Truth be told, IELTS and TEF Canada are not easy tests for those who have issues hearing and understanding the English and French languages on radio, television, audio recordings to mention but a few. However, it is not always about even comprehending al what is said, rather, it is about knowing how to listen and what is important to listen to. This, in essence, is the purpose of today\u2019s blog article…<\/p>\n
Truth be told, IELTS and TEF Canada are not easy tests for those who have issues hearing and understanding the English and French languages on radio, television, audio recordings to mention but a few. However, it is not always about even comprehending al what is said, rather, it is about knowing how to listen and what is important to listen to. This, in essence, is the purpose of today\u2019s blog article.
\nThe Five Listening Strategies
\nWhen you are to take the listening test of the IELTS or TEF Canada, you need to start practicing the previous test questions and study materials apart from listening to news and programs on radio and television stations like RFI (Radio France International), BBC (British Broadcasting Channel), VOA (Voice of America), TV5Monde, Canal+ Afrique among others. The strategies you would adopt in listening well t the audios and answering the questions on the question sheet are as follows:
\nRead the Instructions First
\nI cannot overemphasize this enough. You have to first of all read and comprehend all what is expected of you in answering the questions. To do that, you must understand the instructions well enough. For IELTS listening test, if the instruction before the questions says write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND\/OR A NUMBER for each answer, writing three, four or five words for this answer will be considered wrong. To put it in perspective, if the answer is \u201cwedding anniversary\u201d and you write \u201canniversary of wedding\u201d, it will be considered wrong. Though, if you write only \u201canniversary\u201d or \u201can anniversary\u201d or \u201c1 anniversary\u201d, they all will be correct. On the other hand, in TEF Canada test, if the instruction says Indiquez pour chacun de ces messages s\u2019il a un caracte\u0300re familial, amical, professionnel ou publicitaire, en cochant A, B, C ou D \u2018indicate for each of these messages if it is a familiar, friendly, professional or marketing, while marking A, B, C or D\u2019, selecting A and B or three or the four options for just one question will be considered wrong. Rather, you are to choose just one option at a time for each question.Study the Questions Afterwards
\nAfter you have read and understood the questions, now you have to study the questions asked. For TEF Canada, it is quite easy to study the questions as you would most likely be provided with options since the multiple choice questions are often implored in their test questions. On a contrary, IELTS needs more than just selecting laid down options. You would need to comprehend the questions asked, guess or predict the kind of words required to fill the blank spaces on the sentences or forms given on the answer sheet and then take time to write down word classes like nouns (N), verbs (V), adjectives (A) or even places (P), number (No), money (M), etc that you predicted may be the words that best fill the blank spaces. Note: there is no penalty for writing these on the question paper, in fact, all you write on the paper will be disregarded and not scored, so you are free to pen down your thoughts on it during the test period.
\nListen to Pre-selected Audios
\nThe third step in taking the listening skill is to pay attention and listen to chunks of information you selected during the study of the questions phase. Not the entirety of the passages, texts, discussions or conversations needs to be listened to. All what is important is to understand the main areas from where the questions are being asked. It is to be noted that even in these areas, you may not hear the exact words as it appears in the question paper, thus it is mandatory that you look out for synonyms of the used words. For instance; if the question asks \u2013 \u2018Express train leaves at \u00a01 \u00a0\u00a0\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.\u2019 And, you have predicted that the audio will say either a time in the day or night like 8:00am or 8:00pm or even a period of the day such as morning, afternoon or evening. You many still not hear any of these predicted numbers or words. The audio may say; \u201cGood day travelers, we are pleased to inform you that the train of Express transport will depart from the station very early at dawn at quarter past 5.\u201d Thus, you now need to reconstruct the words of the answers if the instruction states write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND\/OR A NUMBER into something like 5:15am. For TEF Canada test, you need to listen more to keywords that convey the standpoint or views of the speaker like les connecteurs logiques \u2018connectives\u2019 such as d\u2019abord \u2018firstly\u2019, malheureusement \u2018sadly\u2019, selon \u2018according to\u2026\u2019, etc. Also, pitch, intonations and stresses used during conversations can convey the ideas being passed across by speakers and interlocutors when listening to the audios.Choose the Right Answers
\nIn matching headings or information and multiple choice questions, you are to choose just one option that best responds to the question. For other types of questions like form filling, flow chart completion, sentence completion, summary completion and map or diagram labeling, the answers will be in form of words, phrases and\/or numbers. So, it is required to respond with the instructed choice. If the question has instruction that says; write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS, putting four words or a number will be perfectly wrong. In my own IELTS test which I took on the 5th of December 2020, the instruction states write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD, if I am to write the answer, putting a number in place of a word if the answer is \u201cone\u201d will be wrong. For illustration, I must write \u201cone\u201d and not the number \u20181\u2019 to be marked correctly.
\nCrosscheck Your Answers
\nEven the best of IELTS takers still need to crosscheck their answers after finishing all the 40 listening questions. Sometimes, you would likely make mistakes when answering the listening questions due to how fast or moderate the listening speed of the speakers on the audios are. So, you need to go back after listening to the audios and try remember the conversations and re-answer the questions again. If you listened well to the audios when they were playing, you should be able to recollect some little information in them which will help you during this stage. Meanwhile, all candidates will be given 10 (ten) minutes after the thirty (30) minutes exam time to use transfer all the answers written on the question paper to the answer sheet. Utilize this period to perfect your answers as well! Though, the TEF Canada test gives no extra time for transferring the answers, in fact they move on to the next skill almost immediately after the listening test, so you have to be fast enough to crosscheck your answer quickly.Final Note
\nWe all at A.O.S Academy are always ready to assist you with your IELTS or TEF Canada test preparation. So, do not hesitate to enroll yourself for any of our full time, part-time, online or private classes, I ensure you that it is real value for your financial investment. More on these strategies will be explained in details with copious examples from past questions and study materials in each of the tests. For registration and enquiries, contact us on 08107714449 or visit our language programs page or even visit our French online school site via the link: www.frenchTEFcanada.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Truth be told, IELTS and TEF Canada are not easy tests for those who have issues hearing and understanding the English and French languages on radio, television, audio recordings to mention but a few. However, it is not always about even comprehending al what is said, rather, it is about knowing how to listen and what is important to listen to. This, in essence, is the purpose of today\u2019s blog article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":28,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-49","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backup.aosacademy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}