Suggested Steps for Using these Videos

1.Select an interview that is slightly above your current proficiency level. Proceed segment by segment and try to understand as much as you can. Make sure that you tried your best by taking reasonable guesses in order to get at the meaning in its context.

2.You may go through the relevant video segments a second time, now with the transcription screen open side by side. If it was pronunciation that impeded your understanding at certain points in the video interview, the transcription should help. If for some reason you needed more time to interpret a particular statement, the transcription should still help significantly.

3.Many speakers often repeat what they had stated previously in order to either emphasize or clarify their point. Such repetitions should help the learner to catch up or to get extra cues to comprehend the speech more fully.

4.In real life situations, one may listen to speech for skimming the general meaning or for scanning specific information or else for understanding the text fully. As a learner, one may try all of these strategies for this program.

5.One can test one's comprehension of a segment that one has been working on with the help of comprehension questions attached to that segment. Check your answers with the master answers provided.

6.Listening to each segment in multiple modes (listening to video, listening to video with text, listening to audio with text, listening to audio only) will reveal to the learner the depth of the meaning. Listening with “audio only” without any visual cues is the ultimate test of one's understanding of a particular segment.

7.Chaining the skills is useful for retaining any information on a long term basis. One may discuss the content with other individuals and if possible write it in detail and get it checked. Such an exercise should help in retaining the new information for a very long time.