Among the four skills that IELTS tests, the listening module plays a crucial role as it evaluates your ability to comprehend spoken English in various contexts. This article will provide you with the strategies that can help you enhance your listening skills.
- Familiarity with the format
Understanding the listening test’s format is the first step to improving your score. The test consists of four sections and different types of questions, like form completion, multiple choice questions and map labelling. Familiarise yourself with these question types so that you know what to expect on the test day.
- Develop active listening skills
If you want to improve your accuracy in comprehension, active listening is the key to that. Practise listening to a variety of different content like podcasts, TED Talks and academic lectures. Focus on the main points being talked about, supporting arguments and the specific examples. Note the speaker’s tone and attitude while listening. Understanding different accents and speech patterns will also help you in your journey.
- Predict and anticipate
Train yourself to listen for the context and other introductory information. Also, before the audio begins, scan through the questions and understand what type of information you have to listen for. This anticipation will enable you to arrive at your answers quickly and accurately.
- Practice with authentic materials
Reducing your anxiety and improving your pacing can only be done by practising using official questions papers. Regularly practising such tests can help you get accustomed to the test format and the question types.
- Review your mistakes
After each practice test, it is essential that you review your answers and identify the ones that you have answered incorrectly. Understanding your mistakes will enable you to find your weak points and work on improving them.
- Seek professional guidance
IELTS trainers can provide you with personalised feedback, give targeted practice and guide you through different strategies that you can employ for each question type. So, consider enrolling yourself for an IELTS preparation course and working on improving your listening skills.
By: Lydia Grace, Verbal Trainer
