Academic Listening (Pre-sessional LLM)

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• take effective notes during lectures and seminars, using a range of standard abbreviations and symbols
• use effective strategies for overall listening comprehension
• use knowledge of vocabulary to interpret meaning in context
• summarise notes in oral or written form, demonstrating an understanding of main and supporting detail

The listening syllabus helps you to develop strategies for improving your listening, and focuses in particular,

on how to listen effectively in lectures and how to take appropriate and useful notes while listening. You will

attend a weekly lecture in order to practise the skills taught, and to accustom you to the style of lecture used

in the UK.

Areas that you will cover include:

 Using an introduction to help understand the law lecture better

 Identifying the key points a law lecturer wants to make

 Distinguishing key points from examples

 Identifying ways in which a law lecturer signals key points

 Recognising when new terminology, terms and concepts are being introduced in a law lecture

 Recognising ways in which information is organised in law lectures

 Identifying key phrases that indicate how a law lecture is organised

 Identifying main and subtopics in a law lecture

 Developing strategies to use when information in a text has not been heard/understood

 Identifying phrases in a law lecture that indicate connections between ideas

 Understanding emphasis in law lectures

 Identifying digressions

 Understanding connected speech

 Using strategies to predict the content of a law lecture

Teaching and learning methods

You will experience a wide variety of teaching and learning methods including: full class teaching; real life

and videoed lectures; individual, pair and group work in class; discussions in small groups; set tasks to be

completed outside class; use of authentic lectures for exploitation; self-directed independent study and

tutorials.

Teaching methods include:

Taught sessions, seminars, law lectures, film club, case reading sessions and workshop individual support

through your academic advisor and listening and speaking tutor.

Learning activities include:

Individual study, group and pair work, and discussions in small groups and tutorials.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

BBC Radio 4: The Reith Lectures.

British Council Learn English: Professionals Podcasts.

UEFAP Listening.

BBC Law in Action.

University of Warwick.

TED Talks.

British Council Learn English: Listen and Watch.

BBC Learning English: Academic Listening.

BBC Radio 4 podcasts.

BBC iPlayer.

Textbooks

T Lynch (2004). Study Listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

C Campbell and J Smith (2009). English for Academic Study: Listening. Reading: University of Reading.

D Beglar and N Murray (2009). Contemporary Topics: Academic Listening & Note taking Skills Book 3. New York: Pearson Longman.

S Cottrell (2008). The Study Skills Handbook. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

E Kisslinger and M Rost (2009). Contemporary Topics: Academic Listening & Note taking Skills Book 2. New York: Pearson Longman.

Assessment strategy

Informal tasks designed to provide formative feedback on:

 listening and note-taking skills

 strategies to improve your listening skills.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.