listening for gist, also known as listening for global or general understanding, is a basic
comprehension listening sub-skill often opposed to the competence of listening for specific information. This
ability is similar to the one of skimming in reading, where the verb to skim essentially means “to read or
consider something quickly in order to understand the main points, without studying in detail’ (Cambridge
Dictionary online). Therefore, understanding the gist in listening implies understanding a passage at a global
level. In other words, it is not a mechanical process in which someone listens for each and every word. But
rather involves listening selectively and processing the information in an oral passage at a holistic level with the
listener establishing the topic, the purpose, the main points, or the overall message of that oral passage.
Most often the activity of listening for gist “requires the listener to synthesize the main ideas or
arguments being put forward in order to come up with the overall idea the speaker is attempting to get
across. It should be noted that depending on the complexity of the audio text (length, abstract content, etc.), the
listening process may be simply selective at a lower level, whereas, at a higher level, careful listening may
become prerequisite.
Listening for the topic is a sub-skill often associated with lower levels (elementary and pre-
intermediate), whereas listening for a main idea or for the entire message of an audio passage seems to be a
sub-skill associated with much higher levels (from the intermediate level upwards).
Since the gist – understood as the overall idea of an oral passage – is not always explicit, but rather
implicit, this complex ability turns out to involve a great many related sub-skills which also need to be
mastered, such as:
 identifying key words in a listening passage;
 making connections between words;
 understanding relationships between ideas in a listening passage;
 having a coherent understanding of the entire listening passage;
 understanding “between the lines” (inferring implicit meaning);
 having cultural awareness;
 possessing certain linguistic knowledge.
Accordingly, due to its high complexity, the ability to listen for gist may require more time and patience
to develop than a language learner might expect.

b. Why is it important to you?

In terms of one’s ability to understand the gist of an audio text according to their proficiency level, in case
of a listener at LEVEL 1, “there are many misunderstandings of the main idea” (“NATO STANDARD.
ATrainP-5 English” A-1). At LEVEL 2, the listener already “shows an ability to follow essential points of

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discussion or speech on topics in his/her professional field” (Ibid.). When it comes to LEVEL 3, the
complexity is even higher, as the listener needs to be able to “follow accurately the essentials of conversation
among educated native speakers, lectures on general subjects and special fields of competence,
reasonably clear telephone calls and media broadcasts” (A-2). Moreover, a LEVEL 3 listener
“demonstrates understanding of abstract concepts of complex topics” (Ibid.).
It is absolutely essential to understand that the nature of the audio text type one may be able to cope with
may differ according to their proficiency level. Thus, a LEVEL 1 listener shows understanding of sentence
level audio texts: “can understand common familiar phrases and simple short sentences” (A-1); the
LEVEL 2 listener has the ability to understand paragraph level audio texts: “can follow discourse at the
paragraph level” (Ibid.); as for the LEVEL 3, the listener shows understanding at an extended discourse
level: “demonstrates clear understanding of language used at interactive meetings briefings, and other
forms of extended discourse” (A-2).

c. Listening strategy
There are very ways in which a language learner can develop their ability to extract the essence of an oral
message. Speakers generally tend to highlight the topic and even forecast the essence of the message they want
to transmit related to that topic from the very beginning of their speech. Therefore, listening carefully to the
first sentences of an oral message may give the listener an idea (if not the very idea) of what the speaker intends
to say about a particular topic. Similarly, listening to the concluding parts of a speech may also help the listener
identify the overall idea of that speech.
Another way in which the listener can put together the ideas transmitted by the speaker is to listen for the
key words which are repeated throughout the message. These repeated used key words, sometimes occurring as
synonyms, may help the listener not only identify the topic of the speech, but also make out what the speaker is
essentially saying related to the topic.
Last but not least, changes in intonation and word stress throughout an audio passage may help them
reconstruct the overall meaning of that passage. Moreover, sentence connectors (for instance on the other
hand or however) are also of great importance when reconstructing the gist as they normally indicate an
“upcoming idea unit”.

LISTENING TIPS
 Listen carefully to the introductory and concluding sentences of the passage.
 Listen for the key words which are repeated throughout the listening passage.
 Watch out for synonyms of repeated key words.
 Pay attention to intonation and word stress throughout the listening passage.
 Listen for sentence connectors.