Paper 4 - LISTENING

The FCE Listening Paper: Overview and Online Practice

What is listening comprehension?
Listening skills go beyond understanding the meaning of individual words. At FCE level, you will not be asked to simply prove you can understand what someone says. The test has been built to focus on certain characteristics that are always present when speaking in real life:

• Purpose: We always listen for some reason, not just to practice as you may have done as a learning exercise.
• Expectations: There is some idea in our mind to anticipate what we will hear. The topic, the purpose, even general knowledge of the world can help you prepare your ears.
• General idea or detail: As learners, we would like to understand exactly how things were said. But in every day life, we discriminate whether we need to understand one specific word -a name for instance- or just get the gist of it.

It will help you a great deal if you become aware of what is being tested in every part. It will also soothe your nerves!

Listening Paper Overview

How long does it last?
The test lasts for about 30 minutes. There are five extra minutes of silence at the end of the tape for you to transfer your answers onto the answer sheet.

This Cambridge ESOL link will show you a brief overview of the listening test. Have a look at the duration, number of questions and distribution of tasks.

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/teach/fce/listening/aboutthepaper/overview.htm

What skills are tested?
This is the question to bear in mind.

Read this article by Costas Gabrielatos. You will find a chart with information about each part of the Listening Paper. There are notes on:

Focus: which skills are tested

Format: how skills are tested

Procedure: how to organise your listening and note taking

http://www.gabrielatos.com/FCE-Listening.htm

Practice

How do I practice? What accents are spoken?
You will hear a variety of British accents. It is advisable to try to listen to BBC radio or other British sources frequently. That will make you feel more confident about your listening.

I believe that if most students listened to a paper without knowing the FCE tasks they are supposed to do, the overall impression would be that they understand native speakers much more. You could definitely have a successful conversation with them!

However, the listening paper will not test how many words you know or understand. Actually, you should expect some unknown words -or chunks- and still manage to perform the task. For example, if you are asked to infer how the speakers feel about an issue, intonation may be more important than the actual words used.

.............................................

Now that you know the rules of the game, you are ready for some practice.

FCE Listening Online
Except for the FCE Handbook from the Cambridge site, it is hard to find real FCE listening practice online. Here is a selection of sample listening papers:

The British Council site Learn English Professionals has a full listening test online.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/professionals-exams-fce-listening-1.htm

More practice to be found here:
http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fcelistening.htm

The site instructions are in Czech not in English, but it is easy to follow:
http://www.helpforenglish.cz/Certifikaty/FCE/c2006081604--
E-FCE--Listening--part-1.html

http://www.helpforenglish.cz/Certifikaty/FCE/c2006103001--
E-FCE--Listening--part-2.html

http://www.helpforenglish.cz/Certifikaty/FCE/c2006110101--
E-FCE--Listening--part-3.html

Related Post: Past Papers -FCE Handbook with mp3 listening

Earphone image source: http://www.kk.org/