Improve Your TOEFL Listening by 3 Points - Think Like a Teacher

all right guys TOEFL listening improving your score by three points this lesson is gonna blow you away okay this is going to be an amazing [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] all right guys TOEFL listening improving your score by three points this lesson is going to blow your mind because I'm gonna teach you a strategy a way of thinking about the listening passage the way of thinking about the way teachers teach in America it has a structure not just on the TOEFL but just in general once you understand this structure you will be able to know what is the most important information when you're listening so this lesson is really valuable I hope you have a pen and a piece of paper ready to take notes if you don't get everything from this lesson make sure you watch it again because this is what you need to do to improve your score I'm not going to talk about tips and tricks for questions I'm going to talk about the underlying structure of how we organize a lecture okay so you're going to think like a teacher here I want you to think like a teacher this is how it you're going to improve your score by three points all right at the end of this I'll let you know how you can keep practicing as well so make sure you stay to the end so I'll tell you what to do next okay now but pay attention carefully very important TOEFL listening thinking like a teacher how do you think like a teacher let me show you okay the first thing you gonna do is you that's you I want you to imagine that you have to explain Christmas to an alien beautiful alien by the way I want you to imagine you're going to explain Christmas to an alien okay now why because an alien has no idea what Christmases so how are you gonna explain this holiday to somebody who has no idea what it's about right this is exactly what a teacher does when they step into the classroom they imagine that you are an alien that you don't know anything about the topic okay and let's take for example that's hopeful they have to imagine that you don't know anything about this topic at all so what they have to do is is that they have to explain it to you and try to make it easy for you to understand so don't worry if they start talking about something you don't know about if they start talking about the American Civil War for example or they start talking about Pangaea for example I hope my pronunciation is correct on that I you probably don't know what those things are maybe that's fine because they're gonna explain it to you just like you would have to explain Christmas to an alien excuse me I have a little bit of a cold so how are you gonna explain Christmas to an alien so there's a couple different things you can do just like a teacher does on the in class or on the TOEFL okay so the first thing that they're going to do in the lecture is they're going to introduce the topic pretty simple they're going to introduce the American Civil War they're going to introduce Pangea whatever it is so for example for the Civil War they might say okay class so last time we started talking about the American Civil War which was a conflict between the northern and southern states in the mid 19th century okay so that would be an introduction where they introduced the topic and they define the topic right same thing with let's say Pangaea for example so you guys probably remember what Pangaea is right so that's the idea that the earth a long time ago that the land masses used to be connected and then as time went by they started drifting away this is also known as continental drift so they introduced it in the beginning to make sure that you understand what it is they always do this in the TOEFL and they and teachers should do this in general okay just to kind of get you ready to what you're gonna listen to now again why is this important this is important because you will understand what is the most important information you need to listen to and take notes on so you can prepare for those questions the questions for the TOEFL listening are about a lot of things but they're also about important stuff important information what's the important information it's usually details about the subtopics okay now what is a subtopic its what it looks like sub means under the topic okay so a sub topic is basically a smaller part of the larger topic right so going back to the Civil War for example let's say I'm talking about the American Civil War and then two subtopics might be important battles in the Civil War or reasons why the Civil War started something like that the reason that teachers break things down into subtopics is because they want you to make it more understandable remember you're explaining Christmas to an alien right how am I gonna make that more understandable for you I got to break it down a little bit I got to make it a little bit easier to understand so you want to listen for these subtopics here when you are doing the TOEFL listening and you want to write down you don't have to read them the subtopic exactly but details about the subtopics why it's connected to the topic Christmas for example and when you understand that structure you will be able to listen to the most important information okay so let's say for example we have to explain Christmas to an alien let me show you how these subtopics work there's a couple different ways you can do that you can talk about two traditions like let's say for example giving presents to each other and decorating a Christmas tree okay so mr. alien on Christmas we usually give presents to each other to show our thankfulness to each other and also we usually a tree because why do we duck every tree I don't know I'll have to research this and so and then we explain the two traditions right or let's say for example I'll talk about the research history this is another way that they might break it down in the TOEFL say well it's kind of controversial how Christmas started some people say that it started from a Christian holiday and other people say it's more of a pagan Scandinavian holiday and bla bla bla so then that's a different way that I break it down I might talk about the history of it right so the topic while the topic is important Christmas what you're listening for is actually how the teacher breaks this topic down and what do they explain about this stuff why is it important why is it important that some people think it's Christian some people think it's a pagan holiday right or let's say conflicting views maybe another example is some people think that Christmas should be a very traditional day and other people think it should be more modern and include all these different religions and all these different types of celebration so the way to different groups of people feel about this topic right or comparison you might compare the way Christmas is celebrated in America versus the way that it's celebrated in Japan for example something like that that's the structure of how a lecture is given and that's what you need to look for you need to look for these sub - or listen for it should say these sub topics this is how you improve your score by 3 points or even more by understanding the structure a big mistake most students make is that they think that they have to understand everything that they listen to no you only have to understand what's most important and how do you get to know what's most important by understanding how a lecture is structured now I also got a tip for you right now is how to under sub topic I wanted to write I didn't I kind of ran out of space here but here some different phrases that a teacher might say before they introduce an important subtopic for Christmas let's say for example so let's take a closer look at Christmas trees so let's take a closer look at the history of Christmas in particular the Christian history okay another example now I love this example now so short so simple I use it all the time to transition from one topic to the next topic so I'm talking about something okay now I do it constantly and they do it in the listening as well another important thing to consider about Christmas is this will probably the second top second sub topic because it's another another important another important opinion about the history of Christmas is based on pagan culture and so on so this is how you identify the subtopic so let me just review really quickly how to improve your score by three points you think like a teacher you think of how I'm going to explain this like to an alien my students you break it down after you the introduction you break it down into subtopics okay these different important points about the lecture whatever it is so I'm teaching you structure I'm teaching you a way to think I'm not teaching you like a trick to answer one question I'm teaching you a way to think that you can use for any lecture for the speaking for the writing and a listening as well okay I hope you understand how valuable this is okay know this listen to a TOEFL passage and recognize that this is what they're doing alright okay so sorry I get a little excited if you want to know more WWE TOEFL speaking teacher calm next thing you do is go to that site we have this video connected to a transcript okay transcript is basically every word I'm saying great way to improve your listening is to try to listen to what I'm saying and then listen to the I'm sorry and then read the transcript and then see what words you don't understand and what you do okay it's a really good exercise check it out there and you stay to the end that's amazing I appreciate that and I I appreciate you stay motivated and take care guys good luck I'll see you later

Channel: TST Prep TOEFL

Views: 215,618

Keywords: Improve TOEFL listening, TOEFL listening help, TOEFL listening tips, TOEFL listening tricks, TOEFL Speaking teacher, Josh MacPherson, Vocabulary Ninja

Id: iScDun9mLUY

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2017