The best way to improve any skill is by practising. Do you want to improve your listening skills? There’s only one way to do it: get down to business and start listening to spoken English.
Here are some fantastic tips and websites to help you:
5 Ways + 7 Amazing Websites to Improve Listening Skills
- FOCUS ON WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND
This is the most important piece of advice I can give you.
Don’t panic, don’t rack your brains if you can’t understand a word or a phrase. Not only will it make you lose concentration, but you will also miss what is being said while you are trying to remember what that one word means. You don’t want to miss the answer to a question, do you?
- BRITISH, BRITISH, BRITISH
Because the accents you will hear will be primarily British, make sure you spend enough time listening to British English. You can do so by listening to BBC radio stations or watching your favourite British films and series. You will also get more familiar with British vocabulary this way.
- PRACTISE TAKING NOTES WHILE LISTENING
Most of us find it difficult to listen and write at the same time, but this is something you will really need to work on if you want to do well at the exam.
- RECOGNIZE SIGNPOST WORDS
Listen for key words that tell you when the speaker is about to add extra information, examples or reasons. Signposting words are also used when paraphrasing or contrasting ideas, as well as talking about results.
Here are some examples for you:
List of Sentence Connectors in English with Examples!
For more tips on how to prepare for IELTS, check out the following post:
Here are the links to some of my favourite British TV series:
The Office
Eastenders
Coronation Street
Sherlock Holmes
Coupling
