Hörverstehen / Listening comprehension
Listening comprehension opens the written Abitur paper in English in Schleswig-Holstein: an authentic recording - interview, podcast, radio feature, speech or news report - is played (as a rule twice, with reading time before the first play), and you answer in English. Since Hör-Seh-Verstehen was added, the stimulus may also be a short video, so practise both. Tasks cover global comprehension (gist, purpose, addressee), selective comprehension (single details) and detailed comprehension, plus the speaker's attitude and intention. Recordings use British, American and postcolonial accents, so train Indian, Nigerian or Australian English alongside RP.
Task formats and what each rewards
- True/false/not given, multiple choice, matching speakers to statements, completing a grid or table, and short answers under a strict word limit (“in no more than six words”).
- Global items ask for the main point or the purpose of the talk, not for details mentioned in passing.
- Attitude items hinge on evaluative language: “it's tempting to think”, “arguably”, “I'm not convinced”, plus irony, stress and intonation.
Procedure
Use the reading time to underline the key word in every item and predict the vocabulary you will hear. On the first play answer global items and easy detail items; on the second play verify and close gaps. Take notes in shorthand, in English - a German answer scores zero, and exceeding a word limit costs the mark even when the content is right.
Worked example
Item: “The presenter thinks the new scheme will cut commuting costs.” Recording: “It's tempting to think the scheme will cut commuting costs, but the evidence so far points the other way.” Answer: false. Reasoning: “it's tempting to think” marks the idea as a common assumption, and “but the evidence … points the other way” marks it as the presenter's own rejection. The distractor is word-for-word identical to the item; correct answers in the recording almost never are.
Traps that cost marks
- Matching the item's wording instead of its meaning: right answers are paraphrases (“cut costs” → “cheaper”, “relieve pressure on household budgets”).
- Ticking “not given” when you simply missed a detail - false and not given are different categories.
- Numbers, dates and names corrected mid-sentence (“twenty, sorry, twenty-five per cent”).
- Ignoring the second speaker in an interview, where the question often names the topic the item asks about.