The Right to Roam (Listening Section 3)

What is Listening Section 3? 

  • It is generally a discussion between two to four speakers (e.g. between one or  more students and/or a  university teacher)
  • The subject is some aspect of academic life (e.g. a past of future project)
  • up to three tasks
  • A total of ten questions- there is a brief pause in the discussion between the parts that relate to each of the tasks

Tips for today’s guided exercise: 

In today’s listening exercise you will need to complete a table here are some tips that you may want to use:

  1. Look at the instructions and check how many words that you must write in. 
  2. Look at the heading of the table which tells you what the recording is about
  3. Read the column headings
  4. Look at each row of the table in turn and think about the kind of word(s) you need to complete it
  5. Listen and complete each gap
  6. Move on to the next row each time the speaker talks about something new
  7. Keep up with the speaker if you miss an answer forget it and move on to the next. Fill in any gaps at the end with a guess
  8. Transfer your answers to the answer sheet at the end of the test

Task 1

Download the following file and complete the task

Focus on Listening 2 The right to roam

Task 2 

Download the file and complete the independent listening task

Section 3 Independent Exercise

 

Completing a Form (Listening)

Preparation: 

In the first section of the IELTS Listening module you hear an everyday conversation between two people. Before the conversation starts, you hear an introductory sentence describing the general situation. You also have a few minutes to read the first few questions. Remember to read them carefully and try to predict the answers.

Task 1. 

Listen to the introduction of to a conversation and discuss the following questions as a class

What will the topic of conversation be?

How many topics should you look at before you listen?

Task 2

Download the attachment and study the form. Listen again to the introduction, the instructions and the first part of the conversation. Answer the questions below 

1. How many speakers are there?

2. Are the speakers talking face to face or are they on the phone?

3. Where is the woman?

4. What does the man want to do?

5. Which speaker has a form to fill in?

Task 3 

Download the attachment. 

What kind of things should you be listening for study the form and discuss

Task 4

Complete the guided listening

Task 5 

Complete the independent exercise

Filling in a form independent Exercise Listening Completing a Form

 

Learning to listen for Specific Details

Listening for Details 

Generally speaking during the listening part of an exam you may need to listen for specific details these are usually numbers, names, addresses and dates. 

Telephone Numbers: 

Listening for telephone numbers is a common detail that can appear in a listening test such as the IELTS. In order for you to listen for telephone numbers correctly there are a few points that we should consider:

  • 0 is pronounces as “oh” and your most unlikely to hear “zero”
  • if there is a double number we say “double 7”
  • We don’t say the numbers one by one we read them in groups of two or three

Addresses

When you are listening for an address, you should expect a number and a street name. Typically, the number will come before the name of the street, for example:

“14 Bond Street”

Types of different Roads

The name of the road will either be spelt out to you or will be a common English word that you should be able to spell. However you should be able to spell the different types of words that can be used to describe roads

  • Road
  • Lane
  • Street
  • Avenue

You should also be prepared to write down letters and numbers for post-codes. Please remember that in the UAE post-codes are not used so this may be something new for you e.g.

14 York Road,

London

NW12 34AH

The Spelling of Names

If you have to spell a name it will usually be spelt out for you letter by letter so you don’t need to worry. However some people can find this difficult and the letters which generally cause the most difficulties are as follows:

  • a as in say
  • e as in teeth
  • i as in eye
  • x as in ex-wife
  • y as in why

Dates

There are a number of different ways in which to say and write down dates. The most common system is:

The 25th of November”

However if you have to write down a date in  a listening exam and you have a word limit of one or two words you don’t need to write down of

Common Traps when listening for specific details

Quite often you will hear more than date/time/number and the one you need is not the first one you hear, To make it harder the speaker in the listening may even give you a piece of information and then go back to correct it, in this case make sure youwrite the second correct version

Practice Exercise

Look at these questions what kind of things should you be listening for? Discuss with a partner and then share your ideas with the class:

  1. Type of van required:
  2. Preferred make of van:
  3. Date of collection:
  4. Length of hire
  5. Name: Justin ______________
  6. Address: _____________ Street, Toronto
  7. Telephone Number:
  8. Driving Convictions:
  9. Identification to be provided:
  10. Card Number:

Listening for Specific Details Independent Ex 2 part-i-listening-van-hire Listening For Details Independent exercise 2

Learning to Listen for the main idea

Tips for listening to the main idea

There are four keys to identifying the main idea in a listening and these are as follows:

Look out for certain phrases these could include :

  •  The point I want to make/cover here is …….
  • The main point is…..
  • The important thing here is …
  • What I’m trying to show is ….
  • What I’m going to talk about today is…. 
  • The purpose of my remark is…. 
  • This afternoon I’d like to explain / focus on 

Sometimes the speaker may ask a question to the audience (this is known as rhetorical question). This is also another way to introduce the main idea.

Another way to identify main ideas is to listen for repetition (how many times a word is repeated). If a word is repeated several times it will generally suggest that it is something important

Pace or speed of talking is also an important way to identify what is important. Generally speaking unimportant or small details are spoken more quickly whereas important points such as the “main idea” will spoken more slowly or clearly.

Guided Exercise (Main idea) Listening for Main Idea Indepndent exercise Listening for Main Ideas Independent Exercise