External Examination: Handling an Unfamiliar Listening Text
During the external listening section, a student, Dimitri, hears a dialogue between a young Greek-Australian and her grandfather about returning to Greece. The audio is played twice. On the first playing, Dimitri catches the topic and the grandfather's approval but misses the reason the granddaughter is hesitant, and he does not recognise two vocabulary items. He has a habit of writing full sentences during the first playing, which makes him miss the next exchange. He also panics when he hears an unknown word and stops listening to reconstruct it. The questions include one asking for the granddaughter's reason and one asking him to infer the grandfather's attitude from tone.
1. What should Dimitri do differently during the first and second playing?
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First playing: listen for gist and structure, not detail. He should jot keywords and symbols only - names, positions, the gist of each exchange - and leave the reason blank rather than writing sentences. Writing full sentences during audio is what causes him to miss the following exchange. Second playing: target the gaps, listening specifically for the reason and for the tone markers around the grandfather's lines (e.g. pauses, intensifiers, «βέβαια», «ασφαλώς» versus hesitation). He should fill answers after each relevant exchange, not at the end. This two-pass division - gist then detail - matches how the audio is delivered.
2. How should he manage the unknown vocabulary without losing the thread?
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He should treat unknown words as gaps to tolerate, not puzzles to solve mid-stream. He can use context: the surrounding words and the exchange's direction often supply the meaning, and one unknown item rarely blocks a question. He should mark a symbol in the margin and keep listening; the second playing often clarifies it. Reconstructing a word while the audio continues guarantees missing the next idea, which is a larger loss. If a question depends on that word, he should answer from context and move on rather than leave it blank.
3. How should he answer the inference question about the grandfather's attitude?
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He should answer the attitude, not just report the words. If the grandfather uses approving intensifiers and elaborates positively, the answer is that he is favourable, with the evidence being his tone and word choice. Dimitri should write a short justified answer, e.g. 'θετικός - χρησιμοποιεί «ασφαλώς» και συνεχίζει να εξηγεί τα πλεονεκτήματα'. Inference questions reward naming the attitude and pointing to the cue. He should not simply translate the grandfather's sentence, because that answers 'what did he say', not 'what is his attitude'.