About A2 Key Listening Part 5 and how to do well
Today’s post will look at A2 Key for Schools Listening Part 5. I’ll share some tips to train students to do well in this part.
Let’s look at the Part 5 Listening sample task from the A2 Key for Schools Handbook, available to download here.
What’s in this part?
It’s a matching task. Students will listen to an informal conversation which lasts around 70 seconds.
We can find out the context or topic by reading the rubric/instructions. You will hear Julia talking to her mother about a school fashion show.
On the question paper, (or computer screen), students will read two lists. In the first list (21-25), students will often see five names (as well as the name in the example above). In the second list, on the right, there are eight thematically linked items.
The words in each list belong to the same lexical set, topic group. In this example, we can see 6 first names (example + 21-25). In the list on the right, we have a list of 8 things people are going to help with for the fashion show.
How to approach this part
Students have 15 seconds before the audio starts, so they should:
- Read the rubric. This tells you the topic of the conversation (a school fashion show) and who is speaking (Julia and her mother).
- Read the question they have to answer (What will each person help with?)
- Look at the options, especially the eight options on the right. *The options always appear in alphabetical order.
- Look at the example and cross out the letter which is used in the example, as that won’t be needed again.
At the start of the audio
Before the conversation starts, students will hear the rubric that they read on the question paper.
While listening
Students will hear the recording twice, so the first time they listen, they can note possible answers, but they should be prepared to change their answer if necessary.
The good news!
The information on the audio is in the same order as the question paper. We first hear how Julia is helping, then Anton, etc.
Paper-based exams
Students can cross out the letters they have used (with a pencil) and write them in the squares next to 21-25. When they finish the whole Listening Paper, they will have 6 minutes to transfer their answers to the answer sheet. They do this by colouring in the circle under the correct letter for each question.
Computer-based exams
Students’ answers are saved as they choose them.
Training students to do this part well
Let’s take a look at the tapescript for this task to explain what is involved.
- Paraphrasing. Students will probably not hear the same words on the recording as they read in all the options (except for the five names of course). They need to look for other words.
- A clothes: what everyone will wear …. fashion
- B food: snacks
- C lights: special lights – this is a distractor, so it IS heard on the audio!
- D make-up: this is the option used in the example, make-up is heard on the audio.
- E music: CDs
- F photographs: take some pictures, … new camera
- G posters: IS heard on the audio. BUT NOTICE HOW KARL’S NAME IS MENTIONED REGARDING PHOTOGRAPHY.
- H tickets: This is a distractor for several of the questions! We hear the word ‘tickets’ twice!
- Dealing with distraction. As you can see in this example, there is distraction on the audio for every question.
- Antón: Anton wanted to have special lights. The correct match comes a long way after we hear Anton’s name.
- Emma: chose some really good music last year.
- Karl: is a good photographer. As with Anton, the information about drawing posters comes a while after we hear Karl’s name.
- Sarah: was good at selling tickets last time. But she isn’t selling them this time.
- George: tickets are mentioned again as a distractor.
In my next post, I’ll share some fun ways of working on this task in class.
And if you liked this post, then you might find my other posts on A2 Key Listening useful.
About Post Author
