ESL Radio and TV

Face2Face: Michael Clutterbuck

English Level: Intermediate

English teacher, Michael Clutterbuck, is interviewed by students, Binky, Minh Hung and Masa, about his hobby, model trains.

Learning Ideas from ESL Radio and TV

Listening for gist

"Listening for gist" means listening for general understanding and is the opposite of listening for detail. Often when second language learners listen to an English text they try to understand every word and then they find that they don't really know what the listening is about. Before you begin to study a listening text it is important to understand the general meaning.

Before you begin to answer the quiz questions in the ESL Radio and TV listenings, take the time to listen once for gist. Don't try to understand everything. Just get a general understanding. This will help you a lot when you try to answer the quiz questions that focus on the detail in the listenings.

ESL radio and TV has been designed to help English language learners improve their listening skills.