Map tasks are very common in IELTS Listening but very different from the other parts of the test and most other listening tests, so are well worth some class time. This article goes through what students need to know about these tasks, what they often find tricky, how they should go about doing them, and how to bring that into class. For over 350 pages of photocopiable IELTS Listening materials, including worksheets specific to IELTS Listening Part Two and map tasks, see https://www.usingenglish.com/e-books/ielts-listening/
What students need to know about IELTS Listening map tasks
In about a quarter of official IELTS practice tests, the Listening Part Two monologue includes the speaker explaining locations on a map, e.g. a town planner explaining where things will be after a redevelopment. In all recent official practice tests, candidates have to match locations on a map to around six named places, e.g. spotting that question 16 “tea room” matches location F, question 17 “gift shop” matches location A, etc. There are always a few marked locations which are not needed, e.g. six questions with names of places to match to six of nine places marked A to I on the map.
In earlier official test, the other kind of map task was gapfill, e.g. listening for the names of six places and writing them in “no more than two words” in those places on the map. As gapfill tasks have become more common in Listening Parts 1 and 4, it doesn’t seem likely that they will reoccur in Part 2. This article will therefore only deal with matching tasks, with another article to follow on IELTS Listening gapfill tasks in general.
The descriptions in each recording include both directions (“Go past the gift shop, continue to the end of the corridor, and it’s right in front of you”) and locations (“It’s between the stables and the river”). There are also sometimes other hints such as shapes and sizes of things that can be seen on the map (“the large circular building”, etc), and occasionally descriptions of what people do there can also help. There are also mentions of views like “You can see over the south field from there” which can sometimes confirm answers. There is often more than one of these hints per question, by which students can check their answers and try again if they missed the first hint.
As with all IELTS Listening questions, the information is given in the same order as the questions (e.g. the answer to question 17, then that of 18), so not in other orders that might seem logical like moving from place to place in a logical order around the map.
Typical difficulties with IELTS Listening map tasks
Many candidates have the problem that they aren’t good at giving directions even in their own language, and are hardly likely to get more practice now that everyone uses GPS. In addition, IELTS includes a much wider and more natural range of language than they probably covered in junior high school textbooks, including tricky words and expressions in the recordings like:
- We are now situated at…
- Running along the bottom of the map is…
- Just under/ below/ beneath... (on the map)..
- Directly above... (on the map)...
- Immediately across the road from/ facing/ opposite….
- Adjoining this is...
- Bounded on the...side by...
- Alongside...
- (Just) beyond…
- At the far end of…
- At the back of…
- At the junction of… and…/ At the intersection of… and…
- Right beside…
- Right between... and...
- (Somewhat) further east, there is…
- In a separate building
- On a path that leads off/ leads from/ leads to…
- On the far side of...
- On the (first/ second/ next/ last) bend (that you come to).
- On the same side of the… (as…)
- Almost surrounded by…
- The last… before you get to…
- Head towards…
- Where… crosses/ meets/ intersects with…
- Facing you is…
- If you follow…, you will (immediately) come to…
- If you get to…, you’ve gone too far.
- If you look ahead (of you), you’ll see…
- If you take…, you’ll come to…
- When you come to a fork in… take the… that branches off from/ that curves…
- It looks out onto/ towards...
- oval…
- rectangular…
- cabin
- row of cottage(s)
- hostel
- student halls/ dorm
- castle
- palace
- cathedral
- stable(s)
- stadium
- (dance) studio
- theatre
- (main/ foot)path
- taxi rank
- traffic lights
- estuary
- forest/ wood/ wooded area
- island
- marsh
- stream
- square
- yard/ playground
- courtyard
- basement
- cloakroom
- corridor
- reception
Although this kind of tricky language is almost always accompanied by simpler language giving the same answer in a different way, students can find any unknown language distracting and miss a chance to double check their answers.
As with some IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 map tasks, north is often not given, so students will need to know expressions like “towards the top of the map”.
The many complications mentioned above may explain why map tasks have far fewer trick questions than other parts of the IELTS Listening test. For example, the speaker may say the distractor “It used to be just inside that corner” before they say the correct answer “but now it is beyond that bend”, but that is rarely the case in map tasks. In the rare cases when this does happen, it tends to be accompanied by the additional complication of key words above the map like “proposed changes” which show which locations are the answers and which don’t match that and so are therefore tricks.
There are never sentences to complete with map tasks, so there is little or no rephrasing of words in the task (as seen in multiple choice, etc).
IELTS textbook map tasks sometimes have the additional difficulty of not being able to find location 19 if you missed location 18, due to the recording saying things like “When you have finished there, carry on in the same direction and...” However, this should not happen in the real exam, as it would mess up the grading system. Instead, the description of each place will refer to places which are given on the map such as named roads.
What students should do in IELTS Listening Part Two map tasks
When there are map tasks, they are almost always the second part of Listening Part Two, after a pause. This means that the amount of time given to prepare is quite short, and so candidates have to make sure that they quickly write something for the first part of Listening Part Two to give them time to think about the map.
After underlining key words in the instructions, students should underline key words on the map and task. This unfortunately usually means underlining everything, but is still worthwhile in order to make the candidate register what words might come up. That occasionally includes a title above the map, as there are two official map tasks in which words like “proposed” show that they should listen for future locations, not present ones.
As there is no rephrasing to think about, they should then think about how the places might be described. This mainly means thinking about possible descriptions of locations and directions, but perhaps also sizes, shapes, and actions in that place. For example, they could look at location A and notice that it is “next to the large forest”, is “large and triangular” and can be got to by “following the river then crossing the last bridge”. They should try to start doing this before the recording starts, but as that time is very limited that is much more something to do while listening (as we subconsciously do in real life when someone is giving us directions).
The recording often starts with a general outline like “As you can see, the housing development is surrounded on three sides by farms” before the descriptions of actual locations start. Although the actual answers are not likely to be related to such general outlines, they are well worth listening to in order to get used to the speaker’s voice, and to really start focusing on those kinds of descriptions. Similarly, there may be places already given on the map whose locations are given which are still worth listening to in order to keep track of where they are on the map and to get used to the voice and language.
Even students who got everything right are likely to encounter some new language such as the tricky expressions listed above. It is therefore worth them checking with the transcript, checking with the key, then looking at the transcript again for anything that they missed and/ or is well worth memorising.
How to start teaching IELTS Listening Part Two map tasks
The obvious way to approach this task in class is to do the steps above, starting with no time limit and then getting closer to just 30 seconds as the weeks go by. Trying to describe all of the locations and possible directions is best done in small groups, perhaps continuing with a list of useful language to try to use. They can then compare as a class, do the actual listening task, and see what language is really used in the transcript.
For a less stressful start, you could give students a task with the answers already written in, get them to describe just those five places with directions etc, get them to listen for what is the same as what they said, then search the transcript for useful language.
As with IELTS Writing Task 1 map tasks, this is all much easier with maps that include north, so you might want to start with those.
Some of the activities below could also be used as a warmer for this part of IELTS Listening.
IELTS Listening Part Two map tasks practice activities
Guessing how places are described can also be turned into more of a game, with the teacher or a classmate giving points for descriptions that are close to what is actually said in the transcript. After some time doing this with their own ideas, they can then use a list of language that has been collected from practice tests and IELTS textbooks.
Another way to make describing competitive is for one person to describe one place in as much detail as they can, then other students getting points if they spot mistakes, can find other ways of describing it, and/ or can say the same thing in other ways.
For a really easy introduction to lots of useful language, students could each have a card saying “Direction” and a card saying “Position”, and race to hold up the correct one while they hear phrases from the test like “right up against the river” and “pass straight through the park”.
Linking Listening map tasks with other parts of IELTS
Maps in Listening obviously ties in really well with maps in IELTS Writing Task 1. To make sure the same kind of language comes up, try to use both exterior or both interior, both with north given or both without north given, and both about the same time (e.g. both about future developments).
You can also link maps with IELTS Speaking Part One by putting words from Listening Part 2 into Speaking Part 1 questions like “Are there many shops between your home and the station?” for “between” and “Do you usually take the lift or the stairs?” for “stairs”.
More naturally, IELTS Speaking Part Two tasks about places often have the question “Where” and so such tasks can bring up at least some of this kind of language. You can also make the topic something that could come up in Listening Part Two such as a park or a historic house.