Major students who we’ve spoken with have struggled with the IELTS listening module in particular. In fact, most students will find the latter questions difficult, as they are designed to really test your understanding of the English language. A great concept to help you prepare for your IELTS listening test is that of key words. However, students beware, as there are some basic mistakes you could easily make when adopting this method.
To highlight the problems that can arise with a key word approach to your English listening test, consider the following:
What do you do during your listening test, before you hear the recorded questions? Hopefully, you’d read the question before hearing the abstract. And while your reading the question, do you already underline what you think are key words in the question? Most students do, but without really thinking about it. This is where the mistakes can arise.
The major problem is how can you accurately identify the relevant keywords in the question that you need to answer during your listening test? Consider this English listening test example:
For the speaker, what is the most impressive aspect of a solar eclipse?
If this was your question, what key words would you underline as part of your IELTS listening preparation I’d guess that most students would focus on the word ”eclipse” as it is a noun, unusual sounding and may be a good starting point for your answer. But, if you do that you will have made a big mistake which will make your answer completely wrong.
Read the whole question and listen for the meaning, not words.
Many students make many mistakes during the IELTS listening test by not reading the question properly. The problem with focusing deeply on key words during your listening preparation and forgetting about the meaning, you are much more likely to word match; that is, you read a word in the question which you then hear in the recorded extract. Because you recognise it, you then wrongly assume it’s the answer. Don’t just look at the words, but focus on the meaning.
Use key words to help you decide when to really listen carefully.
Identifying key words during your IELTS listening preparation is important and can help to pinpoint the answer in the recorded extract. But students must remember that they are not the answer themselves, they just help you to know when the answer may be coming in the audio you are listening to.
Hi, I found these IELTS tips for listening preperation much helpful to me thanks…
- Vincent
Warwick
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