Common mistakes students make in the IELTS Listening section

A lot of learners find listening to be the most difficult of all sections in the IELTS test. There are several reasons for that. 

First of all, listening itself is a complicated process as learners should mainly rely on the auditory channel of perceiving information and often there is no visual support. 

Apart from that, the format of some tasks can be really challenging and even confusing for test takers.

In this article, we will discuss what you as teachers can do to help your learners avoid the potential difficulties in the IELTS listening section and enhance their performance.

We can divide the main difficulties roughly into two groups: 

IELTS is an exam for all levels and both Intermediate and Advanced level candidates will hear the same text. Therefore, audio texts will include words that are unfamiliar to your learners. Trying to understand every word can be quite a misleading idea because it may distract your learners from completing the task and performing worse.

Thus, encourage your learners to focus on the task and all that can help complete it. It is worth concentrating on understanding the main points, recognising distractors, using special compensation strategies which help to deal with unknown words. 

Unfortunately, it is quite a common situation in the exam when a test taker is trying to catch the answer to the question and then realises that they have missed a lot and got lost in the text. 

Encourage them to underline the keywords and to catch them or their synonyms in the audio text. 

Apart from that, advise your learners to pay attention to signposting phrases which signal the shift between the parts of the audio text and linkers which show the connection between the ideas in the text.

This is the case when candidates' background knowledge can be a drawback instead of a benefit. 

Even if we think we know the correct answer, it may be different from the one in the given text. As a result, we can make mistakes. Therefore, it is essential for the learners not to become the co-authors of the audio text.

The exam is quite a stressful event for candidates. When they come across a task they have not done before, the level of stress increases.

To do the task, it is essential: 

Then your learners will know how to approach the task even when being stressed which will definitely improve their performance.

Another typical situation test takers can find themselves. In IELTS, points are not deducted for incorrect answers. 

If they have several options, advise them to write one of them — the one they are more confident about; if there are no options, recommend them to guess. 

If the answer is wrong, the candidates will be penalised for that; but there is always a chance of guessing the answer. 

In the listening section, test takers are given some time to read the task. 

Since candidates hear the test once only, it is crucial to analyse the task carefully. See if you do such practice during the lessons. 

Another great point here will be regular timed practice when learners complete exam tasks under the exam conditions. It helps them identify their weaker points and what should be improved. 

Stress and anxiety can play against candidates as there is no opportunity to re-listen to the text. 

See if you include timed practice in your lessons and aim to follow the exam regulations, especially the original time slots and playing the recording once.

We hope all the recommendations will be helpful for your learners and will help them maximise their performance in the exam and pass it successfully.