I have listened for two podcasts in the website of Martin Mcmorrow for international students. There I have chosen two of listening tasks - the first one was "Depression and its features" and the second one named as "Flow".These two listening tasks were quite diverse. The rate of speaking was different in each of them. The first one, "Depression and its features", was really fast and uneasy to understand. The quality of the record was quite bad, because most of the interview guests were talking through the phone. That made the record difficult to understand. So, I have listened for it twice. The second listening - "Flow" - was much more understandable. Both of the interview participants were talking slowly and fluently, what made the conversation easier to understand. So, I listened for it only once.
Another thing, I want to discuss, is the type of exercises we do. In my opinion, the most useful type of them is multiple choices. When you do this kind of exercise, you focus on all the text, not only to a sentence which should be ended in another type of exercises.
Moreover, I think my ability to understand authentic speech is quite good. In the other hand, I think that such activities like listening to authentic cassette recordings or podcasts as often as posible will improve my listening skills. Also, I have to mention that watching English films really has helped and still helping for better understanding English language.
To sum up all these ideas, I can say that I would pass a listening exam paper if I had to take it now.
References: http://tinyurl.com/6xy9hy
http://tinyurl.com/5v5qsu
http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/BlogDetail.aspx?BlogID=400
