5 speed of natural speech. Version C is very similar to real-life situations. The speed is the natural pace as you would encounter it in real life and additional background noise and/or acoustic distractions imitate realistic communicative settings. This means for you that you can choose the level which you think is best for you at your current stage. If you think that you need to get used to spoken English and you feel that you are fairly inexperienced, you can start with version A. If you want to train listening to faster, more realistic speech, version B will be just right for you. If you want to test how well you can cope with realistic communicative situations, version C is the best. The texts and the tasks for all three levels are exactly the same or very similar, only the acoustic quality and the speed vary. We recommend that you switch between the various levels depending on your language skills and the progress you have made. It is best to focus on the recordings without reading the transcripts first. You may do this at a later stage if you feel you need more support. In addition to the standardised listening tasks, there are also other listening activities in the book (e.g. spelling exercises) which will help you train specific aspects of listening comprehension tasks. They will also make you familiar with the voices used in these chapters and prepare you for the test practice tasks. The better you prepare for a listening situation, the easier it will be for you. That is why it makes sense to do these listening tasks every now and then (spread out over weeks or months) to become familiar with the sound, the voices, the intonation and the content of the topics in focus. Additional activities However, this book will not be able to solve all your listening problems without further activities on your part. Reading, watching videos and listening to authentic audio recordings from various sources (with or without subtitles) are perfect ways to prepare for the challenges you might come across. Before you start listening to a recording, read similar texts or listen to audio tracks on the same topic to get used to the vocabulary and the way in which such texts are composed. After you have read or listened to similar texts, you will recognise typical words and phrases as well as content elements much more easily. Sometimes your general knowledge may also help you filter out unrealistic, incorrect or even nonsensical options in listening tasks. Keeping a learning journal In addition, it is highly recommended that you keep a learning journal to collect the language items which you have learned and which you want to remember for later. Combining writing, reading and listening will have a positive effect on your language skills altogether. A learning journal can be a notebook or a set of index cards, but don’t just copy and paste on the computer. Typing or writing by hand will help you to memorise what you want to remember. You can add any items you want – also things which you have come across during your spare time activities, e.g. when you surf the net or when you read something interesting. Design your learning journal as you wish – whatever you think appropriate is right. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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