Academic Listening

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Tapescript for part 1:
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BBC Learning English
Talk about English
Academic Listening
Part 1 - English for Academic Purposes:
Introduction
This programme was first broadcast in 2001.
This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme.
ANNOUNCER:
It’s time for Academic Listening - a series for students at English-speaking universities.
Imagine: today is the first day of your uni life … How do you feel? Excited and confident? Or
maybe a little anxious? How do you think you’ll cope? And how can you make the learning
experience easier? For an insight, join Susan Fearn and members of the World Service class of
2001.
Susan: Well, if you think you might have problems, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
CLIP: Students
Angelica: Entering into the English speaking educational system for me was quite a change -
the main problem was understanding lectures - academic English is quite high level of speaking
therefore the first was to become familiar with the listening understanding.
Constant: I think the pronunciation of English people is not the same as I learned at school - I
come from Ivory Coast, it's in West Africa - the teacher in my country had a French accent -
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the teacher of English - and it's not the same accent here, so I think the pronunciation, the
accent is quite different .
Emma: You know how to express yourself in your own language - you know what you want
to say but it's difficult to put it in the exact words.
Susan: In this series we’ll enter the world of further education and focus particularly on
some of the linguistic problems experienced by students like you. And we’ll try
to identify strategies for coping with study in another language. Students and
teachers will share their tips on effective learning, and give advice on some of
the pitfalls to avoid. There’ll be a mix of theory, practice and personal
experience.
In this first programme, we focus on a special kind of English course, designed
to prepare students for their studies. It’s called EAP.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
EAP is actually studying English for Academic Purposes.
Susan: Christine Reeves teaches at Bell Norwich, a language school in the East of
England.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
That means studying English - the kind of English that you're likely to need to cope with life
and studying at a British University or any other English speaking university - it could be the
United States it could be Australia - and it prepares them and gives them necessary skills
which enable them to manage their studies.
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Susan: English for Academic purposes is a particular kind of English – used by a
particular group of people. If you speak Academic English, you’ll know a
special vocabulary associated with your subject, and you’ll be used to writing or
speaking in a particular way. You’ll know how to structure an essay or a
report, for example; and you’ll be familiar with the language used in lectures,
seminars and tutorials.
If you study EAP, you’ll practise special language skills for studying at a high
level, and you’ll gain a number of useful strategies to make your learning more
effective. Christine Reeves again.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
Most EAP courses would cover various components - for example here at Bell the
components we would always cover would be study skills, the students would also do quite a
heavy component of writing, there would be a lecture, a weekly lecture, and there would
normally be a component of social English to help them manage at the bank, for example, that
sort of thing.
Susan: An EAP course introduces you to the special language associated with the
academic world – common words, expressions, particular structures. It
provides a range of advanced study skills.
A good EAP course will give you training in general English as well. During
your university course, you’ll lead a double life. On duty: as a student -
grappling with academic ideas in academic English… and off-duty, in everyday
situations, using less formal English. It’s not unusual to have problems in both
areas.
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CLIP: Students
Constanza: I would like to be more fluent with my speaking because I've got ideas in my mind
but I don't have enough language to transmit my ideas - that's my problem.
Jose Arturo: In the case of English language, there are many different accents, and when you
learn the English in your country, you only learn the English prepared for learning English -
that is a more careful accent, that is not very fast. And when you come here - honestly,
sometimes I can't understand anything. Some people speak fast, some people speak with not
care of stressing the words that they say, so sometimes it's very difficult to follow them.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
Initially the problems they face are probably of an academic nature, for example they go to
lectures and they find that they can’t understand, or they can’t take notes very quickly. They
have quite a lot of reading to do and don't know how to cope with it. On top of that it could be
their first experience of living in another country, so they're unfamiliar with some of the
systems that we have here, like registering with a doctor, and then just basically making friends
- they could feel incredibly lonely and isolated. These are the problems they’ll face when
starting university.
Susan: Simon Williams teaches EAP in the Language Centre at University College,
London. He believes that difficulties experienced by language learners in
lectures and other academic situations occur chiefly because they just don’t
have enough mental energy.
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CLIP: Simon Williams
The sort of problems that non-native speakers might have are summed up in one word, and
that's “overload”. The listener is paying so much attention to decoding words that they
recognise and phrases that they recognise – it's almost like trying to do a word-by-word
translation. You can’t translate in that way. You have to get a global picture, as well as
looking at individual items. The student pays so much attention to the language that they miss
out on the content. They’re looking at the vehicle, rather than what the vehicle contains.
Susan: As well as coping with new vocabulary and lecturers who speak quickly and
with unfamiliar accents, you may find it very difficult to listen out for the main
points of a lecture and take notes at the same time. So what can you do?
CLIP: Simon Williams
Get hold of some texts, perhaps over the internet, or through a library, or through journals or
magazines that might be available in newsagents, or through friends, and then study recurring
specialist words in those texts; but also look at the kind of structures the kinds of organisation
used, because different subjects typically use different organisation or genres to put things
together.
Susan: Preparation is the key. Be prepared! According to Simon Williams, students
can make their academic life much easier by getting to know specialist
vocabulary in advance. And Simon Williams advises students to obtain an
English-English dictionary, and maybe a subject dictionary - of Medicine, of
Law, of Linguistics. Listening to the radio, watching TV - these are all methods
of improving both general and specialist English – as members of our World
Service class will tell you.
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CLIP: Students
Constant: I'm a computer engineer and so I always use internet and most of the websites are
in English so I think internet is a very good way to improve your English. I think especially the
reading - reading and vocabulary.
Constanza: I usually watch TV programmes in English so it helped me with listening and
sometimes when I watch TV I prefer to use subtitles in English too - so you can practise
together listening and reading.
Jose Arturo: Try to read books related with your subject. Even material you already know in
your language because some people can say 'oh that book, I know it, I've already read it in
Spanish three times'. You have to read it in English to see if you notice substantial differences.
Susan: During this series we’ll focus on some of the strategies you can use to improve
your listening ability and your performance in other academic situations. We’ve
said already that preparation is important. Simple things like looking up
specialist vocabulary, reading the course outline, looking at the title of a lecture,
for example, they can all help you predict its language and content. Here’s an
example of this from some research carried out by R. Anderson and colleagues.
It illustrates that “prior information about a text” can help you to make
predictions about its content and influence your interpretation. Here, “prior
information” comes in the form of the title.
CLIP: Actor's voice
A Prisoner Plans His Escape
Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought.
Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the
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charge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that held
him was strong, but he thought he could break it.
Susan: Now here’s that story again – same words – and same actor! - only the title has
changed. Notice how this new “prior information” changes your interpretation
of individual words and overall content.
CLIP: Actor's voice
A Wrestler in a Tight Corner
Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought.
Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the
charge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that held
him was strong, but he thought he could break it.
ANNOUNCER:
That was your introduction to English for Academic Purposes presented by Susan Fearn. At
the beginning of the programme, Susan invited you to reflect on some of the problems that
EAP students experience - and asked you to think about how they might cope. I wonder how
accurate your predictions were. Next time you listen to some English - whether it’s a radio
programme or a university lecture - listen out for clues about what’s coming next… and see if
it helps.

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tapescript for part 2:

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BBC Learning English
Talk about English
Academic Listening
Part 2 - Lectures: Introduction
This programme was first broadcast in 2001.
This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme.
ANNOUNCER:
It’s time for Academic Listening - a series for students at English-speaking universities. Many
students find that lectures are the most daunting aspect of their university life. In this
programme we’ll start to look at a range of techniques to make listening to lectures easier -
with presenter Susan Fearn and members of the World Service class of 2001.
CLIP: Lecture
“Taxes, Quality of Life and Happiness”
In this talk, I will first note a recent political emphasis on "quality of life". Secondly, I will
suggest that this contrasts with economic growth as a main - or the main - concern of
government …
Susan: Do you, like me, wish you had second chance to hear those university lectures?
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CLIP: Lecture
“Taxes, Quality of Life and Happiness”
In this talk, I will first note a recent political emphasis on "quality of life". Secondly, I will
suggest that this contrasts with economic growth as a main - or the main - concern of
government …
Susan: Sadly it’s never quite like that in real life! You can re-read a book; you can
replay a cassette, but you can’t rewind a lecturer.
CLIP: Simon Williams
The main point of a lecture for students must be to acquire information on a topic in a quick
and efficient way.
Susan: Simon Williams teaches English in the Language Centre at University College
London.
CLIP: Simon Williams
Of course, they could get a photocopy from another student later and not turn up, but it’s one
way of knowing how the subject is viewed by people in your department: whether it's thought
to be old-fashioned or crucial and very modern, contemporary, and how controversial it may
be: seeing where fits into whole syllabus.
Susan: Lectures can be important social occasions, a chance to meet with the other
students on your course. But, of course, they’re also an important way of
getting an overview of your subject or a particular element of your course. This
is something you may not be able to achieve through self-study or by reading
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someone else’s notes.
University teachers also have specific aims and objectives when they lecture.
Simon Williams again.
CLIP: Simon Williams
The purpose of a lecture is probably to stimulate students to do work by themselves. The end
result of a course must be to try and make a student autonomous, happy to find things out for
themselves, not being given things to accept uncritically. Learners need to know that’s the aim
of their course – that they’ll become individual and independent learners. So a lecturer will
aim to present just part of a topic and stimulate student to want to find out more. May be
there's a good reason – may be a written assignment on that topic. So that's another reason for
paying attention. But it can only happen if you know what to pay attention to – you can’t pay
attention to everything all at same time.
Susan: Understanding the aim or purpose of a lecture helps you decide where to focus
your attention. This is useful because you can’t concentrate on everything at
once. You may already be using large amounts of mental energy to cope with
other problems, as these students can confirm.
CLIP: Students
Two students describe their problems understanding the language of lectures. (Transcript is not
available.)
Susan: And that’s only the start of it! It can difficult to hear what a lecturer is saying
because you’re sitting in a large, echo-ey [does this word exist?] hall. Speakers
may have a strange accent; they might speak too quickly or too quietly. Some
might use unfamiliar technical or academic vocabulary.
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Christine Reeves teaches at Bell Norwich, a language school in the East of
England.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
I think one of the main problems is the really difficult skill of listening for the the main points,
understanding the main points and processing the main points and actually taking notes at the
same time. This is definitely what the students have expressed most difficulty in to me - as a
teacher.
Susan: Does that sound familiar?
Well, if you have problems in lectures, what can you do? Skilful listening
involves being able to select important information from the rest. Fortunately,
as Simon Williams explains, lecturers have various techniques to help guide you
through their lecture and to highlight key information.
CLIP: Simon Williams
You can often recognise the different bits, parts of a lecture by three things. First: lecturer’s
intonation. The sound of their voice is going to fall, quieter at end of a topic – rather like my
voice is fading and getting quieter now. Then they might use marker words, such as “right”,
“OK”, “good” – the sort of thing you often hear teachers say in a school classroom. Then
there’ll be a marker phrase such as: “I’d like to move on now”, or “turning now to”, or “let’s
now consider” – the speaker is self-consciously saying what they’re going to do next in speech
terms, in language terms. So you can think of those markers as signposts on the journey
through the lecture.
Susan: Good lecturers guide listeners through their talk. Their intonation and stress
patterns act as pointers to important information.
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Falling intonation helps you know when a speaker has finished one idea or
topic, and is about to move on to the next -- at a higher pitch. This is, if you
like, the spoken equivalent of the full stops and paragraph breaks in a book.
Speakers tend to stress important points by speaking more clearly - perhaps a
bit louder, more slowly and with greater care.
This lecture was originally given by Don Hill of University College London, and
focuses on the relationship of wealth and happiness. Don’t worry too much
about the specific content of what he’s saying: listen instead to the way he says
it. I’d like you to try to spot any signals that guide you through the talk or help
you identify key points.
What do you consider to be the most important piece of information here - and
why?
CLIP: Lecture
OK that brings me to the end of that second main part of this little talk on some contrasts with
traditional economic views.
Right: let's go on to the third part which I've called - “What Price Happiness?”
So I now want to raise some questions about happiness. The effect of the questions will be …
Susan: The speaker has reached the end of section two of his talk. His intonation falls -
the pitch and music of his voice get lower - and he gets quieter before he
introduces the next section.
His intonation then rises again; he gets louder and speaks carefully as he
highlights what he considers to be an important point: and that’s the title of the
next section of his lecture: “What Price Happiness?”.
Listen again.
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CLIP: Lecture
OK that brings me to the end of that second main part of this little talk on some contrasts with
traditional economic views.
Right: let's go on to the third part which I've called - “What Price Happiness?”
So I now want to raise some questions about happiness. The effect of the questions will be …
Susan: The speaker also uses a number of what Simon Williams calls “marker phrases”
such as: “That brings me to the end of the second part of this little talk” and
“Let’s go on to the third part”. These are like mini-announcements, or
signposts within the lecture.
You’ll hear more examples of these markers as the lecture continues.
The speaker has a number of questions. But what’s the most important question
he wants to ask? Listen out for clues in his intonation and stress.
CLIP: Lecture
So I now want to raise some questions about happiness.
The effect of the questions will be, I think, to cast further doubt on traditional views of the
desirability of uncontrolled economic growth
The first question is this. Can we really make a direct link between cash and happiness? We
have seen that the traditional economists' view of rational economic man is that he tries to
satisfy his desires, and these desires are taken to be for money and what money can buy, and as
much as he can get of each.
Susan: The speaker invites his listeners to focus on this important question: “Can we
make a direct link between cash and happiness?” His intonation – the higher
note, the slower speed and careful stress all indicate that we should pay
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attention to these words. Two marker phrases: “So, I now want to raise some
questions” and “the first question is this” also point us in this direction.
ANNOUNCER:
And that brings us to the end of today’s programme - and these are the three key points:
understanding the purpose of a lecture can help students know where to focus attention;
preparation can help students understand the language and content of a lecture;
and we’ve demonstrated ways in which speakers can guide listeners to important information,
using intonation, stress and marker phrases. Join Susan Fearn again next time for more
Academic Listening.