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理工系大学院生のための学術英語

Academic Listening

Academic Listening #6: Five Traps to Be Careful With

中級 / Intermediate3 分

Academic Listening · Part 6 of 7

The five things that defeat strong readers of English in a live lecture.

These are the five things that most often defeat strong readers of English when they first sit in a live lecture. Every one of them is a listening problem, not a vocabulary problem.

1. Signposts are spoken fast and flat
“Let me begin by” arrives as lemmi-gin-by in about half a second, with no stress at all, because the speaker treats it as packaging rather than content. You have to recognise these phrases at a speed at which you will never fully hear them — which is why saying them aloud yourself works better than reading lists of them.
2. The hedge is the finding
Science is spoken in degrees of confidence. “This suggests”, “tends to”, “may indicate”, “is consistent with” are not decoration — they are the claim. Writing “X causes Y” when the speaker said “X appears to be associated with Y” is a serious misunderstanding, and it is the most common note-taking error I see.
3. Negation hides in small words
“We didn’t see any effect” and “We saw an effect” differ by one unstressed syllable. Worse, academic speech loves double negatives: “not insignificant” means significant. When you are tired your brain drops small words first, so mark negatives deliberately with a large ✗.
4. Numbers and units are said, not shown
“Ten to the minus three”, “two point five kilojoules per mole”, “an order of magnitude”. You read these fluently and may still not catch them at speed. Practise by listening to any technical talk and writing down only the numbers.
5. Most academic English is spoken by non-native speakers
At an international conference you will hear Indian, Chinese, German, Brazilian and Japanese English far more often than American English. If you only ever practise with polished American recordings, the real conference room will be a shock. Listen to a range of accents deliberately — and remember that your own accent is equally acceptable. The goal is to be clear, not to sound American.
Next · Part 7 of 7Where to Practise, FreeFour places to train your ear, all free, all verified. ← Part 5: Practice — A Real MIT Lecture

Academic Listening series, Shimane University.

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