{listening} Ordering

Putting information in the correct order is not a question type in itself, but a skill you will need to apply with many passages and with many different types of question.

The sorts of passage for which you might need this skill include:

• sets of instructions, e.g. how to make an omlette
• descriptions of processes, e.g. how coffee is manufactured
• description of a chain of cause and effect, e.g. how an accident happened
• description of a problem, the attempts at a solution and the results
• narratives, e.g. the story of what happened during a bank robbery

In the easier passages you hear about the events in the same order as they happen in time. In more difficult passages you will not hear about the events in the same order as they happen in real life. The speaker may give the final event in the story first, or the solutiojn to a problem before s/he has explained the problem. This often happens when s/he wants to give a more dramatic effect to the story. Or the speaker may want to emphasize a very important step or precaution in a set of instructions and may say it first. In these cases you must listen very carefully for clues in the language which will help you to reconstruct the correct order of events.

When you are putting events in order, you need to listen carefully for words and phrases about time, sequence and result.

time words and phrases: the next day, at 5 pm, earlier that morning

sequence words and phrases: first of all, firstly, to begin with, in the first place, then, next, while, after that, when, finally

result words and phrases: so, the result was, as a result

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Think of a dish which you know how to make, or something that you know how to construct, like a table or a kite, for example.
Draw about six pictures, illustrating in the correct order the different stages involved making the dish or object. The pictures can be rough: they don't need to be very artistic!
Give the pictures to a partner, who must tell you how to make the thing, using the pictures to help. Your partner should try to use time, sequence and result words where possible. Correct your partner after s/he has finished.

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source: Successful Listening for First Certificate by Shelagh Rixon, OUP, 1993