The document discusses the differences between B1 and B2 level English listening exams. At the B2 level, listening passages will be spoken faster, include more accents from places like Scotland, Ireland and Australia, and involve more complex exercises that require a global understanding of concepts rather than just associating images or simple ideas. Successful B2 listening requires concentrating fully, getting used to new accents through repeated practice with movies and shows, and paying close attention to context and intonation since it is more difficult to distinguish words.
The document discusses the differences between B1 and B2 level English listening exams. At the B2 level, listening passages will be spoken faster, include more accents from places like Scotland, Ireland and Australia, and involve more complex exercises that require a global understanding of concepts rather than just associating images or simple ideas. Successful B2 listening requires concentrating fully, getting used to new accents through repeated practice with movies and shows, and paying close attention to context and intonation since it is more difficult to distinguish words.
The document discusses the differences between B1 and B2 level English listening exams. At the B2 level, listening passages will be spoken faster, include more accents from places like Scotland, Ireland and Australia, and involve more complex exercises that require a global understanding of concepts rather than just associating images or simple ideas. Successful B2 listening requires concentrating fully, getting used to new accents through repeated practice with movies and shows, and paying close attention to context and intonation since it is more difficult to distinguish words.
The document discusses the differences between B1 and B2 level English listening exams. At the B2 level, listening passages will be spoken faster, include more accents from places like Scotland, Ireland and Australia, and involve more complex exercises that require a global understanding of concepts rather than just associating images or simple ideas. Successful B2 listening requires concentrating fully, getting used to new accents through repeated practice with movies and shows, and paying close attention to context and intonation since it is more difficult to distinguish words.
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 2
B2 LISTENING
Starting to do higher level listening takes a bit of a struggle sometimes: you have to get used to the new vocabulary, the protagonists of the audios speak faster and faster and you have to capture more and more detailed information. But don't worry, we'll tell you what's new for your B2 listening compared to B1.
Speech rate As you would expect, B2 listening is going faster. This simply means, with respect to the previous level, that the speaker does not make the effort to pronounce slowly and clearly, as was the case in B1. This implies several new difficulties that you will have to pay attention to: × It is more difficult to distinguish some words from others, so you will have to pay attention to intonation and context to find out where a word begins and ends. Remember that prosody in English is very different from that in Spanish.
× You will have less time to think and write your answers. Pay close attention the first time you listen and try to fill in the gaps so that you can check your answers during the repetition.
× It is easier to miss information if you are distracted. Concentrate well on each
exercise, they only last a few seconds.
Accents Another great novelty of the B2 exercises is the appearance of accents. Where in B1 almost all the accents you will have heard are RP or similar or, at most, American, in B2 we will start to hear some Scottish, Irish and Australian accents, among others. The best way to cope with this new difficulty is: × Listening: look for new accents in films and series, get used to them and their particular melody and rhythm. It's easier than you think.
× Isolate sounds: each accent has its own way of pronouncing different sounds. If you get used to the vibrant Scottish r will stop missing you when it comes out and it will be easier to understand the whole word. When you can, listen to single words, repeat them and get used to those difficult sounds.
× Practice: as we have just said, repetition is what will make you move forward the most. Do exercises, try to transcribe dialogues in accents that cost you... any opportunity is good to train your ear. Exercises Finally, it should be noted that at a B2 level, it is required to respond to a series of more complex exercises. The B1 requires a partial understanding of the text and association with images or very simple concepts. On the other hand, in B2 a more global and conceptual understanding of more complex texts is sought. That's why we have many questions in which people must relate to statements and other multiple choice questions:
× Short monologues: the easiest exercises will show us only one person speaking and will give us three options to choose one as an answer to each one.
× Long monologues: a little more complex, these monologues do not isolate each answer, but are heard at a time. Make sure you read the text before you start so that you don't get lost if you don't hear any of the answers. Fill in as much as you can in the first round and correct and complete in the second.
× Join options: Join people with the ideas they convey in their monologue. Be careful, because these exercises are designed to confuse. They will use words that seem to give clues, even if they are misleading later. Pay close attention to the context.
× Conversation: You will hear conversations between several people and you will have to answer several questions. Be careful because the recording does not stop and you will have to answer everything at once.
