Part Three is the most varied and most unlike normal listening materials of all the parts of IELTS Listening, and therefore needs some special preparation. This article lists exactly what students need to prepare for, then explains how to help them do so. For over 350 pages of photocopiable IELTS Listening materials, including many worksheets specific to IELTS Listening Part Three and the tasks that are in it, see https://www.usingenglish.com/e-books/ielts-listening/.
What candidates need to know about IELTS Listening Part Three
In contrast to IELTS Listening Parts Two and Four before and after it, Listening Part Three is always a conversation between two or three people, most commonly a student with another student and/ or a tutor/ professor/ teacher/ lecturer.
There is always more than one kind of task in each Listening Part Three, and sometimes three tasks. The official practice test tasks have recently been more or less evenly split between multiple choice and various kinds of matching tasks such as choosing two options for each question and matching the three/ four/ five/ six statements to a greater number of options. There are also official practice tests with gapfill tasks in Listening Part Three, recently all “one word only”. There are no official examples of map or diagram labelling tasks in Listening Part Three (and those tasks don’t seem to match this kind of conversation), but there are examples of filling in flowcharts.
Although there are a wide range of possible task types, the kind of language and so what candidates are listening for is less varied. Most commonly, candidates need to listen out for what people’s opinions are, often including whether the speakers agree or disagree with ideas and/ or with each other. The speakers often disagree in a fairly polite and indirect way, so candidates will need to be able to recognise less obvious disagreement. More generally, there are quite a lot of the typical IELTS phrases for showing that the thing coming up is or is not the right option, like “I had expected...” Understanding of positive and negative connotations of the vocabulary used is also useful. Listening for intonation can often help with all of this.
Although this kind of sharing of opinions is the most famous kind of IELTS Listening Part Three and the most useful language to look at, there are also plenty of situations in which the speakers are merely sharing their experiences, giving advice, etc. Common reasons for speaking include students planning a presentation together, and a professor checking the progress of a student’s research. However, there are also official practice tests in which the situation are very different ones like university admin staff explaining the library, and two trainee teachers talking about a class they observed.
Listening Part Three is always split into two sections, either side of a pause in which candidates can look at the second section. That split is always at an obvious point like when the page changes or when the task type changes. The tasks are usually split over two pages, sometimes meaning that candidates have to turn the page during Listening Part Three.
Typical difficulties with IELTS Listening Part Three
As mentioned above, candidates might not be able to spot the meaning of expressions like “I partially agree” and “I wish that were true” without some practice of such phrases.
Candidates can get confused when there are three different kinds of task in one Listening Part Three (and it is tricky to change the task halfway through even if they are expecting it), so candidates need to listen carefully for which questions are coming up next and to only prepare for that part.
Although the speakers are always in an academic setting and are sometimes speaking about academic topics such as some sociology research, there is far less academic vocabulary than in Listening Part 4, and it is almost never the reason for candidates getting the wrong answer.
What students should do in IELTS Listening Part Three
The speaker in Listening Part Two often continues speaking after the last question has been answered, so candidates should quickly write an answer for each question in Listening Part Two and then turn to Part Three as soon as they can (without necessarily waiting for the recording to tell them to turn the page). As they start reading through the task and underlining key words, they should listen out for which questions will be in the first section, and initially only prepare for those questions, e.g. just questions 21 to 25.
After underlining the key words in that section, they should think about what will be said, e.g. how the key words might be rephrased. They should also listen out for rephrasing while they are listening, along with trying to spot if people are agreeing and disagreeing. Other tips depend on what kinds of tasks they are doing, so will be dealt with in separate articles on IELTS Listening multiple choice tasks, on matching tasks, etc.
After doing the same steps for the second section of Part Three, candidates should write something for each question and then turn to Listening Part Four as quickly as they can.
If they are doing just practice of Listening Part Three, it is well worth looking at the transcript before they check their answers, in order to think more carefully about what the opinions phrases mean, the connotations of the vocabulary, etc.
How to start teaching IELTS Listening Part Three
To add speaking to the class and for an easy start to doing this task, underlining key words and guessing what they might hear can be done in pairs or small groups, initially with no time limits.
For a more fun warmer and practice of what they will hear, students can listen to phrases from IELTS Listening Part Three like “I hadn’t realised that” and “I’ve never read that” and race to hold up cards saying “Agreeing” and “Disagreeing”. After they label those phrases on a worksheet with A for agree and D for disagree, they can test each other in the same way.
A similar activity can combine those kinds of phrases with the positive and negative connotations of vocabulary by students holding up cards saying “Positive” (for agreeing and positive connotations) or “Negative” (for the opposite).
For calmer initial practice of the opinions language in Listening Part Three, students can have a discussion by giving their opinions and (dis)agreeing with phrases from the test like “I’m not sure that I believe that…”. They can then try to remember the language that they were using.
Strong classes could also roleplay the situation that they are about to hear, e.g. pretending to be a professor giving advice on a field trip.
IELTS Listening Part Three practice activities
The activities above are also useful practice and extension of the language that they just heard in Listening Part Three. For example, the holding up cards activity could start with the language in the transcript and then move onto similar phrases from other tests and that you have come up with. Similarly, students could roleplay the situation that they just heard, then do the same for other common situations in this part of the test like planning a report together.
As with all parts of IELTS Listening, getting students to set each other exam tasks can be a good way of making sure that they really understand the exam. For example, if groups of students are given the transcripts to different tests, they could write matching questions for the other team to complete while they listen to that different test. To practise all the kinds of tasks in this part of the test, they could be asked to set different kinds of tasks for each other, e.g. multiple-choice questions from one group and who had which opinion tasks for the other.
Before or instead of doing this, it can be useful to get students to analyse the exam in more detail, for example by underlining opinions phrases on the transcript. You can also list things which are true about this part of the test and mix it up with untrue statement like “There is sometimes just one speaker”. Students cross off the statements that are wrong, and then try to remember any example phrases that were given like “We also need to talk about…”
Linking Listening Part Three with other parts of IELTS
If you can find one of the tests that have flowcharts in Listening Part Three, that could be a good way of linking to or from IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 process tasks.
IELTS Listening Part Three examples that have agreeing and disagreeing language can easily be linked to IELTS Speaking Part Three with related questions like “Some people say that… Do you agree?” You can also get students to discuss their experiences of Listening Part Three situations like planning presentations with personal questions from Speaking Part One, or their opinions on those situations with Speaking Part Three-style questions.
To link to other parts of IELTS Listening, you could look at language that is that Listening Part Three but is more common in other parts of the paper, e.g. looking at phrases for quoting sources or signposting language before looking at Listening Part Four. You could also link by topic, e.g. doing a Part Four on the environment after they discuss a biology field trip in Listening Part Three.