The ways to improve IELTS listening skills

Nazarbayev Intellectual school

of Physics and Mathematics Kokshetau city

Subject : English

Unit : 9.1A Travel and Tourism

Developing Listening

Concepts : Changes and Well-being

Lesson objectives:

• Find out how to deal with different types of Listening tasks
• Familiarize skills which need to be developed to deal successfully with Listening tasks

Skill we develop:

- Prediction

- Recognising synonyms & paraphrasing

- Recognising distractors

- Understanding connected speech

Learn 3 essential listening strategies  – 

question analysis, answer prediction & how to use keyword clues .

4 key IELTS listening skills that you need to master to score highly in the test.

These are:

Prediction

Recognising synonyms & paraphrasing

Recognising distractors

Understanding connected speech

These three things that you’ll be able to determine:

The type of information required , e.g. surname, place name, date, phone number, postcode, percentage, price.

The type of word required , e.g. noun, adjective, verb.

Synonyms or paraphrasing that might be used, e.g.

‘ a quarter’ for ‘25%’,

‘ business functions’ for ‘corporate events’.

Sample question

QUESTIONS: TRANSPORT FROM BAYSWATER

    1.  Express train leaves at (1) …………………….

  2.  Nearest station is (2) …………………….

  3.  Number 706 bus goes to (3) …………………….

  4.  Number (4) ……………………. bus goes to station

  5.  Earlier bus leaves at (5) …………………….

Predictions:

  A place name

  A number

  A time

A place name or street name

Predictions KEYS:

1.   A time

2.   A place name

3.   A place name or street name

4.   A number

5.   A time

2)   Synonyms & Paraphrasing

Do not expect to hear the same vocabulary in the recording as is written in the questions !!!

Question / answer

The park was  first built in  1979.

The Hurricane roller-coaster is 

tall and made of wood .

Audio

The park itself  wasn’t developed until  1979.

It’s the  highest wooden  roller-coaster in the country.

Key word technique

Identify the keywords or phrases in the question and quickly think of synonyms or related words that might come up in the recording.

List of possible answers:

A    was recently publicised in the  media

B    includes some items  given  by the artists

C    includes the  most popular  exhibits in the museum

D    has had some of its contents  relocated

Synonym ideas:

media  – newspaper, TV, radio

given  – donated

most popular  – favourite

relocated  – moved

3) Recognising Distractors

In the recording, a piece of information may be given and then corrected or changed

• They live at number 64 Miller Street.  No, sorry , it’s number 46. I always get the numbers the wrong way around.

• The train leaves at 10.20.  In fact , it’s 10.21 to be precise.

• The kids want to visit Spain for our holiday. However, the best deals this summer are in France so we’ll go there instead.

4) Connected Speech

Connected speech is when the words and sounds in a sentence run into each other making it difficult for a non-native speaker to understand what is being said.

Do you want to go to the park?         à        Dya wanna getethe park?

His son lent him ten bucks                à        Hison lent im tembucks.

I have to visit my grandma                à        Ivte visit me gramme.

Listening practice

Apply the 4 key IELTS listening skills to deal with the tasks below:

Prediction

Recognising synonyms & paraphrasing

Recognising distractors

Understanding connected speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIP9ptrUHh8 Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKOceiiqsas Part 2

SEAT work Expand Your Vocabulary – Travel & Holidays

1. Follow the link to study topic vocabulary and their collocations. Get ready for the vocabulary quiz (next lesson)

https://ieltsamericas.com/expand-your-ielts-vocabulary-travel-holidays /

2. Follow the link to expand common vocabulary. Get ready for speaking

https://ieltsmaterial.com/ielts-travel-adventure-vocabulary-useful-phrases-expressions-in-ielts-speaking /

https://www.ieltsdragon.com/ielts-travel-vocabulary/topic-vocabulary-collocation /

3. Follow the link to familiarize Speaking exam structure. Get ready for speaking

https://englishwithanexpert.com/learn-ielts-vocabulary-travel /

Reflection

Let’s pause to reflect on what we’ve just learned.

• Did this lesson give you a new perspective,

or introduce you to new techniques,

skills, processes?