This section in general tests the ability of the candidate to understand spoken English.
The Listening Section in TOEFL IBT consists of 6 passages. These passages are 3-5 minutes in length and there are questions from these passages.
PASSAGE TYPES IN LISTENING
2 student conversations: A conversation involves 2 speakers, a student and either a professor or a campus service provider. These are 12-25 exchanges long.This involves a voice over on a picture, which the candidate listens and gets better idea of the information because of the picture.
4 academic lectures or discussions: A lecture is a self-contained portion of an academic lecture, which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized background knowledge in the subject area.These are 500-800 words long.A lecture may involve only one speaker ( professor) or student participation as well.
- Remember that the conversation or lecture, both are listened to just once.
- Test takers may take notes while they listen and they may refer to their notes when they answer the questions.
- Each conversation is associated with 5 questions and each lecture with 6.In all there are 34-51 questions, which an examinee is required to answer.
- In all, time given to complete Listening Section ranges from 60-90 minutes.
- This section is marked on a score range of 0-30.
The purpose behind Academic listening can be summed up as follows:
- To check the level of conception of the examinee in terms of how he conceptualizes the main idea etc.of the listening part.
- The ability to practically analyse the listening part.
- The ability to co-ordinate the information listened to and notes formulated to answer questions.
This section specifically tests the following abilities in the candidate:
The type of Listening questions can be shown as under:
Common Type Of Questions
1. Traditional multiple choice questions, i.e:4 choices and one correct answer to choose
2. Multiple choice question with more than 4 choices or more than one correct answer.
3. Arrange events or steps in order or in a process/ sequence.
4. Match object or texts to categories in a chart
Thus the Listening Section in TOEFL IBT is a reliable test for an examinee’s power to
- understand key ideas,
- implications,
- relationship between these ideas,
- organization of information,
- judging speaker’s attitude and
- speaker’s purpose.
