IELTS Listening: Tips to Build Your Vocabulary
Building your vocabulary resource is a must to understand IELTS listening recordings and ensure that you can write and spell key vocabulary. Improve your performance by expanding your vocabulary range and learning spellings that are important for the IELTS listening test.
If you want to become a proficient language learner, it is advised to increase your vocabulary range. Understanding words and knowing how to use them and writing them correctly is vital and it will help you in performing better in the IELTS Listening.
You are tested for the following:
- What you hear. If your answer is spelled incorrectly, your ‘correct’ answer will be marked incorrect.
Listening Test in Parts
Each part of the listening test presents different vocabulary, starting with the most frequently used vocabulary in Part 1, to vocabulary that is specific to a number of topics in Part 4.
We will look at the words that are commonly used in all four parts of the IELTS listening test. Also, we will look into the tips and advice on how to spell English words correctly.
Part 1: Familiar Vocabulary
In this part, basic vocabulary is used. In the first part, you will hear a conversation between two people set in an everyday social setting. The vocabulary used in this part will be familiar word groups relating to everyday life, dates, times, places, activities, work, and leisure.
Even though these words are commonly used, these are often spelled incorrectly. This is the point where students lose marks.
1. Days of the Week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
2. Months and Seasons of the Year: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, spring, winter, autumn and summer.
Pro tip: If you struggle with spelling, you can choose to write the date using numbers as long as these numbers are written in the correct format. For example, ‘the 10th of February, 2020’ = 10/02/2020
3. Shapes: Circle, square, rectangle, triangle, cylinder, oval.
Pro tip: Shapes can be used when we refer to places in a city like King George Square. So, it is important for you to spell common shapes correctly.
4. Transportation: Automobile, truck, tractor, tram, subway, airplane, train, bicycle, car, pedestrian, passenger and commuter.
Pro Tip: Commuter is often misspelled, confusing it with ‘computer’!
5. Colours: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black, and brown.
Pro Tip: Colour spelled with a ‘U’ is the Canadian/British spelling. In the US, it is spelled ‘color’ without a ‘U’. Both can be used as these are correct.
6. Verbs: Suggest, develop, borrow, persuade, discuss, review, concentrate, believe, and crash.
Pro Tip: Sometimes verbs are conjugated for gender and tense, etc. The difference can give you an incorrect answer.
7. Adjectives: Beautiful, necessary, fantastic, comfortable, convenient, wonderful, terrible, temporary, permanent, knowledgeable, exciting, boring, difficult, and easy.
Pro Tip: Make sure that you note adjectives that have double consonants such as (ss/mm). It is easy to miss a letter.
8. Numbers, Times, and Currencies: These quite commonly appear in Part 1 of the listening test. Recording the corresponding numbers or symbols is suggested because this will help in eliminating the possibility of spelling the word incorrectly.
For example, thirty dollars is the same as $30. Also, six o’clock and 6:00 are the same. Similarly, ten thousand and 10,000 are correct. Writing the number or symbol allows you to feel more confident about not making any spelling mistakes.
Pro Tip: When deciding on whether the answer is 30 or 13, listen to the stressed syllable. If it’s 13, the stress will be on the second syllable i.e., ‘thirteen’, if it is 30, the stress will be on the first syllable i.e., ‘thirty’.
Pro Tip: You can copy the correct symbol from the listening question to make sure you are using the correct currency. If you use ‘$’ instead of ‘£’, your answer will be incorrect.
Part 2: A Monologue, Speech or Talk
In Part 2 of the IELTS listening test, you will hear a monologue set in an everyday context. You might hear a speech about any local facility, describing the layout of a recreation center, or you might hear a description of rooms in some building. There are a variety of question types in this part of the test and some questions may even involve maps so there is vocabulary that might be helpful to know.
If you see a map or a diagram, the first piece of advice is to write Left and Right on either side of your booklet. This will make sure you do not confuse your right with your left!
You can even draw a compass with points such as North, South, East and West if it has not been done on the question paper.
1. Rooms in Buildings: Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, dining room, lounge, library, gymnasium (gym), cafeteria (cafe), classroom, waiting room, reception, ticket desk, storage room and theatre.
2. Place Markers: Street, road, avenue, lane, drive, court, place, terrace, and way.
There is some vocabulary you should be listening to such as: for, but. Some words help you to follow the map more easily. Make sure you know where the direction words point to.
3. Directions and Prepositions of Place: North, South, East, West, up, down, right, left, straight, across from, between, besides, diagonal, corner, opposite, adjacent to, near, past, before and after.
4. Verbs: Turn, move, continue on, walk, cross, pass, start, finish, end, stop, and go straight ahead.
5. Places on the Map: Tennis court, river, courtyard, laboratory, building, bridge, road, path, traffic lights, bench, seat, table, basketball court, running track, swimming pool, beach, forest, garden and castle.
Part 3: A Conversation Between People
In Part 3, you will hear a conversation between up to four people. This conversation will either be set in an educational or training context, for example, a university lecturer discussing any assignment with two students.
Being familiar with vocabulary that is related to academics will be of great help for you to learn and study, especially for this part of the test.
1. School Terms: Presentation, project, teamwork, pairs, organization, outline, proofreading, experiment, reference, lecture, tutor, teacher, attendance, specialist, knowledge, faculty, bachelor’s, master’s, schedule, management, leadership, questionnaire, statistic, percentage, laboratory, school, university and college.
Pro Tip: Here’s a difference — North Americans pronounce ‘laboratory’ in three syllables: lab-bra-tory. British English speakers pronounce the same word using four syllables: lab-or-a-tory.
2. Subjects in School: Mathematics (Maths), Science, English, Physical Education (PE), Art, Music, Geography, Biology, Chemistry and History.
Pro Tip: In school, the year is divided into terms or semesters. In between, they also take breaks and holidays.
3. Subjects in University: Commerce, Science, Psychology, Engineering, Marketing, Sociology, Medicine, History, Geography, Architecture, Law, Economics, Education and Philosophy.
Pro Tip: In university, the year is divided into semesters. The students in university usually have exam blocks at the end of each semester which is followed by a break. Either they study part-time or full-time or combine it with employment.
4. Examination: Assessment, test, revision, pass, fail, repeat, supervise, supervisor, assess, exam, results, degree and certificate.
Part 4: A University Lecture
Even though Part 4 is considered the most difficult, the words used are quite common.
Part 4 of Listening test is based on academics, so there could be a range of different topics spoken about.
Look through the range of topics given below:
1. Health: Vegetarian, vegan, healthy, unhealthy, leisure, disease, vitamin, protein, carbohydrates, exercise, treatment, obese, overweight, fit, doctor, check-up, medicine, vitamin, pandemic, virus, cure, and vaccination.
2. Animals and Their Habitat: Mammals, reptiles, primates, predators, prey, mountain, jungle, forest, island, pond, river, stream, zoo, pet, endangered, species, ocean and sea.
3. Continents and Countries: North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica, Australia, Oceania, England, Canada, China, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Switzerland.
4. Environment: Global warming, disaster, earthquake, tornado, blizzard, hurricane, pollution, temperature, drought, flood, cyclone, volcanic eruption, deforestation, bush fires and desertification.
5. Government: Politics, leader, politician, senator, mayor, laws, regulations, senate, president, society, individual, council, and rules.
Pro Tip: The word ‘society’ is one of the most commonly misspelt words.
6. Energy: Nuclear, oil, coal, hydro electrical power, natural gas, solar power, source, generate, electricity, dam, windmill, wind turbine, renewable and non-renewable.
Pro Tip: Remember to check your spelling of nuclear, it is often written as unclear.
7. General: Appointment, cooperation, employment, government, exhibition, occupation, aluminum, century, decade, millennium, individual, creativity, guarantee, satellite, opportunity, license, frequently, calendar and different.
Pro Tip: The words ‘government’ and ‘different’ are two of the most commonly misspelled words in the test. Also, ‘aluminum’ is pronounced with four syllables in North American English like a-lu-min-num. It is pronounced with five syllables in British English like al-u-min-i-um.
To help you feel confident in the IELTS Listening and other tests, try to gain knowledge on different topics and also have a good vocabulary base.
If you need more tips and advice, come over to the best IELTS coaching centre in Amritsar.