Taking the IELTS soon? Watch this simple lesson to learn what happens in the listening section of the IELTS. I will explain what you need to know about the test, so that you will be prepared and confident on your test day.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello. My name is Emma, and in today’s lesson, I am going to tell you about the IELTS test — specifically the listening module. Okay? I’m going to tell you exactly what happens in the listening module of the IELTS. All right?
Now, it’s very important to know what will happen because if you know what’s going to happen, you will feel less nervous, and you will do better on the exam. So let’s get started.
The first part of the IELTS, of the whole test, is the listening. So on test day, you will go in; you’ll be all ready, ready to go. And I know you’re going to do well. And the very first section is the listening, okay? Followed by the reading and then the writing. So listening first.
The listening section is 30 minutes of four sections, plus 10 minutes to transfer your answers from one sheet of paper to another sheet of paper. So in total, 40 minutes.
Now, the IELTS test has two different streams. Some people do the academic; some people do the general. Usually, for immigration, you might do the general. For university or college — if you want to go to university or college in Canada or England, you would do the academic.
Now, the thing is that for the general and the academic, the listening is the same. So you’re going to be doing the same test whether it’s academic or general, same listening.
Now, this is also important. This is actually, maybe, a very key point. One of the difficulties of doing the listening of the IELTS is the tape is only played one time. Okay? You will only listen to it once. Now, a lot of the times in English class, you get to re-listen to something, maybe two or three times. In this test, one time. So you’ve really got to listen carefully because you will only hear it once.
You also will have extra time at the end of each section to check your answers and to look ahead to the next set of questions. Very important to do this.
All right. So how many sections are in listening? There is a total of four sections. Each section has ten questions, okay? For a total of 40 questions. Now, one thing to know is that the questions usually start out easier, and then as the test goes on, and the listening goes on, it gets harder and harder. So the first part is the easiest, and then it gets a little bit more difficult, more difficult, more difficult. But it’s all possible. You can do it.
All right. Let me tell you about Section 1. The first section of the listening module, you’ll be listening to two speakers having either a conversation or, maybe, some sort of transaction. Maybe somebody is buying something. So either a conversation or a transaction. And this tests you on survival English. So it’s basic English. English such as numbers, names — so it’s the survival English part. Okay?
Section 2 is a little more difficult than Section 1. There’s going to be one speaker talking. Now, what are they going to be talking about? They’ll talk about some sort of general topic, not academic, something very general. And again, it’s going to be something that you would probably hear if you lived in Canada or if you lived in England, all right?
The third section, you’re going to be hearing anywhere from two speakers, three speakers, or four speakers. What are they going to be talking about? They’re going to be having a conversation in an academic situation. This is where it gets a little bit more challenging because it’s easier to listen to one speaker or two speakers than four speakers. Okay? It’s very important that at this point, to be able to know who — to recognize each person’s voice. Okay? How many individuals and what is each person saying.
Section 4 is just one speaker. It might be a professor, and they are talking — giving an academic lecture. Okay? They might be talking about Einstein’s life or the life of a mole. Okay? So it’s a scientific or academic lecture.
So these two, survival English; these two, academic English, okay?
Another important thing to know about the IELTS is it’s testing you on British English. So as a result, practice listening to British speakers, Canadian speakers too, Australian — it’s not testing you on American English, but British English. So you will hear mainly British accents. You might hear some Australian accents, New Zealand accents, Canada accents, but mainly British accents. All right?
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Thank You
IWeb TEFL Team