Listening 8: Making Inferences
Objectives: TOEFL iBT Listening Skills: • Understand how speakers imply information. • Practice interpreting speakers’ implied information. • Practice listening to a full lecture and a full conversation from the Listening section.
Introduction: Inference Questions • In real life, we often make inferences based on what we hear or observe. This is why inference questions appear in the TOEFL iBT Listening section . • People imply meaning when they say something indirectly while speaking or writing . • People infer meaning when they make conclusions while listening or reading . • In the TOEFL iBT Listening section, an inference question asks you to understand the meaning or implication of something that wasn’t directly stated in the lecture or conversation . Ways that Speakers Imply Meaning • Tone of Voice : Just like in real life, in the TOEFL iBT Listening section, the speaker’s tone of voice often hints at the speaker’s feelings. Test-takers will not encounter a tone of voice that is not an accurate representation of the speaker’s attitude. • Indirect Language : Just like in real life, in the TOEFL iBT Listening section, the speaker’s choice of language sometimes has an implied meaning, and inference questions ask test takers to identify that implied meaning . Listeners can infer meaning based on what the speaker has said . For example, imagine you invited a friend to go with you to a conference in another city, and the friend replied by saying, “I just went to a conference last weekend,” or, “I don’t have any money,” or “That city’s a five-hour train ride from here.” Even though the friend didn’t say “yes” or “no” to your invitation, they implied an answer. So what do you think—do they want to go with you to the conference? [Answer: No.] • Gestures/Other Visual Cues : Do you think you could tell if two people were fighting or joking around just from watching them—even if you couldn’t hear them talking? Probably. What would you expect to see if two people were fighting? [Clenched fists, frowning faces, pointing fingers, etc .] What would you expect to see if two people were joking around? [Laughter, friendly touches, etc.] In the Listening section of the TOEFL iBT test, unlike in real life, gestures aren’t used, so this is not a way to infer meaning in the test . • In this section, you’ll focus on answering questions using language from the lectures or conversations. This is different from the focus in Lesson 6, which was on tone of voice . Both are ways to infer meaning on the TOEFL iBT Listening section . Activity 8.1: Making Inferences • Read the excerpts from conversations and lectures . Then answer the questions . Excerpts A–C will be familiar because they come from section 6. • Compare your answers to the answer key at the end of this section .
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