LISTENING
LISTENING SKILL is the mother of all communication. Effective and Active Listening involves receiving, interpreting and responding to the message. In IELTS Test, the listener has to grasp the content of the speaker quickly and fully and respond to it correctly. While doing so, he has to shut out all other thoughts from his mind. The listener listens to the speaker attentively. While doing so, he has to critically examine a piece of information for his answers. In order to score well in this component, the student must practice hard to avoid barriers to good listening. He can do so with practice at our centre.
Timing
Approximately 30 minutes (plus 10 minutes transfer time)
Questions
There are 40 questions. A variety of question types are used, chosen from the following: multiple choice, matching, plan/map/diagram labeling, form completion, note completion, table completion, flow-chart completion, summary completion, sentence completion, short-answer questions.
Test Parts
There are 4 sections:
Section 1 is a conversation between two people set in an everyday context (e.g. a conversation in an accommodation agency).
Section 2 is a monologue set in an everyday social context (e.g. a speech about local facilities or a talk about the arrangements for meals during a conference).
Section 3 is a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context (e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment, or a group of students planning a research project).
Section 4 is a monologue on an academic subject (e.g. a university lecture).
Each section is heard once only.
A variety of voices and native-speaker accent is used.
Skills assessed
A wide range of listening skills are assessed, including:
- Understanding of main ideas
- Understanding of specific factual information
- Recognizing options, attitudes and purpose of a speaker
- Following the development of an argument.
Marking
Each correct answer receives 1 mark. Scores out of 40 are converted to the IELTS 9-band scale.
Scores are reported in whole and half bands.