The reason why you are being trained at ‘tempo read’ is so you can absorb information at a faster rate. If you are going to read a text in the target language, which in this case is English, word by word, then it will take you forever to properly understand it. Don’t get me wrong, you can absolutely read word for word, but listening is a different case altogether. You can’t set the audio to a stop and reflect on what you just heard. You need to listen to it as it goes on until it stops. So the more you ‘tempo read’, and as a result ‘tempo listen’, you will consume the information at a faster rate.
Reading word for word is what we usually call, ‘intensive’ reading. Normally you will do this with the intention of trying to find specific information. I.e. a digit, a phone number, or a name. You will rarely be doing this in your life after school. Now the opposite of intensive is ‘extensive’. This is where you read and try to understand the whole thing, with minimum intensive reading. Now when it comes to listening, you will need to minimize your intensive listening even further, because the audio will not wait for you.
In this class, we will focus on extensive listening, since you are more likely to practice that in your life after school. It is important to understand the whole message. Try to get everything that you understand, and if there are words you don’t, just let them be and focus on the whole meaning of the audio.
Practice ‘tempo reading/listening’ in your free time as much as possible.