Category: IELTS Listening

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IELTS Listening Teacher Tips

How to Teach IELTS Listening

How to Teach IELTS Listening

cropped-IELTS-Academic-Logo.jpgThis article is part of the Teach IELTS series at IELTS Academic, an online provider of skills training for IELTS and English as a foreign language.

Spelling, distractors, paraphrase, and different English accents are all common problems faced by candidates in the IELTS Listening module. These ten IELTS Listening teaching tips should help both new and experienced IELTS teachers get the best out of their students.

IELTS Listening is a paper-based test of 40 questions that takes around 40 minutes to complete. Candidates hear four passages in total and answer ten questions about each. The passages, or sections, follow a set order:

  • Section 1: A conversation on an everyday topic
  • Section 2: A monologue on an everyday topic
  • Section 3: A conversation on an academic topic
  • Section 4: A monologue on an academic topic

The Listening test is the same in both the General Training and Academic modules of IELTS. Speakers may use a range of accents and varieties of English.

While listening, candidates must read and answer a variety of question types. There are short interludes before and during each passage to allow candidates to read the questions in advance. Analysis of the questions therefore forms a major part of any IELTS Listening strategy. 

After all four passages have been played, candidates have a further 10 minutes to transfer their answers to an answer sheet. At this point, poor spelling can seriously affect a candidate’s score.

As you can see, there are some important skills that need to be worked on in order to raise students’ listening scores. Read on for some practical classroom tips on how to teach IELTS Listening.

Looking for a basic guide to IELTS Listening? Read this first: IELTS Listening: Introduction

Completely new to teaching IELTS? Read this first: How to Teach IELTS: The Basics

1. Set realistic goals

In order to achieve a good score of IELTS 7.0, your students need to answer 30 out of 40 questions correctly. You should really drum this point into them. Why? It means they can quickly recover from any answers they miss and focus all their attention on the next question. Lead them out of the perfectionist mindset and get them thinking more pragmatically about what constitutes a good performance in the test.

2. Analyse the questions together

This is a controversial point, but I always like to give my students much more time to read the questions than they will receive in the real IELTS Listening test. First, I allow them to read through all ten questions at their leisure. I don’t want them distracted while we’re discussing a particular question. The we analyse each question for information type, troubleshooting, and grammatical clues. Later on students can be pushed to perform similar analysis under much more time pressure.

3. Predict possible answers

As well as analyse the questions, students should be encouraged to predict answers. Predicting is not the same as guessing, since you’re not asking them to write down their prediction. What prediction does is reveal if students have properly analysed the question for content and grammatical form. Thus, it’s a great complement to the previous tip.

4. Practice targetted listening

I like to use this analogy with my students: imagine you arrived at the airport one hour ago for a flight that departs soon. Now recall what all the announcements in the past hour have said. Of course you can’t, because we only listen for information relevant to our own flight. That’s the essence of targetted listening: having a goal in terms of what information we want to receive. It follows naturally from proper analysis of the ten questions.

5. Accent exposure

Unlike in TOEFL, candidates in the IELTS test can expect to hear a variety of accents, from regional British accents to North American and Southern Hemisphere accents such as Australian and South African English. It’s a curious footnote to the history of IELTS, which began as ELTS but gained its initial ‘I’ when more English-speaking countries were invited to recognise the test for immigration purposes. If you’re not a natural show-off who enjoys flipping between accents in class, there’s a comparison of different English accents here.

6. Drill spellings

IELTS candidates are expected to be able to spell answers correctly. However, English allows for multiple spellings of names, so you can expect these words to be spelled out, e.g. I.E.L.T.S. This is most likely to happen in IELTS Listening Section 1 where filling out personal details is a common question type. Drill spellings multiple times, paying special attention to the errors that are most common for your language group. The letter ‘W’ is notoriously problematic as it’s easily confused with the ‘double-X’ modifier in spelling.

7. Drill numbers

Just like for numbers above, IELTS candidates can expect to write several numbers, including at least one long number such as a product code or phone number. The good news is that numbers require little in the way of comprehension. Concentration is key, along with anticipating the number in the first place.

8. Listen for corrections

Among the many distractors that test-writers incorporate, one of the most common is to have the speaker correct a previous statement, especially if it’s a spelling or number. Therefore, students should write down the final version that they hear, not the first. Add a bit of variation to your spelling and number drills by introducing corrections.

9. Self-correct for spelling and grammar  

Students should be given some time after the recording to check their answers for spelling and grammar. Allow generous time for this stage and walk around the classroom, calling out question numbers where you can see that students have made mistakes. Give them the satisfaction of correcting their own mistakes before you do it for them.

10. Model good listening

Don’t just tell your students the correct answers. Walk them through the recording one more time, pausing at the critical moments to explain how each answer is given. The difference between a mediocre IELTS teacher and an outstanding one is that the best teachers are active and alert during listening passages for signs that reveal where their students are struggling.

Find more IELTS Listening techniques at IELTS Listening Tips: How to Improve Your Score.

Stuck for listening practice ideas? Try these IELTS Listening tests based on TED talks.

cropped-IELTS-Academic-Logo.jpgThis article is part of the Teach IELTS series at IELTS Academic, an online provider of skills training for IELTS and English as a foreign language.

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IELTS Listening TED x IELTS

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 4

TEDxIELTS: Ideas for Listening Practice

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 4: Talk Nerdy to Me

Listen to a TED speaker talk about the importance of good communication. Before you listen, take one minute to read the ten questions below. You can also download these questions as a PDF.

[ted id=1592]

QUESTIONS 1-6 (Sentence Completion) You should write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

The speaker argues that 1. _______________ and 2. ______________ need to be better at communicating.

The first question they must answer is 3. __________________? In other words, why is their science relevant to us?

They can help people understand their ideas by avoiding 4. _________________.

A good example of this are the words 5. _____________________________ which can easily be expressed as space and time.

However, that doesn’t mean they need to 6. ____________________. Ideas should be kept as simple as possible, but not made any simpler.

QUESTIONS 7-10 (Multiple Choice) Choose ONE ANSWER for each question.

7. What does the speaker say about bullet points?

A. They are dangerous to humans.
B. They depend too much on language.
C. They should be banned from presentations.

8. Why does the speaker mention the Eiffel Tower?

A. It’s a useful analogy.
B. It has a unique design.
C. It prevents tourists from getting lost.

9. The purpose of the equation is to:

A. Define the relevance to your audience
B. Find your true passion
C. Improve your conversations

10. What do you think is the speaker’s occupation?

A. Scientist
B. Engineer
C. Neither of the above

Make sure you check spelling carefully before you check the answers.

Teacher’s Note

This is the kind of talk you might hear in Section 2 of the IELTS Listening test. Be very careful when answering questions 7-10 as they make heavy use of distractors. These are words that you will hear the speaker say but they are not the correct answer to the question. Even though the speaker uses a few visuals, try to do this listening practice test without viewing the screen. You don’t need to see the visuals in order to understand the speaker’s points, and it will be much more authentic as IELTS Listening practice.

Further Practice

Want more IELTS Listening practice? Check out similar posts here.

Using this IELTS Listening practice in a real classroom? You may want to try these follow-up questions with your students.

This is an unofficial educational use of a TED talk. For official learning materials based around TED content, please visit the TED-ed website.

 

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IELTS Listening

IELTS Listening: English Accents

IELTS Listening uses a variety of native English accents: British English, North American English and Australian/NZ/South African English. Before taking IELTS, make sure you feel comfortable listening to these different varieties.

Listen to the ten samples below of people with different accents reading the same story. These are all English accents you can expect to hear in the IELTS Listening test. The ten samples are divided by region as follows:

  • UK (Southern England, Northern England, Scotland, Wales)
  • North America (Northern USA, Southern USA, Canada)
  • Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)

Try to notice any differences in pronunciation. Vowel sounds are especially likely to differ. Don’t overanalyse! – that’s a job for a professional linguist. Your goal should be to get comfortable with each accent so that you aren’t surprised or distracted when you hear it in the IELTS test.

Before we begin, here’s the story delivered in a standard ‘received pronunciation’ accent, the kind you might find on your textbook CDs or when listening to the BBC:

The full text of the story is further down the page. Each speaker also talks a little about his or her life after coming to the end of the story. Now here come the ten different accents.

Ten English Accents You Will Hear in IELTS Listening

britain_12

1. British English – Southern English Accent

Speaker: Female, 24, London, UK

2. British English – Northern English Accent

Speaker: Male, 39, Manchester, UK

3. British English – Scottish Accent

Speaker: Female, 52, Glasgow, UK

4. British English – Welsh Accent

Speaker: Female, 20, Wales, UK

world_13

5. American English – Northern US Accent

Speaker: Male, 30, New York, USA

6. American English – Southern US Accent

Speaker: Female, 50, Alabama, USA

7. Canadian English Accent

Speaker: Female, 25, British Columbia, Canada

world_23

8. Australian English Accent

Speaker: Male, 28, Sydney, Australia

9. Kiwi English Accent

Speaker: Female, 46, Christchurch, New Zealand

10. South African English Accent

Speaker: Female, 38, Durban, South Africa

Listening Sample Text: Comma Gets a Cure

All the speakers read the text below. Note that this is NOT the kind of story you will hear in the IELTS listening test, but it does allow you to follow each speaker’s words and compare their pronunciation.

If you listen to the end of each sample, each speaker also tells a unique story about their life.

Well, here’s a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on her first morning, she felt stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain yellow dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work.

When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the beautiful bird.

Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The goose’s owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, “Comma, Comma,” which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First she tried gently stroking the goose’s lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her. Finally, she administered ether. Her efforts were not futile. In no time, the goose began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath.

Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid her on her right side. Then Sarah confirmed the vet’s diagnosis. Almost immediately, she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive-either five or six times the cost of penicillin. I can’t imagine paying so much, but Mrs. Harrison-a millionaire lawyer-thought it was a fair price for a cure.

Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved.

Listening samples are taken from IDEA – the International Dialects of English Archive. The IDEA website includes many more samples of native and non-native English accents from around the world. The accents featured here are the ones you can expect to hear in the IELTS Listening test.

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IELTS Listening IELTS Reading Scoring Vocabulary

Do You Know This IELTS Vocabulary?

IELTS Vocabulary

These ten sentences highlight key IELTS vocabulary by topic. For each word that you know, give yourself one point. Then check the scoring guide at the end to understand how good your IELTS vocabulary really is!

Education

Business Studies is included as a subject in the school (1) curriculum at (2) secondary level in some countries, while in other countries it is only taught at (3) tertiary level.

History

Some (4) historians believe that there are ancient (5) civilisations whose (6) archaeological ruins have yet to be found.

Environment

Environmental pressure groups are opposed to the (7) destruction of forests and (8) campaign for their (9) conservation instead.

Travel

When travelling overseas, it is important to understand local (10) customs and avoid (11) offending your hosts. Follow this rule and you can be a wonderful (12) ambassador for your country.

Science

Animal testing in (13) laboratories is wrong, even when it leads to the development of new (14) treatments for human (15) diseases.

Entertainment

The music industry is in crisis due to the (16) widespread (17) illegal downloading of songs which has led to a (18) collapse in sales of CDs.

Sports

(19) Spectators at sporting events should be (20) banned from stadiums if they are found guilty of making (21) abusive gestures.

Media

When media (22) ownership is (23) consolidated in too few hands, it becomes harder for people to hear a (24) diversity of opinions.

Crime

When victims of crime visit (25) detention centres, this can often (26) deter criminals from (27) committing crimes in future.

Technology

Some people are so (28) addicted to their mobile (29) devices that they feel (30) anxious when separated from their phone for even a short time.

IELTS vocabulary scoring guide

26-30 points: Word wizard! You are ready to show your stuff in IELTS! But how many of these 30 words do you actually use? (IELTS 8-9)

20-25 points: Good enough to go! You know enough IELTS vocabulary to understand most of what you will read or hear in the test. Be sure to learn the words you didn’t know. (IELTS 6-7)

10-19 points: Getting there! You know some useful vocabulary for IELTS but it would help to study more before taking the test. (IELTS 4-5)

0-9 points: Time to learn up! Academic IELTS may be too difficult for people who don’t know most of these words. (IELTS 0-3)

 

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IELTS Listening IELTS Reading IELTS Speaking IELTS Writing

Do You Make These 8 Common Mistakes in IELTS?

Common IELTS Mistakes

Everyday I get messages from people who want to know why their IELTS score doesn’t improve. Often they have NO IDEA that their writing or speech is incomprehensible, or that their methods in listening or reading are all wrong!

Why does this happen? Well, for one thing, it shows the importance of studying with a teacher before you take the test. As an IELTS teacher myself, I would like to help people overcome the most common mistakes in IELTS before they decide to contact me, so here is my list of eight common mistakes to avoid.

Common mistakes in IELTS listening

Do you listen with open ears, so you easily miss the answers to the questions? Unfortunately it’s not about how much you understand overall. It’s about how many of those ten answers you anticipate and how many you catch when they are spoken. Preview the questions as much as possible before your listen, and concentrate only on listening for the answers.

Do you miss the next answer, because you’re still trying to answer a previous question? This can happen to anyone, and it’s the surest way to multiply the consequences of a mistake. Accept that you only need to get seven or eight of the ten answers, and don’t panic when you miss one. Concentrate on the next question, not the last question.

Common mistakes in IELTS Reading

Do you spend too much time reading, so that you hardly have time to answer the questions? Unfortunately, IELTS is not the time to take pleasure in reading! And there are no points for understanding the entire passage. Skim the text quickly to get an idea of the topic and organisation, and then move straight on to the questions. Maximum skim-reading time should be five minutes.

Do you easily get fooled by ‘distractors’, so that you’re shocked when your score is much lower than you expected? Distractors are answers that seem obviously correct, but turn out to be incorrect. They often make use of the same word as the original text. To avoid distractors, make sure you read all of the possible answers before deciding which is correct.

Common mistakes in IELTS Writing

Do you use too much fancy language, so your overall point is unclear? If the examiner thinks you’re just showing off some phrases you’ve memorised without fully understanding them, he or she will mark down your score. Also, do you believe the examiner will take the time to re-read your answer in order to figure out what you mean? Of course not. He or she will just lose patience and mark down your answer for coherence.

Do you write too casually, so you lose marks for inappropriate style? Fine if you’re taking the General Training version of IELTS, but not fine in the Academic version. Sure, examiners are nice people, but they aren’t your best friend and don’t want to read “Am I right?” and “Don’t you think so?” How do you know if your writing is too casual? Show it to a knowledgeable teacher and ask them if they think it would be suitable language for an academic report.

Common mistakes in IELTS Speaking

Do you hesitate for too long, because you’re planning the perfect answer in your own mind? You cannot get more than IELTS band 5 if you hesitate for an uncomfortable length of time while speaking. What is an uncomfortable amount of silence? For many English speakers, it can be as little as five seconds.

Do you speak with poor pronunciation, so the examiner has to struggle to understand your words? Perhaps your words are good words—the problem is that the examiner simply can’t catch what you’re trying to say! IELTS examiners are not supposed to reveal when candidates have performed poorly or made mistakes, so you may never know that your poor pronunciation is a problem. The solution is to practice IELTS speaking with a good teacher.

Would you like to practice your IELTS writing or IELTS speaking with an expert teacher? Eliminate common mistakes from your IELTS answers and find out the reason why your score hasn’t improved. See our current IELTS practice tests.

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IELTS Listening Techniques

IELTS Listening: Essential Skills and Strategies

IELTS Listening Skills

cropped-IELTS-Academic-Logo.jpgBy IELTS Academic, bringing you success in IELTS™ and Academic English with weekly free content and IELTS Practice Tests available worldwide.

Listening skills are fundamental to success in IELTS Listening: that’s obvious enough! But it’s not exactly obvious what listening skills are. This article describes the six most effective IELTS Listening skills for improving your score. Note that these include not only traditional listening skills but also English language skills that you’ll need to apply in the test.

Looking for a basic introduction to IELTS Listening first? Read IELTS Listening: Introduction.

Predicting

In IELTS Listening, you always have time to read the questions before the recording starts. Typically, you’re given around 30 seconds. Use this time to analyse the questions and predict answers. Predicting is not the same as guessing, since you don’t write down your prediction. When you predict, you consider the type of information that COULD be the answer. This helps you to focus on the type of information you’ll need to listen for when the recording begins.

Identifying keywords

The questions in the IELTS Listening module will contain two types of word: those likely to be used by the speaker and those likely to be paraphrased. Improve your chances of following the listening passage by identifying the ‘anchor’ words (names, dates, and technical vocabulary) since these are words you will hear. As you hear these words in the recording, that will also help you to avoid getting lost and know which question you should be answering.

Identifying paraphrase

For non-anchor words, try coming up with some potential paraphrases that the speaker might use. English speakers paraphrase more often than speakers of many other languages, so recognising paraphrase is an important listening skill. However, you don’t have much time to think of potential paraphrases while reading the question in the IELTS Listening test. For that reason, paraphrasing is a skill you should be practicing continuously as an English learner.

Targetted listening

Targetted listening means focussing all your attention on the ten items of information required to answer the ten questions in each section of IELTS Listening. This listening skill becomes easier when you get better at analysing the questions. Pay special attention to questions that require numbers or difficult spellings such as names. The opposite is open listening – listening for any information that helps you understand what’s going on. Open listening may be important when having a conversation with a friend, but use targetted listening for success in IELTS.

Spelling

Most question types in IELTS Listening require you to write the answer, not just tick a box. If spelling is incorrect, then the answer is also marked incorrect, even if you heard it right. So good listening skills will be useless if you can’t spell! Read my guide to Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS to find out which words you need to be extra careful with. In English, names of people and addresses may have more than one accepted spelling. In the IELTS Listening test, such words will be spelled out for you by the speaker. Just make sure you’re prepared!

Grammar

In sentence and summary completion tasks, you will need to write an answer that is not only spelled correctly but also fits grammatically. This can actually be helpful. For example, you may not hear the plural ‘s’ at the end of a word, but a quick analysis of the question should confirm that the noun must be plural. Another word part that is often difficult to hear is the ‘ed’ suffix. If you know that you’re listening for an adjective, that will guide you towards the correct answer. Not only in IELTS Listening but in all modules of IELTS, the use of skills and techniques must be supported by continual study of the rules of English. So back to the grammar books one more time!

Ready to practice? Try these IELTS Listening questions based on TED talks.

cropped-IELTS-Academic-Logo.jpgBy IELTS Academic, bringing you success in IELTS™ and Academic English with weekly free content and IELTS Practice Tests available worldwide.

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IELTS Listening Practice Tests TED x IELTS

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 3

TEDxIELTS: Ideas for Listening Practice

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 3: Why Is ‘X’ the Unknown?

Try these IELTS listening practice questions based on a TED talk about the letter X in mathematics. Take one minute first to read through the questions before you listen. You can also download these questions as a PDF.

[ted id=1469]

Questions 1-5 (Summary completion) Write no more than one word for each answer. 

The Arabic language is extremely 1. _________________________. Because each part of a sentence is very precise and informative, constructing a sentence in Arabic is bit like writing an 2. _________________________. This partly explains many so-called Western sciences such as mathematics and 3. _________________________ actually have their origins in the Middle East. For example, the English word ‘algebra’ has Arabic roots. Many kinds of Middle-Eastern wisdom arrived in Europe via 4. _________________________, where they were first translated. However, certain Arabic sounds can’t be pronounced by Europeans without a great deal of practice. They also can’t easily be written using existing European 5. _________________________.

Questions 6-10 (Matching). Match the following statements with the letter or symbol they refer to.

6. It was familiar to Spanish mathematicians. _____

7. It was eventually replaced by another letter. _____

8. It was known throughout Europe. _____

9. It has been in use for nearly six centuries. _____

10. It is unpronounceable in Spanish. _____

  • A. The mathematical symbol X
  • B. The Arabic letter SHeen
  • C. The Greek letter Kai
  • D. The Latin letter X

Make sure you check spelling carefully before you check the answers.

Teacher’s Note

This is the kind of talk you might hear in Section 4 of the IELTS Listening test, a lecture on an abstract or academic topic. In this case, not only is the subject unfamiliar, but you need to do a lot of reading while you listen. This will be a real test of your multitasking skills! If you’re not good at reading and listening at the same time, you could try taking notes instead and then looking at the questions later. I wouldn’t usually recommend this strategy, but it could be effective during a summary completion task like Questions 1-5 above.

Further Practice

Want more IELTS Listening practice? Check out similar posts here.

Using this IELTS Listening practice in a real classroom? You may want to try these follow-up questions with your students.

This is an unofficial educational use of a TED talk. For official learning materials based around TED content, please visit the TED-ed website.

 

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IELTS Listening TED x IELTS

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 2

TEDxIELTS: Ideas for Listening Practice

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 2: The World’s English Mania

Try these IELTS listening practice questions based on a popular TED talk about English as a global language. Take one minute first to read through the questions. You can also download these questions as a PDF.

[ted id=554]

Questions 1-4 (Short-answer questions) Write no more than three words and/or a number for each answer.

1. What can be positive, worrying or life-threatening? ___________________________

2. How do Chinese students practice English? ___________________________

3. How many English learners are there in the world? ___________________________

4. Which country will have most speakers of English? ___________________________

Questions 5-7 (Multiple choice, multiple answer)

What THREE reasons for learning English in China are given by the lecturer?

  • A. To belong in a single world
  • B. To have a better career
  • C. To pay for education
  • D. To support children in the future
  • E. To order food in restaurants
  • F. To perform well in a test
  • G. To live in another country

Questions 8-10 (Multiple choice, single answer)

8. What does the lecturer consider to be the main effect of the world learning English?

  • A. Other languages will become extinct.
  • B. Discussions are possible at the global level.
  • C. Global problems can easily be solved.

9. What does the lecturer say English will become?

  • A. One of the world’s common languages
  • B. The world’s universal language
  • C. As important as mathematics or music

10. Why is the spread of English a positive development?

  • A. It will help spread technological advances.
  • B. It will help unite countries and cultures.
  • C. It will help people resolve their disputes.

Make sure you check spelling carefully before you check the answers.

Teacher’s Note

This is the kind of talk you might hear in Section 4 of the IELTS Listening test, a lecture on an abstract or academic topic. Note that most of the questions this time are multiple choice. Use common sense to eliminate unlikely answers before and while listening. For example, we know that global problems cannot easily be solved, so that rules out Answer C in Question 8. However, just be sure you don’t take this process too far and start basing answers on your own opinions rather than the speaker’s words!

Further Practice

Want more IELTS Listening practice? Check out similar posts here.

Using this IELTS Listening practice in a real classroom? You may want to try these follow-up questions with your students.

This is an unofficial educational use of a TED talk. For official learning materials based around TED content, please visit the TED-ed website.

Categories
IELTS Listening Practice Tests TED x IELTS

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 1

TEDxIELTS: Ideas for Listening Practice

TED x IELTS Listening Practice 1: Why Videos Go Viral

Try these IELTS listening practice questions based on a popular TED talk about viral content on YouTube. Take one minute first to read through the questions. You can also download these questions as a PDF.

[ted id=1371]

QUESTIONS 1-2 (Sentence completion) Write no more than three words for each answer.

Web video now means that anyone can become famous very quickly.

Over 48 hours of video appear on YouTube 1. ________________________.

Only a tiny percentage of videos goes viral and becomes a cultural moment.

The key factors in creating a viral are tastemakers, 2. ________________________ and unexpectedness.

QUESTIONS 3-10 (Note completion) Write no more than three words for each answer.

BEAR VASQUEZ

“Double rainbow” video viewed 3. ________________________ during 2010.

Video first became popular during the summer.

Creator didn’t intend to make a viral; he just wanted to 4. ________________________ a rainbow.

Video had actually been uploaded in 5. ________________________ but only became popular after tastemaker Jimmy Kimmel posted a link on Twitter.

REBECCA BLACK

Song “Friday” has been viewed almost 200 million times.

Viewing peaks all occurred on 6. ________________________.

Its popularity may have begun with a joke about the video on Twitter.

7. ________________________ of “Friday” have been uploaded to YouTube.

Viral videos are born when online communities spread or do something new with content.

“NYAN CAT”

Looped animation has been viewed nearly 50 million times.

YouTube users began creating different versions of the video.

Whole 8. ________________________ emerged that transformed “Nyan Cat” from a simple joke to a participatory movement.

CASEY NIESTAT

Made a unique video to protest bicycle fines in New York.

Made his point using 9. ________________________ and ________________________.

Video has now been seen 10. ________________________.

Make sure you check spelling carefully before you check the answers.

Teacher’s Note

This is the kind of lecture you might hear in Section 4 of the IELTS Listening test – though this one includes visual content that you will not find in the real exam. Notice that in this example, there are no multiple choice questions. For all ten questions, you must complete the gaps in the sentences and notes with missing words. It’s very important to check not only spelling but also that the words fit the sentence grammatically. Sometimes in IELTS Listening you may need to adjust the speaker’s words to make them fit the question, for example by changing a verb to a noun.

Further Practice

Want more IELTS Listening practice? Check out similar posts here.

Using this IELTS Listening practice in a real classroom? You may want to try these follow-up questions with your students.

This is an unofficial educational use of a TED talk. For official learning materials based around TED content, please visit the TED-ed website.

 

 

Categories
IELTS Listening IELTS Writing Vocabulary

Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS

Spelling is huge concern for my IELTS students. Writing scores are 25% determined by vocabulary, which includes spelling accuracy. Too many spelling mistakes can also seriously bring down your score in IELTS Listening.

This list of common IELTS spelling mistakes includes some of the words most likely to appear in the test. Try to master these basic rules in order to minimise poor spelling in IELTS. 

Single and double consonants

Spelling mistakes are common when single or double consonants occur nearby in a word.

A single consonant is followed by a double consonant:
Across, Process, Harass, Disappoint, Recommend, Tomorrow, Professor, Necessary

A double consonant is followed by a single consonant:
Parallel, Apparent, Exaggerate, Occasion, Occur (but Occurred), Commit (but Committed)

Some common words with two pairs of consonants:
Success, Possess, Access, Assess, Address, Accommodation, Embarrass, Millennium

Weak vowel sounds

Some words are difficult to spell because they contain the schwa or [ə], a weak vowel sound. It is almost impossible to know how to spell such words from their sound alone.

Examples of words containing more than one schwa include:
Separate (adj.), Definite, Desperate, Temperature, Literature, General, Relevant, Category

Other problematic schwa words include:
Describe, Decline, Despite; but Dispute, Discrete, Display
Capable, Achievable, Understandable; but Possible, Visible, Accessible
Performance, Attendance, Ignorance; but Independence, Sentence, Existence

Sometimes the schwa sound conceals a barely-pronounced [r]:
Opportunity, Pursue, Persuade, Surprise

Changes of spelling when words change form

A consonant can change when a noun becomes an adjective:
Benefit > Beneficial; Influence > Influential; Circumstance > Circumstantial

A vowel can change or be lost when a verb becomes a noun:
Maintain > Maintenance; Pronounce > Pronunciation, Argue > Argument

A vowel may double when a noun becomes a verb:
Success > Succeed; Excess > Exceed; Process > Proceed

A final consonant is often doubled when a verb changes form:
Occur > Occurred; Refer > Referred; Begin > Beginning

Silent letters in consonant clusters

[nm] in Environment, Government
[nm] in Column, Autumn
[sc] in Science, Conscious, Discipline, Fascinate, Ascend, Descend
[xc] in Excite, Exceed, Exception, Excellent, Excited
[dg] in Knowledge, Acknowledge (but just [g] in Privilege, Oblige)
[th] clusters in ordinals: Eighth, Twelfth, Hundredth

Pairs of frequently confused spellings in IELTS

Till ≠ Until (not *untill)
Lose ≠ Loose (one is a verb; the other is an adjective)
Affect ≠ Effect (one is a common verb; the other is its noun form)
Forth ≠ Fourth (one means ‘forward’; the other means ‘number four’)
Fourth but Forty (not *fourty)
High but Height (not *hight)
Great but Grateful (not *greatful)
Precede ≠ Proceed (one means ‘go before’; the other means ‘go ahead’)
Principle ≠ Principal (one means ‘truth’; the other means ‘main’)
Site ≠ Sight (one is a place; the other is something to see, as in sightseeing not *siteseeing)
Copywriter ≠ Copyright (one writes advertising; the other means ‘intellectual property’)

Finally, some notoriously tricky spellings in English

Here are 10 English words of foreign origin that even native speakers have difficulty spelling!

Amateur, Entrepreneur, Hierarchy, Liaison, Medieval, Miscellaneous, Queue, Questionnaire, Rhythm, Vacuum

Do you make these IELTS spelling mistakes? Have I missed any important words from the list? Tell us what you think in the space below.

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