1. TOEFL LISTENING
COMPREHENSION
Strategies 1

2. TOEFL LISTENING PARTS
There are 50 listening comprehension
questions in the TOEFL exam divided into
three parts:
A. Dialogs (30 questions)
B. Extended conversations (8 questions)
C. Mini-talks (12 questions)

4. About Dialogs
The first part of the Listening Comprehension
section consists of spoken dialogs
(conversations) between two speakers. A third
speaker asks a question about what was said or
implied in the conversation. You must decide
which of the four answer choices printed in your
test book is the best answer for the question you
hear and then mark that choice on your answer
sheet. There is always a twelve-second pause
between each of the dialogs.

5. Strategies for Part A (Dialogs)
1.- Concentrate on the conversation.
Each speaker speaks only once in the
conversation. Do not try to answer choices
at the same time you are listening. Do not
work on other items when the
conversation is being spoken. You can
only anticipate if you have remaining time
in the twelve-second pause between
dialogs.

6. 2.- Concentrate on the context.
The first speaker sets the context, and the
question usually relates to how the second
speaker responds. The question about
context is:
“ What does the woman/man mean?”

7. 3.- Concentrate on the purpose.
Many of the questions concern the
speakers’ purpose. Concentrate on details
which indicate the dialog is about an
apology, a request, an offer, an invitation,
or an opinion.

8. 4.- Listen for meaning.
A wrong answer may confuse you by
having words that sound similar to (or the
same as) those in a spoken statement in
the conversation for example “moth” and
“month”. Be careful with punctuation
remarks, for example when the spoken
statement is a question or an exclamation.

9. 5.- Listen for vocabulary.
A wrong answer may confuse you by
using the same word in a different way.
For example:
“Jane overcooked Tony’s dinner” and
“Jane cooked dinner over at Tony’s”. The
first one means Jane cooked too long and
the second one means Jane cooked at
Tony’s house.

10. 6.- Listen for structure.
A wrong answer may confuse you by
being slightly different in the word order or
in the words used. For example:
“Never have I been so worried” and “ I
have never been worried”. The first
means the speaker was never this worried
before and the second means the speaker
has never been worried in his/her life.

11. 7.- Know what works for you.
If you are uncertain about which answer is
correct, you can do one of two things:
a) Use your intuition.
b) Guess.
Intuition means you have an unexplained
feeling that one of the answers is correct.

12. If during practice you notice your intuition is
usually correct, trust it when you take the TOEFL
test.
Remember wrong answers will not count against
you. When you use a Guess letter (A,B,C, or D),
just choose one to answer all items you don’t
know. You are more likely to get some correct
answers with one letter used consistently than if
you use all letters randomly.

13. 8.- Use every second wisely.
Don’t waste time thinking about something you
don’t know. For example, if in the spoken
statement they pronounce a word you haven’t
ever heard and you start wondering what it
means. It is the same if you see an “alien” word
in the choices printed in your test book. Just
answer the question, and prepare yourself to
concentrate on the next item.

14. Be aware of:
 Sound confusion.
 Homonyms and words with multiple meanings.
 Idiomatic expressions (P.81-100)
 Expressions of agreement or disagreement.
 Expressions of suggestion, invitation, offer, and request.
 Expressions of contradiction, assumption, and question.
 Expressions of activities, plans, topics, and problems.
 Special verb forms: Causative and Used to.

15. In short:
• Be familiar with the directions in Part A (Dialogs).
• Remember that the answer for the questions is generally
contained in what the second speaker says.
• If you are not sure of the answer, eliminate as many
answer choices as you can.
• If you have remaining time in the twelve-second pause
between dialogs, use it to preview the choices for the
next item. Try to anticipate what the question will be
about by the form of the answer choices.
• If you don’t understand all or part of a conversation,
follow your intuition or guess and go on.