TOEFL Listening Tips 4: Understand the speaker's stance

Very important!!! Remember to ALWAYS take notes when you do TOEFL listening

Listening Tip 4: the speaker's stance .
Another difficult question in the TOEFL listening section is concerned with the 'speaker's stance' .  The 'speaker's stance' . is the attitude of the speaker to the topic. Itis how he feels about the topic. Often the speaker will not directly say how he feels. Hower, he will give clues. You need to listen and combine three things -
1) the meaning of the words
2) the context in which they are spoken
3) the way they are spoken
Taking all three together will give you the speaker's stance.
Look at the examples below.

Example 1:

Man: I'm thinking of buying a new Toshiba laptop. Woman: I bought one a few months ago, and I don't think I'll ever buy another.

Here the woman simply states the fact that she bought a Toshiba laptop a few months ago and won't buy one again. The context of this short conversation, however, is the man asking for advice or approval. Because the woman says,"I don't think I'll ever buy another.", the man can understand that she does not like her Toshiba laptop and would not recommend he buy one.

Example 2:

I magine the conversation continues. Man: Why's that? Woman: Well, it's pretty slow, and setting up the wireless connection was a bit of a nightmare. Man: You must have been unlucky. Both my brother and sister have one, and they really like them.

The context here, of course, is still the same, and the man states that both his brother and sister think the Toshiba is a good laptop. Though he doesn't say so directly, he is signalling that the woman's negative opinion of the Toshiba will not change his mind and he will still buy one.

Be careful!!!

Sometimes it is a question of how something is said. Example 3:

A conversation between a student and a professor. Professor: Have you received your scores for the TOEFL iBT test yet? Student: Actually, I overslept and didn't make it to the test center. Professor: You did what!

Click on "You did what!" to hear how the professor spoke. Taking the context of the conversation and the way the professor spoke, you can understand that he is angry with the student.

Example 4:

A conversation between two students. Man: Professor Jones is too strict and gives us way too much homework. It takes up all my weekend. Woman: I know. I went to her office last week and told her directly that she was asking too much of us. Man: You did what!

Click on "You did what!" to hear how the man spoke. Taking the context of the conversation and the way the man spoke, you can understand that he is not only surprised, but admires the woman for being so bold.

Example 5:

A conversation between a student and a professor. Professor: You seem to be very behind on your final project. I'm not sure you'll be able to finish on time. Student: I plan to spend 8 hours a day for the next two weeks working on it. That should be enough. Professor: Well, that might be possible.

Click on "Well, that might be possible." to hear how the professor spoke. Taking the context of the conversation and the way the professor spoke, you can understand that he feels it will be difficult for the students plan to succeed.

Example 6:

A conversation between a student and a professor. Professor: So you want to drop out of Professor MacLeod's class because you have a part-time job. If you do that, you'll lose credit. Student: AI was hoping to transfer to Professor Green's class. She teaches the same class but on a different day. Professor: Well, that might be possible.

Click on "Well, that might be possible." to hear how the professor spoke. Taking the context of the conversation and the way the professor spoke, you can understand that he has a positive attitude to the student's idea and feels it has a good chance of success.

Be careful!!!
Very important!!! Remember to ALWAYS take notes when you do TOEFL listening