Ielts course

Identifying key words

When listening to a recording, it is sometimes difficult for learners to understand every word. A very important skill is the ability to identify the key words – that is, the most important words which carry the message.

Related to this skill is the ability to recognise the way speakers use sentence stress and intonation – in other words, making words louder and higher – to highlight important words.
Listening for specific information

Our reason for listening will affect the way we listen. Often we need to listen for specific information. For instance, if you are listening to a weather forecast for your area, you would be listening out for the name of your area.

Identifying key words and listening for specific information depend on the ability to deal with distraction – being able to ignore information or words that are not important. In the example of the weather forecast, you would ignore the names of areas you were not interested in.
The ability to recognise synonyms and paraphrasing is also important. In the example of the weather forecast, you might be listening for the word 'rain', but the speaker might actually say, ‘Wet weather is expected.’
Listening intensively

Intensive listening means listening very carefully when all the content is important. For instance, if you were buying a new mobile phone and the shop assistant was explaining how it worked, you would need to listen to the instructions very carefully.

Identifying attitudes of speakers

This means understanding what the speaker is thinking or feeling, even when they do not express their thoughts directly. For instance, if someone said to you, ‘Are you sure about that?’, they might be expressing doubt about what you have said, or they may be disagreeing politely. Recognising the use of intonation is very important for this.

Understanding attitude and opinion is an important listening skill because people will often not state directly what they are thinking or feeling.