There is only one IELTS Listening test for all levels of both General and Academic candidates, and it’s a test that is quite different from what many of them are used to. There is therefore a very good chance of students panicking the first time they come across this part of the test. This article explains seventeen methods for making initial practice of IELTS Listening more manageable and often more fun, while also making candidates more prepared to do actual exam tasks. For photocopiable materials to achieve the same aims, see https://www.usingenglish.com/e-books/ielts-listening/
Speak before IELTS listening
Students are likely to be more ready to listen if they have already done something similar to what they will hear, for example:
- asking each other questions about the same things that will be asked about in IELTS Listening Part 1 (names, work experience, postcode, etc)
- describing the map which they will listen to descriptions of in Listening Part 2
- discussing what the students/ students and teacher will discuss in Part 3, such as roleplaying planning a presentation together
- sharing their knowledge of and opinions on the academic topics in Part 4 (the environment, social issues, etc)
Start with the answers
Students start with the right answers already on the question sheet, e.g. the correct multiple-choice options already circled. They then listen to the recording and/ or read the transcript to work out why those answers are correct, and perhaps why other possible answers are wrong.
Start with wrong answers
Students are given a task with the wrong answers in, e.g. a gapfill task which has distractors in the gaps instead of the real answers. They then listen to the recording and/ or read the transcript to correct those answers.
Start with slightly wrong answers
Students are given the question sheet with answers in which are similar to the correct answers but are incorrect for reasons which are obvious even without listening such as:
- having spelling mistakes
- not having the right grammar to fit that gap
- having more words than the task allows
- including information that is already before or after the gap.
They try to correct those mistakes before listening, then check by listening to the recording and/ or reading the transcript.
Start with an easier task
Options include:
- multiple-choice questions with only two options (so just one right option and one wrong one, instead of the usual three options)
- gapfill tasks with options for each gap
- gapfill tasks with mixed answers at the bottom
- tasks with some answers filled in so that the bits to listen for aren’t so close together in the recording
- matching tasks with any extra options which aren’t needed already crossed out
- map tasks with no or fewer extra options which aren’t needed
- example answers at the start of each task (for example by using old Listening Part Ones from back when they all had example questions)
Vocabulary before listening
For example, students could give their opinions on some words and phrases that are related to the listening topic (e.g. conservation) and are in that listening, then do the listening tasks.
Pronunciation before listening
This is similar to the tip above and can be used before or after that step. Students try to work out the pronunciation of useful vocabulary, including words and phrases which are on the topic of the listening and/ or which are in the recording. For example, they try to find silent letters in lists of words from the recordings and other words on the same topic, or they try to work out the different pronunciation of words spelt with CH including four words from the recording.
Functional language before listening
Students use or do some other kind of work on phrases including those they will hear soon in the listening. For example, they are given advice phrases which include four phrases which are in the Listening Part 3 that they will hear, and use those phrases to give suggestions on studying abroad. Alternatively, they could label phrases including those in the next recording, such as labelling hint phrases like “We had been planning to A” and “In the end we settled for A” with “A” or “Not A”.
List dictation before listening
A lot of useful vocabulary, pronunciation and/ or functional language can be rapidly introduced before listening with a game where students listen to checking/ clarifying phrases, words which double letters, vocabulary related to accommodation, etc, and shout out whenever they think they know what each list has in common.
Guess before listening
Before listening, students try to guess that gap 1 needs the name of a job, gap 2 needs a big number, gap 3 needs a street name that will probably be spelt, etc. For the most help, make sure that students have time to brainstorm their own ideas, then compare with a partner, and finally compare with the class. You can also give them a list of mixed descriptions of common things in gaps like “uncountable noun” to match to those gaps.
This can also be turned into a game where they get points for each correct guess (however general/ vague their guesses are). This can start with their own guesses without any help, then move onto using some mixed descriptions to help.
Guess the rephrasing before listening
This is similar to the ideas above, but with students trying to think of how key words in the questions might be said with different words in the listening, e.g. that “unemployed” in the task could be “without a job” in the recording. This can be done individually, then in groups and finally as a whole class. Like the ideas above, it can be done without and then with mixed answers, and/ or as a guessing game.
Extra time before listening
Start students off with much more than the 30 seconds or 45 seconds that is given in the real test so that they have plenty of time to underline key words, guess what could go in the gaps, guess rephrasing, etc. For example, you could give them five minutes to prepare together the first time, give them two or three minutes to prepare on their own the second time, then slowly reduce the time given over the next couple of lessons until you reach the actual time limit. You can also do the same for the extra time that is given at the end of each section for them to check their answers, fill any gaps with guesses, etc.
Listening on the present topic
A simple way of making sure that students know suitable vocabulary and have had a chance to talk about the topic before listening is to make this skill the last thing that you tackle, after you have already dealt with the topic in other ways. For example, you could do IELTS-style Speaking, Reading and then Writing on consumerism over two weeks as you cover that unit of the textbook, then end with the Listening on the topic.
Read instead of listening
If you are focussing on typical difficulties in IELTS Listening such as rephrasing of words in the questions, it can be just as useful and a lot less challenging for students to start by doing the tasks just with the transcript. They can then analyse the language in that transcript before they try to do a second similar task by actually listening. For example, they can do a multiple-choice task that has lots of hint phrases/ trick phrases like “Oh no, sorry, change of plan” just by reading, check their answers, underline those kinds of phrases in the transcript, then do a similar actual listening task.
Cut it down to only one task
Listening Parts 2 and 3 almost always have more than one kind of task, e.g. three multiple-choice questions followed by a matching task. Coping with this is often too much for students, so you could just choose one of the tasks for them to actually do. Textbooks often include less realistic practice that has been designed to only have one kind of task, and the same can sometimes be found in older official practice exam books. Alternatively, you choose a Listening passage that has the task you want to practise at the end, give them the other task with answers already in, let them listen to that part that already has the answers first as a warm up, then do the remaining task in the usual way.
Only introduce a new part or a new task, not both
For example, you could do purely gapfill IELTS Listening Part 1 a few times, do the same for purely gapfill Listening Part 4, do one or two Part 4s that have gapfill and multiple choice, then do multiple choice in Listening Part 2. This is difficult with recent practice tests, as the different parts tend to have different tasks, but can be found in IELTS textbooks, older official IELTS practice test books, etc.
Get used to the voices before listening
Candidates used to get the chance to do this as they listened to an example answer at the beginning of IELTS Listening Part 1, so you can reintroduce this very useful help by using an older official practice test (e.g. from IELTS 14, which is otherwise similar to current tests). For other materials and other parts of IELTS Listening, you can reproduce this by adding the first one or two answers, letting them listen to that part, then rewinding back to the beginning to do the whole task.
For a more extreme version of this, you could also give them a whole first task completed, so that they have say four example questions to listen to and then only one kind of task to cope with after that (as suggested in Cut It Down to Only One Task above).