Note Taking and Improved Listening Skills
Recently, I had a student ask me about the importance of note taking during listening exercises or lectures. I thought it a valid question and sent him the following info:
Practicing your note-taking skills can tell you a lot about your listening ability and can help
you to improve it. You can use your notes to test how much of the information you hear
that you are able to understand. You can also make notes of words that you are unsure of
to check the correct spelling and meaning later. Here are some hints to help you take
better notes.
- Don’t try to write every word that you hear
- Use abbreviations whenever possible, but make sure that you will understand your
abbreviations if you look at your notes several hours later.
- Use symbols such as arrows, underlining, circles, and so on to show relationships
between ideas.
- Use question marks to remind yourself of parts of your notes you are unsure of.
You can check parts with questions marks after you are finished taking notes.
April 9, 2019
