It’s Important to Listening
There are some elements of pronunciation that will help you make your English sounds really English. Furthermore, the knowledge upon the elements of pronunciation is important in studying the emotion or the feelings of either a speaker. Nevertheless, understanding elements of pronunciation is not only helpful in revealing the feeling and emotion of a real speaker, but also it is helpful in understanding a text, and/or an oral text, for instance a poem. Stress is applied in words, word groups and phrases, and sentences.
Rhythm
A verse is an arrangement of lines with regular stress pattern. In some cases, the stress pattern adopted in a verse creates rhythm that later on determines the type of a verse. In studying rhythm, we too study about verse at once since rhythm is an almost inseparable part of verse. There are three types of verse which are presented in this unit, they are Free Verse, Sprung Rhythm, and Metrical Rhythm. In addition to that, there are six types of Metrical Rhythm commonly known to be used in English verse, and among those six, only two or three of them are generally applied by writers.
Facts and Figures
We are dealing with tables almost everyday. Tables are meant to be easy to read and concise. Tables consist of rows and columns which present different classifications or variables, the most important ones are the first row and the first column. They introduce the content of the table by the classification so that anyone who reads the table knows what information they can get from the table.
When you read a table, do not forget to read the additional explanation about the table, which can take the form of sentences above or below the table. You also have to pay attention to the symbols and measurement system used in the table.
Graphs, Diagrams and Charts
Graph, diagram and chart are ways of presenting facts and figures in a simple and concise way. There are many kinds of graphs. In this unit we only discuss three of them, i.e., line graphs, bar diagram/graphs and pie charts or circle graphs. There are still many other kinds of diagram but these two are the most commonly used ones.
Bar and line graphs have two axis which are called X and Y axis. Each axis represents different category or variables, therefore when you have a bar or line graph to read, don’ t forget to check the variables represented by each axis.
Pie chart is different from bar and line graphs. It is usually used when we want to divide one big thing into smaller pieces or parts. It is called pie because the shape is just like a pie. And one pie is cut into several slices. Each slice represents certain amount or percentage. So, the total percentage of one pie is always 100%, but the amount included in one pie is unlimited.
Interview
Family is one of the commonest topics raised in everyday life because it is inseparable from everyday conversations. When interviewing someone’s family, we raise some common questions. The questions people raise vary from questions which take short answers to questions that give more chance for the interviewee to describe what s/he thinks is important.
Some of the typical questions raised are: How many brothers and sisters do you have? Do you still live with your family? Are you married? Do you have any children? Could you tell me something about your family? or Tell me about your family.
When people talk about food, what do they talk about? Right. They talk about the taste, color, ingredients, and also how to make it or even how you like it. The focus for this unit is the keywords found in interviews about food. When talking about food or cooking, we use some common words which might have different meaning when appear in different context. Some are less common words that we have to learn since they might not exist in our culture or traditional cuisine. Therefore, do not hesitate to consult your dictionary when you don’t know some new vocabulary, especially the ones related to ingredients. And some verbs related to cooking.
The word bring, for example, when we use it in different context might mean: to cause to come into a particular state or carry something. Which one is correct? Both are, only you have to learn to recognize them in their context.
Famous Person
Who are not interested in singers, artists, politicians, athletes or even scientists? Most of us are interested in knowing about famous people, people who are famous of their works and they are so good at what they do that people want to know all about them, their work, career, personal life, etc. They also appear quite often in the media that people actually see and read about them everyday. So famous people have become our everyday interests.
In talk shows on TV or the radio, we often listen to famous people being interviewed. Not only famous people who are often interviewed. Sometimes people who have met famous people are asked to share their experience of meeting famous people.
What do people ask about famous people? Well, where and when they were born, their interest and what they don’t like, their best moments in career, their life, and many others.
When you do an outline exercise you should try to understand the points of the outline first before you scan for the appropriate information while listening to the interview. Listen to the questions raised by the interviewer to get to know the idea of the questions then fill in the outline. When the exercise is in the form of detail questions about the interview, then you should try to identify the questions raised by the interviewer then get the answer that follows from the interviewee. Sometimes you couldn’t find help from the questions raised by the interviewer since s/he doesn’t really ask many questions. For this type of interview, you need to get to know the details from the keywords, phrases or sentences of the interviewee
Project Journalism
In project journalism, we are talking about journalism in wider perspective, there will be wider range of topics to be explored because we are talking about project journalism. The topics range from everyday habits to people’s political beliefs. Project journalism is conducted by not only journalists but also for students and common people.
When you can’t find clues from the questions of an interview, you can find help from the phrases or sentences that are talking about the points mentioned in the exercises. So, first of all you have to understand the points in the exercises then find similar phrases or sentences from the interview.
JOB
When you want to draw a conclusion on someone’s occupation or job you need to find the keywords related to what s/he does. However, you have to remember that one word can have more than one meaning. From the example above you have a word “coat”. It can have the meaning of an outer garment with sleeves, covering at least the upper part of the body as well as a coat of paint on a surface.
Keywords are not the only source of information you can use to draw a conclusion on someone’s job. The chronological order of his/her job is sometimes an important clue for you. Besides job description, we can also recognize someone’s job through his/her uniform or working clothes.
Lectures
Lectures are usually formal and well organized so that it is easier for the audience of a lecture to follow the explanation given by the lecturers. One thing which is very important is to find the topic of the lectures. It’s usually located in the first line of the lecture. Once you have identified the topic it is easier for you to follow the lecture since it will explain more about the topic. Some detail questions about a lecture can be answered directly by quoting the lecture while some others can only be answered after you draw your own conclusion by using the information given in the lecture.
Advertisements
Advertisement is part of our modern life. We see and hear them almost anytime anywhere. There are columns dedicated for advertisement in newspapers. There are advertisement pages in magazines. TV commercials are breaking one TV program into several sections. Radio ads are heard every few minutes. No one would be able to say that they don’t know anything about advertisements.
Prose Passages
As what we have in written text, oral texts may also suggest what are named by Comparison and Contrast. Comparison text is a kind of text that compares two things (or more) by giving its emphasizes on the similarities, while contrast is a kind of text that contrasts two things (or more) by giving stresses on the differences.
Comparison and Contrast texts may perform in a form of comparison text that talks about similarities only, contrast text that speaks mainly about differences, or the combination of both, comparison and contrast that stress on both similarities and differences.
For contrast text, especially, there are two models of text, that is point by point presentation, in which characters are placed one after another in every point of features being contrasted, or completely describing one aspect before the other, in which one aspect is thoroughly explained before moving on the other subject. Here, the later allows less repetition of names.
Some terms used for Comparison text are:
the same, the same as, as, similar to, like, and…too, and so, and…either, and neither, both…and, neither…nor, not as…so, similarly, correspondingly, likewise, in the same way, by the same token, etc.
While the terms used for Contrast text are:
to be+adj-er+than, more…than, less…than, as…as, unlike, on the contrary, contrary to, as supposed to, although, whereas, while, contrasts with, differs from, is different from, however, on the other hand, etc
Cause and Effect
In cause and effect texts, one part of the text describes the cause(s), and another part describes the effect(s). Sometimes one cause may have more than one effect, and one effect may be the result of several causes.
There are certain words/expressions to indicate causes and certain other words to indicate effects.
Illustrattion and Examples
Illustration and Examples are used to support explanation in an Expository paragraph. Illustrations give us a situational context where the writer/speaker make his point clearer. Examples usually give several things in clarifying the point. They are often preceded by the words/phrases “like”, “as”, “such as”, “for example”, “for instance”, “e.g.” (example gratia).
Talk Show
In this unit your have learned about talk shows. A talk show is a program on radio or TV which presents current topics in the society.
The current topics are usually introduced and questioned by the host to the guest (s) britly.
Sometimes talk shows are interactive so that the audience can ask (questions, give comments and suggestions) about the topic through telephone.
Testimony
In this unit you learned about testimony, which is defined as “proofs”, “evidence”, or “declaration or statement of fact”, or “affirmation”. You need testimonies to support a statement or argument, to show that what you are saying is strongly supported by facts, and not just your subjective opinion.
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