IELTS listening Skills - Strategies and Tips

IELTS Listening Skills Strategies and Tips

IELTS Listening Section

Preparing students for the IELTS Listening paper involves a combination of familiarizing them with the test format, improving their listening skills, and developing effective test-taking strategies. Here are some tips and strategies teachers can use.

Familiarization with the text Format

• Understand the Structure: Ensure students know the IELTS Listening test consists of four sections, each with 10 questions, and lasts 30 minutes, plus an additional 10 minutes to transfer answers.
• Types of Questions: Familiarize students with different question types, such as multiple choice, matching, plan/map/diagram labeling, form/note/table/flow-chart/summary completion, sentence completion, and short-answer questions.

Listening Skills Improvement

• Listening for Gist and Detail: Train students to listen for the main idea and specific information. Use exercises that require them to distinguish between the two.

• Note-taking Skills: Teach students how to take effective notes while listening, focusing on keywords and abbreviations.

• Active Listening: Encourage students to practice active listening by summarizing spoken texts, identifying main ideas and specific details, and predicting content.

• Diverse Listening Materials: Use various listening materials, such as podcasts, news broadcasts, lectures, and conversations, to expose students to different accents, speech speeds, and topics.

Test taking strategies

• Predicting Answers: Encourage students to predict the type of information needed (e.g., a number, name, date) based on the question and context.

• Recognizing Distractors: Help students identify common distractors in the audio, such as information that seems correct but is not the answer.

• Time Management: Train students to manage their time effectively during the test, ensuring they allocate sufficient time to read questions and check their answers.

• Practice Tests: Use IELTS practice tests to simulate test conditions. Review answers and provide feedback to help students understand their mistakes and improve.

• Spelling and Grammar: Emphasize the importance of correct spelling and grammar, as incorrect answers are marked wrong even if the meaning is clear.

Test taking strategies

Post-test Review:

During the test:

• Reviewing Mistakes: After practice tests, review mistakes with students to identify patterns and areas that need improvement.

• Listening to Recordings: If possible, let students listen to the recordings again to understand why they missed certain answers.

• Reading Ahead: Teach students to use the time given to read ahead to look at the questions before the listening starts.

• Following Instructions: Stress the importance of following instructions carefully, especially regarding the word limit for answers.

• Staying Calm: Encourage students to stay calm and focused, even if they miss an answer. Remind them that it's better to move on and answer the remaining questions than to dwell on a missed one.

As you might already know, all IELTS listening tests are the same. They are in the same format. They are thirty minutes long. The academic and general tests are exactly the same. In terms of each part of the test, check the table below:

1. No surprises: Know the test

It’s like real life. You only have one chance to listen. Many of us would love the chance to listen again, but IELTS won’t give you that. Here are a few tips for doing well with just one listening:

• When you do practice tests, only listen once. Get used to it.
• Try and identify your listening weaknesses and work on improving those areas.
• On the question sheet, underline key words. Prepare to listen for those exact words and their synonyms.
• Practice different types of listening situations (lectures, conversations, chatting, etc…).

2. Remember you only listen once

3. Follow your heart

When practicing, choose interesting topics. Interesting for YOU. If you love professional tennis, listen to podcasts about professional tennis. If you love Roman history, listen to stories about Roman history. It is well known that we listen better to things we want to or enjoy hearing. If you really want to motivate yourself and get the best out of each and every listening practice, try this approach. You might even have fun doing it!

Practice makes perfect!

4. Learn synonyms:

Have you tried an IELTS preparation class? If yes, you probably know synonyms are important in all exam parts. In the speaking and writing exam, you have to show you know how to use synonyms. In the reading and listening exam, many of the questions use synonyms in the questions. For example:

Use dictionaries and thesaurus on line!

5. Audio ScriptsWhen choosing or searching for practice tests, try and find ones with scripts. Scripts are the word-for-word written texts of the audio you listen to. There are many activities you can do with scripts. Here are a few:

• Accuracy check:

First, take notes without scripts. After that, compare your notes to the script. Check for accuracy, spelling, and misunderstanding.

• Read aloud:

After you read aloud, listen to the audio. How accurate were you? Did you sound the same as the speaker(s)?

• Listen and read along:

Follow the text while you listen. This will make strong connections for you with respect to pronunciation and understanding key words. Notice how the keywords are pronounced clearer and louder.

6. Get real – real life listening

English isn’t just a test. It is a language. IELTS tests your knowledge and skill in this language. One of the best ways to learn a language well and to do well on the test is to use English in real life. Every day you don’t have a conversation is a missed opportunity. So next chance you have… chat, text, call, email, discuss, and laugh in English!

8. Check it twice, be precise

Little mistakes can count big. A few silly mistakes can be the difference between scoring a band 5.5 and a 6. The following are

Write a title

Write a subtitle here

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula

9. Remind students to think in English

Many language experts agree on one key rule. Thinking in a specific language helps you learn that language. Many students of English often try and translate everything in their heads. Don’t do it. Translating has two main problems. First, it's slower. Second, you remember your language and forget English. On the listening exam, you won’t have time to translate. Also, you’ll have to remember key English words. So, when you’re practicing English… think in English!