Academic Listening Part 2 - Lectures: Introduction

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.