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M2T7 - Language Focus - Listening Strategies For Interviews

The document discusses a listening strategy called "making predictions" that can help when interviewing people in English. It involves predicting keywords and phrases that may come up in interview answers in order to better understand responses and ask appropriate follow-up questions. Examples are provided where an eyewitness is interviewed about a tornado and predictions are made about vocabulary related to the dark sky, wind, and flying debris that could be mentioned. Predicting relief-related vocabulary is also suggested for questions to a government official about emergency response efforts. The strategy aims to make interviews easier by preparing the listener for familiar words and concepts they may encounter.

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45 views2 pages

M2T7 - Language Focus - Listening Strategies For Interviews

The document discusses a listening strategy called "making predictions" that can help when interviewing people in English. It involves predicting keywords and phrases that may come up in interview answers in order to better understand responses and ask appropriate follow-up questions. Examples are provided where an eyewitness is interviewed about a tornado and predictions are made about vocabulary related to the dark sky, wind, and flying debris that could be mentioned. Predicting relief-related vocabulary is also suggested for questions to a government official about emergency response efforts. The strategy aims to make interviews easier by preparing the listener for familiar words and concepts they may encounter.

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Module 2 Transcript 7:

Interviewing Sources: Listening Strategies


Hello! Welcome to this Language Focus video about interviewing. We’ve already talked about the grammar of Wh-
questions for interviews. In this video, we will talk about a listening strategy you can use while interviewing people
in English. We call it “making predictions”. To interview someone in English, it’s important to prepare a list of
questions. But often the harder part is to understand the interviewee’s answers and ask the right follow-up
questions. It may make you nervous to listen and not understand every word in English, and you may not know
what question to ask next. But, there is a strategy you can use to prepare for listening and make interviewing
easier.

That strategy is making predictions. If you make predictions about what you will hear, and plan follow-up
questions from these predictions, it will be easier to listen and interact. What does it mean to make a prediction? It
means to guess what you will hear before you do the interview.

We actually do this when we use our first language, but we probably don’t think about it. Whenever you ask
someone a question, you probably have some idea of what they will answer and have follow-up questions
prepared. Usually, you are not surprised by the words they use to answer your question and you can choose your
next question quickly. You can make predictions and ask follow-up questions in a foreign language too, but it
requires a little more planning.

When you prepare your interview questions, you can prepare lists of keywords and phrases that you think you
might hear in the answers. If you check these lists before and during the interview, it will probably be easier to
understand the interviewee. It is always easier to understand what we hear when we know what to expect.

You can also organize these lists of words to help you decide what follow-up questions to ask. If you hear certain
key words, you might ask different follow-up questions to learn more.

Let’s look at some examples from the interview questions about the tornado. The first question for the eyewitness
is: What did you see? Let’s make some predictions about words and phrases you might hear in the answer.

A tornado is a powerful storm. An eyewitness might use these words: rain, lightning, dark sky, clouds, trees
bending, things flying.

If the interview says the phrase “things flying,” you can have a follow-up question prepared. “What kind of things
were flying?”

Again, you can make predictions about words you might hear in the answer: cars, bicycles, animals, buildings. It’s
always easier to understand people and ask follow-up questions when they use familiar words.

If you learn these lists of words before the interview, it will probably be easier to understand the eye-witness’
answer and ask good follow-up questions. Let’s look at this strategy in action in a sample interview. To continue
with the tornado story, let’s talk to our eyewitness first. We already prepared questions and made predictions
about what the eye-witness will say. Listen to the interviewee and use the list of predicted vocabulary to help.

Journalist: What did you see?

© 2021 “Transcript – Interviewing Sources: Listening Strategies” by Arizona State University.


“Transcript – Interviewing Sources: Listening Strategies” for the Online Professional English
Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S.
1
government and administered by FHI 360. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
Eyewitness: First the sky got really dark, almost green. I saw a huge black cloud and the tornado came down out of
it. Things were flying around in the air. It was really frightening.

Journalist: What kind of things were flying around?

Eyewitness: Cars, horses, parts of buildings— I’ve never seen anything like it.

Hopefully, our predictions helped you understand the answers more easily. To review the first answer, we heard
the eyewitness talk about the dark sky, a cloud, and things flying around. The journalist asked a follow-up question
about the things flying around, and the eyewitness mentioned cars, horses, and parts of buildings. We heard other
things too, but hearing some familiar, predicted words means you don’t have to work so hard as you listen.

Now let’s ask the government official a few questions using the same strategy.

The first question is: “Where can people go to find help?” Here are our predictions: community center, high school,
police station, hospital, and relief, which means help after an emergency. If you hear “relief,” you can ask “What
can people get at the relief stations?” You can also make other predictions in your own notes if you want. Here is
the government official’s answer:

Government Official: The Red Crescent and Red Cross Society have set up shelters in the area. They are mostly in
community centers. Some are also in schools or hospitals. People should check with local officials to find the
locations.

Journalist: What can people get at the relief stations?

Government Official: The relief stations are tents where people can get food, water, and other relief supplies for
free. Also, people will see emergency relief trucks in their neighborhoods. These trucks are also giving supplies to
people who need them.

Hopefully, it was easier to understand the answers and ask good follow-up questions after you made predictions.

In this video, we looked at four examples of how to use this strategy when interviewing in English.

Good luck with all of your future interviews!

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