CELPIP Listening Part 2: Daily Life Conversation
Tips & Strategies
How to Listen Effectively
Following the dialogue
Listen in full-sentence mode, not vocabulary mode
  • Listen for the complete idea of a sentence rather than focusing only on individual words.
  • This will help you understand the speakers' ideas more clearly.
Avoid focusing too much on vocabulary
  • Vocabulary is useful, but only for some specific questions.
  • Hearing a familiar word does not necessarily mean that it connects to the question.
Listen and repeat ideas in your mind
  • Mentally repeat important ideas as you hear them.
  • This can help you absorb information and remember it.
You can take notes
  • You will be given a notepad, so notes can help you remember important information.
  • You can write notes in your own language; your notes are not graded.
  • Make sure writing does not interfere with listening.
Put yourself in the situation
  • Imagine the context visually and place yourself in the situation while the speakers are talking.
  • Ask yourself what you might do if you were in the same situation.
  • This can help you understand the speakers and their ideas more clearly.
What Information to Focus On
Context, speakers, and main ideas
Understand the Situation and Context
This will help you understand more.
  • Identify the speakers and their roles. What does each person want?
  • Identify the kind of situation. Is it at a store, between friends, at work, or somewhere else?
  • Pay attention to tense: past, present, or future.
Understand What Each Speaker Adds
What does each speaker provide to the conversation?
  • Direct information can include an answer to a question or specific details.
  • Indirect information can include advice, suggestions, possibilities, necessities, wishes, needs, and future actions.
  • Keep track of which ideas belong to which speaker.
Focus on Ideas More Than Vocabulary
This will help you understand the questions and answers more clearly.
  • Connect ideas to the overall situation.
  • Do not select an answer only because it contains words you remember hearing.
  • Use vocabulary association to connect related words and remember the larger idea.
Listening to the Questions
Understanding the question focus
Repeat the question to better understand it
  • Mentally repeat or rephrase the question so you are clear about exactly what it is asking.
Focus on who the question is related to
  • Identify which speaker the question is asking about.
  • Keep each speaker's role, opinions, and actions separate.
Focus on the specific part the question is asking about
  • Understand the connection between the question and the relevant part of the dialogue.
Questions are usually related to
  • The situation
    • Specific information: Where are they? What are they doing?
    • How each person is connected to the situation: How are they related? What is each person's role?
  • What each speaker suggests, thinks, or feels about the situation
  • Actions taken
    • What does the person do?
    • What will the person do?
Responding to the Questions
How to select answers
Avoid Selecting Answers Only Because of Words You Heard
Answers often contain words from throughout the dialogue.
  • Answer choices may use familiar vocabulary while expressing a different idea.
  • Connect words with the complete idea before choosing an answer.
Focus on the Idea of the Answer More Than Its Words
Understand what each answer is suggesting.
  • This is especially important for longer answers and questions about suggestions, opinions, or advice.
  • Some answers are indirect. The idea may be implied rather than clearly stated in one sentence.
Eliminate Wrong Answers
Finding which answers are wrong can be as important as finding the answer.
  • Eliminate answers that do not connect correctly to the question or dialogue.
  • For the remaining choices, look closely at what is different between them before selecting your answer.
Selecting the Answers
Identifying differences
Focus on Grammar
  • Similar ideas can have different meanings because of tense: present, past, future, or present perfect.
  • Modals can change meaning even more: could, may, might, should, would, have to, need to, and must.
Focus on Opposite Ideas
  • An answer may use an idea from the dialogue but connect it to the wrong speaker.
  • An answer may also use familiar information while expressing the opposite idea.
Focus on Vocabulary Association
  • Similar words may appear in an answer without correctly connecting to the question or may express a different meaning.
  • Correct answers may use synonyms or paraphrases instead of the exact words you heard.
Focus on Meaning
  • Some answers require understanding the complete context of the conversation rather than one specific detail.
  • Consider what the speakers are suggesting, thinking, or communicating overall.
  • Expressions, idioms, and slang can communicate more than their literal words.
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