Intensive Reading
Listening for Detail
The essence of the phenomenon Examples of texts we read for detail
and tasks for listening exercises
Levi Strauss
Intensive Listening /for detail refers to the type of Comprehension Questions
listening in which we can’t afford to ignore anything 1. Who was Levi Strauss by nationality?
2. What did he plan to do in San Francisco?
because we don’t know exactly what information of the
3. What is the origin of the word “denim”?
listening passage will be necessary to complete the task. 4. What was Levi’s initial business plan like?
5. Who encouraged Levi Strauss to change his plans about
We resort to listening for detail when we need to selling denim as material to make tents and covers to
understand practically everything –advantages of the job, its wagons?
6. Did the first pair of Levi’s “jeans” fit the needs of the
drawbacks,perspectives and paychecks – for example. miners?
7. What were the miners’ requirements to Levi’s denim
However, even here, it may not be necessary to understand pants? How did Levi try to meet these requirements?
8. Why did the Levis become so popular? Why are they still
every word. Anyway, some information will still appear popular?
non-essential.
Who started New York?
While listening for detail the listener just needs to be able Comprehension Questions
1. Who were the first settlers in America after the
to separate the essential information from the non- Spaniards?
essential. 2. Did they have a monopoly on New World? What were
some other countries who pioneered in New World?
3. What country was even more powerful than England in
the 1600-s? Why was it more influential than England?
4. Can we say that the 1600-s “all roads lead to
Amsterdam”?
5. Where did the Dutch settle the New Netherlands on the
territory of America? Did they have rights to do it? What
were their claims about?
6. Who was Henry Hudson? How is he connected with the
Dutch? What kind of stamp did he put on the American
land?
7. Did Henry Hudson enjoy to live on the land he
discovered?
8. What was the name of the first Dutch company which
started doing trade between Europe and America? How
did they call the first Dutch village on the American
land? Where was it established?
Listening Strategies
How to improve imtensive listening
Learning (Student’s) strategies:
Listen for the main point
(paying attention to the beginning and end of the listening passage)
Listen for the Cause of Action
(what the person is going to do step by step)
Listen for Facts and attitudes
(pay attention to the events happening during the narration and
attitudes the speakers have to each other)
Listen for the Intonation Cues
(the pitch of the speaker’s voice tells the listener the meaning of the
sentence (e.g.whether it’s a statement, a question or a rhetoric
question)
Listen for the Tone and attitude
(pay attention whether the speaker uses an angry tone,
comfortable tone or sneering one)
Listen for Signal Words
(pay attention to such link words as To get started….; Apart
from… ; Meanwhile…To wrap up….)
Listen for Accented English
(pay attention to the accents of the speakers for deriving additional
info about their origin)
Teaching (Teacher’s) Strategies:
Providing students with teaching materials that present learning
interest for them