Strategies for Part 2
Listening for Signposts in Short Talks
When you listen to a monologue or short talk, you need to listen for words or expressions which help you understand the structure of the conversation and the relationship between ideas. These words are called ‘signposts‘.
Signposts can help you follow a monologue as they will:
- tell you at what stage of the listening passage you are. Are you at the beginning, middle or the end of the listening passage? For example: ‘I’d like to begin the tour of the museum by first giving you a brief history of the building.’, and
- help you anticipate what the speaker is going to do next. For example: ‘I’d now like to show you the dinosaur exhibition.’
Signposts and their functions
Read the following list of signposts and their functions. Are there any signposts that are new to you?
Function | Signposts |
Giving an example | For example, | Such as | For instance, |
Giving a consequence | Therefore, | Consequently, | As a result, | Because of this |
Giving a cause | Due to the fact | Due to | Because of | As a result | Owing to |
Showing a sequence | Firstly, | To start with | Initially, | Secondly, | Then, | Next, | After that, | Finally, | Last but not least, |
Contrasting | However, | Although | On the other hand | In contrast, | Unlike |
Examples of signposts
Function | Examples |
Giving an example | Lucy experienced many different and unusual situations on her journey through Africa. For example, in Kenya, she learned how to cook authentic African food while living with a Kenyan family.‘For example’ tells you that the speaker is going to give an example, or that an example has just been given. |
Giving a consequence | Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to tell you that our key speaker is not able to come today. Therefore, we have cancelled the afternoon lecture in the main hall.‘Therefore’ tells you that the speaker is going to talk about the consequence of an action or event. |
Giving a cause | The schools have been closed for two days due to the storm.‘Due to’ tells you that the speaker is going to talk about a cause. |
Showing a sequence | Finally, stress can cause students to become tired and unproductive.‘Finally’ tells you that you are near the end of the listening passage. |
Contrasting | The flight to Argentina was very long and tiring. However, the food and the in-flight entertainment were excellent.‘However’ tells you that the speaker is going to make a contrast. In this example, the speaker contrasts the long and boring flight with something positive. |
Signposts with the same function
It is common that you will see signposts in summary and sentence completion questions. However, as shown in the first table above, there are different signposts that have the same function. This means that you need to be prepared to hear a signpost that is not the same as the one in the question.
Look at the following example:
Question | Recording |
Therefore, people began moving 1 _________ | As a result, people started to migrate east. |
As you can see, the signpost Therefore is in the question, but in the recording you hear As a result. You know that the answer is coming because these two signposts have the same function.
Listening for Paraphrased Sentences
In the previous topic, you learnt how to follow a speaker’s talk by using signposts. In this topic, we will look at another important skill for Part 2 of the listening test: listening for paraphrased sentences.
In this part of the test, the speaker will rarely use the same words as in the questions on your test. They will paraphrase the information by changing individual words (using synonyms) and entire sentences.
Paraphrasing means to express one idea using different words and changing the structure of the sentence while keeping the original meaning. Look at the following example:
Original sentence | Paraphrased sentence |
Although the wage gap between men and women has shrunk, it has not disappeared. | There is not as wide a difference between men and women’s salaries as there used to be, but it still exists. |
Notice how the paraphrased sentence conveys the same idea as the original but it has different wording and structure:
- wage gap → a difference […] salaries
- it has not disappeared → it still exists
- Although… → but…
It is important to point out that even though what the speaker says may have been paraphrased, your answers should come directly from the listening passage; that is, you must not change the form of the words you hear and must not write synonyms.