Listening Skills: Asking yourself information questions before listening

In this unit, we are going to learn how to ask ourselves information questions before listening. The purpose of doing this is to help us better predict and catch important information in listening materials.

Different information questions may be asked depending on the content of material you are going to listen.

For instance, before listening to an introduction to a course, you may ask yourself:

- Who will teach the course?

- What will it probably cover?

- What are the requirements for the course?

- How will the performance be assessed?

But if you are going to hear a news report about an accident, before you listen, you may ask questions with who, what, when, where, why and how. For example:

- What was it?

- Where did it take place?

- When did it happen?

- Who was involved?

- Why did it happen?

- How did things develop?

- What was the result?

All these questions may help you better prepare for and understand the listening material. So please always ask information questions whenever you listen to a talk.

In the following, you are going to hear a museum guide introduce three transportation ideas: the monorail, the plane with a car that comes off, and the home helicopter. Now please write down at least four questions about the transportation ideas before you listen to get prepared for the following listening task.