If you are preparing or just thinking of taking IELTS, you have probably wondered what to listen to get ready it? Let’s be honest: you don’t need to listen to everything. Let’s start with what IELTS Listening is. There are 40 questions and you have 40 minutes. No matter which module you take general or academic you will hear 4 audio tracks in the following order:
- Talk about everyday things.
- A monologue on an everyday topic.
- Talk on an academic topic.
- A monologue on an academic topic (a lecture).
Knowing what awaits you at the exam makes it much easier to prepare. Here are some good tips on how to listen.
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Listen purposefully. Imagine arriving at the airport an hour ago for a departing flight. Now, can you remember what has been said in all the announcements for the last hour? Of course, you will not be able to do this, because we only hear the information regarding our own flight. That is what purposeful listening is about: to have a purpose in terms of what information we want to receive. In preparing for the exam, each of the ten questions in each part of the IELTS Listening should be analyzed before listening.
Mini-IELTS is a good resource for practicing listening to everyday topics. It brings together videos and audios on a variety of topics, such as education, recreation and hobbies, nature, news, science and technology, health and sports with tasks to accomplish.
ESL Lab is a collection of daily dialogues with voices of adults and children on all sorts of topics. The materials are divided by levels. There are tasks and keys to them, as well as audio scripts.
TED&IELTS Listening Practice is a great mix of TED Talks with tasks to do while listening. It is suitable for those who are tired of sapless talks and boring lectures and is looking for an alternative to practice listening to monologues on academic and everyday topics. There are also answers you can check on your own.
TED Ed is an official TED resource that has many interesting lectures, tutorials and whole series of lessons in various subjects such as history, sociology, biology, geology, medicine and more. You can listen and watch lectures in Student mode and answer questions in the Think section, and discuss what you hear in the Discuss section.
Get used to various accents. Unlike TOEFL, candidates in the IELTS test can hear different accents, from regional British to North American and accents from Southern hemisphere such as the Australian and South African ones. This is due to the fact that more and more English-speaking countries are recognizing the exam for immigration purposes. Try to notice any differences in pronunciation. Vowels are especially likely to be different. Just don’t go into deep analysis – it’s a job for a professional linguist. Your goal is to get acquainted with each accent. This will allow you to be prepared and not to get puzzled when you hear them in the IELTS test.
The largest collection of dialects and accents can be found in the IDEA (International Dialects of English Archive), which was created in 1998 as the first on-line archive of primary sources of English-speaking dialects and accents heard worldwide. It has about 1500 samples from 120 countries and territories and over 170 hours of records. IDEA is currently the largest archive of its kind. IDEA records are mainly in English, by native speakers, and include both English dialects and English spoken with accents of other languages. In the Test your comprehension section, you can test how well you understand different accents with scripts.
AdeptEnglish іs a podcast section where you will find a large collection of interesting and FREE lessons and audio podcasts in full English-language transcription in PDF format.
Learn English also offers a tasks for listening by level. Before you start , you will take a test to find out which level to choose. Next, choose your level, from beginner (CEFR A1 level) to advanced (CEFR C1 level), and refine your listening skills at your own pace and convenience.
Practice correct spelling. Spelling is also important in this part of IELTS. There may be several spellings in English of for example names. In IELTS Listening Task 1, you will need to complete personal information such as first name, surname, address, and this is the most common question type for this part of the test. Revise your spelling several times, paying particular attention to the mistakes most commonly encountered in your language group. The same applies to numbers, such as the zip code or phone number you will need to write down at the exam.
Spelling Practice for IELTS Listening from IELTSLiz will help you prepare for this type of question. Here you can practice spealling city and country names, numbers and surnames.
Exam Word are online exercise for spelling words from IELTS word lists. The tool is very smart and corrects your mistakes.
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