Lesson 2: Listening skills - Preparing for a lecture 1

Lesson aims:

• Recognise that listening to a lecture requires preparation beforehand

• Identify effective strategies to prepare for a lecture
• Practice how to skim through available material before a lecture

Prepare for class

Thorough preparation before class helps you understand the content discussed in class, and
enables you to contribute to the various discussions and tasks given in class.

Complete this section on your own before class.

Often, students can find it hard to keep up with the lecturer and struggle to take notes in
class. Watch the two videos that engage with effectively taking notes in class. Make your
notes based on each video in the space provided and have your notes ready for class.

Video 1: Predicting

In taking notes, focus on what the process entails and general do’s and don’ts.

1) Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsLD33rczFA

Notes:

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Video 2: How to take notes in class

In taking notes, focus on the five best methods of taking notes.

2) Video link: https://youtu.be/AffuwyJZTQQ

Notes:

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1
Adapted from Summer Pre-Sessional Materials, 2018, Durham University
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Have your notes ready for class!

In class

Purpose of a lecture

A lecture provides students with an oral presentation based on information related to a

specific subject of study. Lectures are extremely important because they can clarify
information, provide new understanding, facilitate understanding, and fill in knowledge gaps
that are relevant to your studies. It is also crucial to record information during a lecture, so
that you are able to recall valuable information that your lecturer may have mentioned in class
– note-taking and voice recording are the most common ways to record information.

Listening effectively in lectures is a three-part process:

Part 1. Predicting & making notes

Part 2. Listening & making notes
Part 3. Reviewing notes

Part 1: Predicting & making notes

Task 2
Watch the video regarding the predicting steps of the listening process. Use the space provided
to take notes.
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsLD33rczFA
This video is also available on Blackboard and you have watched it as part of class preparation.
If you struggle to follow the video while making notes, you can do the following:

1. Look at the table and the headings below before watching the video.
2. Watch the video for the first time without taking any notes. Keep the information you
need to capture in mind.
3. Read through the table again and think about (reflect) the information you just received
thought the video. Can you already fill in some of the questions based on the information
in the video?
4. Now, watch the video again and actively make notes while watching. This could mean
stopping or rewinding the video several times to make sure you write down the
appropriate information at the relevant question.
5. Read through the answer (notes) you wrote down for each question and evaluate them.
Do they still make sense to you? Would you still understand what you wrote down in a
week or two? If not, add some information to clarify your notes.

Write down the part of the Make your notes of each part of the process below. Focus
listening process below on what the process entails and general do’s and don’ts

1.

2.
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Task 3
Let’s consider the predicting process:

• Have you ever prepared for a lecture? If so, how?

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Why do you think it is important to gather information and predict the content before the
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actual lecture?
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There are a few ways in which we can predict useful content:

2.1 Predicting: think

Ask yourself the following questions and make some notes about your thoughts:

• What is the topic / title and what is my background knowledge about the topic?

2.2 Predicting: search

• Are the PowerPoint slides / summaries / any related information available in advance?
• If so, do something with this information:
o Read through the PowerPoint slides
o Make notes about key information
• Summarise key points
o Write down any questions you have

2.3 Predicting: read

• If your lecturer has given you any readings to do, make sure you do them before
your lecture.
• If you have not been given any reading, try doing some preparatory research on
the topic: do a key word search on Wikipedia, Google Scholar, or the library
database. Skim-read entries, abstracts, book blurbs and introductory chapters.
Consider the lesson slides below for the sample lesson on Summarising Text. Discuss the
following questions with a partner and write down your notes.

Sample slides on summarising lesson:

3.1 What do you already know about this topic?
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Now, let’s focus on the PowerPoint slides based on the upcoming lecture, and do the following
with a partner:
3.2 What are the PowerPoint slides about?
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3.3 Jot down the key information that you think the lecturer will deal with in his/her class.
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3.4 Write down any questions you have about the upcoming lecture.

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It is important to take note that not all lecturers will provide material before the lecture.
However, you can always gather information from your subject’s textbook, as well as find
additional information on online scholarly sites.

Part 2: Listening & making notes

Now, we will move on to the actual lecture. Listen to a section from a lecture on How to
summarise on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdvEFtUuMM and take notes (the
video is also accessible via Blackboard). Keep in mind the note-taking tips note-taking tips from
the video you watched to prepare for this lesson.
Look at your notes and reflect:

• Is it easy to see what the key points of the lecture were? Why?
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• Is it easy to see what the overall message of the lecture was? Why?

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• Are these going to be useful notes in a week from now? Why?
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• How can you make your notes clearer/more useful?
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Part 3: Reviewing notes

Now, we are going to move on to the third part of the listening process: reviewing your
notes.

• Discuss your notes with peers in your Blackboard breakout sessions and add to your
notes any information that is missing. Make sure that you have all the relevant key
information from the lecture.

• Did you find this a useful exercise?

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• How much information did you miss?

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Reflection

• What did you learn about preparing for a lecture?

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• Do you think you will be able to follow the three part-process in your actual studies?
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End of lesson two.