IELTS Listening Parts 1 & 2: Lesson 3

Goal: give students the shape of the whole Listening test and show them why Parts 1 & 2 are the part they can win.

You need: the board; the table and check-questions below.

1. (3 min) Show the shape of the test. Put the table below on screen (or draw the four parts on the board). Say the key facts out loud: “40 questions, about 30 minutes of audio, and you hear each recording only once.” Add: on the paper test you get 10 minutes at the end to copy your answers over; on the computer test you only get 2 minutes. One mark each, spelling and word limit count.

   Part	Situation	Who's speaking	Typical tasks
   1	Everyday / social	Two people (an enquiry, a booking)	Form / note / table completion
   2	Everyday / social	One person (a talk, a tour)	Map / plan labelling, multiple choice, matching
   3	Educational	Up to four people (a tutorial)	Matching, multiple choice, completion
   4	Academic	One person (a lecture)	Note / sentence completion

2. (3 min) Say why Parts 1 & 2 are winnable. They're the everyday half: a phone enquiry, a booking, a tour. Tell them: “The hard part is keeping up and not being tricked, not the words.” Stress that Part 1 is the easiest section in the whole test: slow, concrete (names, dates, prices), and it always gives you an example answer first.
3. (2 min) Kill the three myths, say each one out loud:
   1. You can't “catch up” a recording. Miss one answer? Leave it: that's one mark; freezing over it costs you the next three.
   2. The answer is rarely the first thing you hear; speakers change their mind mid-sentence on purpose.
   3. A right answer spelled wrong is a wrong answer.
4. (2 min) Check they've got it. Ask the three questions below and get the answers back from the class before moving on.

Goal: teach the one habit that lifts a 6 to a 7: reading the gaps and deciding what kind of word goes in each one before the audio starts. This stage has no audio at all.

You need: the board; Worksheet 1 (the Part 1 table) on screen.

1. (5 min) Teach Predict → Listen → Check. Write it on the board and explain each step. Tell them the difference plainly: “Weak candidates start listening cold. Strong ones have already decided gap 3 is a price and gap 5 is a surname they'll have to spell.”

   Predict → Listen → Check

   Predict. What kind of word is missing: a number, a name, a time, a place, a plural noun? And what might it be?

   Listen. Now you know what you're hunting for. Wait for that type of word, and stay alert for the speaker changing it.

   Check. Does your answer fit the gap grammatically, and is it inside the word limit?

   The first 30 seconds: do this on every task before the audio

   1. Circle the word limit (e.g. “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS”) so you never lose a right answer by writing too much.
   2. Read the title (e.g. “Travel agency”) to fix the topic in your head.
   3. Read the questions.
   4. Underline the keyword in each one: the word you'll listen for.
   5. Predict the word type for every gap.
2. (2 min) Put Worksheet 1 on screen, do not play any audio. Tell them they're only going to predict, not listen.
3. (5 min) In pairs, they label every gap with the word type they expect: number · name · time · place · plural noun. Where they write plural noun, remind them the -s is a mark on its own (they'll drill this on Worksheet 10).
4. (3 min) Take feedback. Any gap where pairs disagree is exactly where the exam trips people: mark those gaps; you'll watch them in Stage 3.

Goal: students do a real Part 1 once, then discover for themselves where they lost marks. Don't tell them the traps; let them catch them.

You need: Worksheet 1, the Part 1 audio, the board.

1. (1 min) Hand out Worksheet 1 (the same table they predicted on in Stage 2). Say: “30 seconds: re-read your predictions.”
2. (4 min) Play the Part 1 audio once, at a natural pace, start to finish. Do not pause, do not repeat. Students fill in the table on their own. Collect nothing: this sheet stays theirs.
3. (3 min) Pairs compare, but change nothing. Say: “Compare with your neighbour. Do NOT change your answers — just tick every gap where the two of you wrote something different.”
4. (5 min) Find the traps together. On the board, write the 2–3 gaps most pairs disagreed on: those are the traps built into the recording. Ask: “I'll play just these lines again. Why did some of you hear one answer and some another?”
5. (5 min) Replay only those lines. Let a student catch it out loud: “Oh, she said the third of June and then changed it to the seventeenth.” Point them at the signals below so they know what a change of mind sounds like.
6. (2 min) Private note before moving on. Each student writes one sentence, just for themselves: “The thing most likely to cost me marks in Listening is ______.” Not collected: you come back to it in Stage 7.

Goal: fix the three things that throw away a completion answer even when the student heard it correctly: going over the word limit, misspelling, and mangling numbers. Do them as three short drills, then re-run a form so they feel the difference.

You need: the board; Worksheet 8 and Worksheet 9 (dictation) and Worksheet 4 (re-run); the live room started for step 3.

Drill 1 · The word limit (8 min)

1. Write the limit on the board: “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER”.
2. Mark four sample answers right or wrong together using the box below: let the class call out ✓ or ✗ before you reveal it.
3. Draw the lesson: write numbers as numerals (9.30, not “half past nine”). It saves words and can't break the limit.
4. Circle the symbol if the gap already prints one (£, $, %): then write only the number. Writing “ten dollars” after a printed $ doubles it and loses the mark.

Gap: The tour leaves at ___.
Heard: "…the morning tour leaves at half past nine."
  half past nine            ✗ (three words)
  9.30                      ✓
  9.30 am                   ✓ (a number + one word)
  the morning tour at 9.30  ✗ (way over)

Drill 2 · Spelling under pressure (8 min)

1. Explain the point: in the test they don't spell aloud: they hear letters and have to write them. Don't drill the whole alphabet; drill only the letters that sound alike (the table below), because that's where a heard name gets misspelled and loses its mark.
2. Teach the spoken shorthands in the second box below (“double L”, “capital”, apostrophe, hyphen, “at”/“dot”), and the double-letter trick both ways: “that's B-double-O-T-H” = BOOTH.
3. Run the drill: spell out Worksheet 8 aloud, one item at a time, once each, while students write. The answer next to each item on your screen is what to spell (students don't see it).

The alphabet aloud — say each letter as it sounds, then drill the confusable pairs below

"double L"      = LL      (accommodation, address)
apostrophe      = O'Brien
hyphen          = Smith-Jones
"at"            = @        "dot" = .   (email addresses)
(write all answers in CAPITALS — capitalisation is never marked)

Drill 3 · Numbers, dates & prices · live (9 min)

1. Write the four number traps on the board (the box below): 13 vs 30, “double/treble/oh”, date order, and price/unit symbols.
2. Start the live room (button at the top of this page) and have students open Worksheet 9 on their phones with the room link.
3. Dictate the list once each, at a natural pace: don't spell, don't repeat. The item to read and its answer show next to each question on your screen only. The dashboard marks every phone green/red as they type.
4. Replay the reds: whichever gaps go red across the room (usually 13/30, the date order, the “double”) are the ones to say again and unpick.
5. Fix one date format: whatever they say (“the fifth of March,” “March the fifth”), always write number + month (5 March). It saves words and dodges the th/st/rd slips.

13 vs 30    stress problem, not vocabulary  (thir-TEEN / THIR-ty)
"double" 77 = 77   "treble/triple" 8 = 888   "oh" = 0
dates: hear "the third of May" → write 3 May  (numerals save words)
prices/units: £, %, .5 (point five), per person, write the symbol

(3 min) Re-run to lock it in: read the short Worksheet 4 note-completion once; students apply all three rules at once (limit, spelling, numbers) and mark their own against the key.

Goal: teach one Part 2 format (reading a map from the language of position and direction), then practise a map for real.

You need: the board; the position-language table below; Worksheet 6 (the map, with audio).

1. (4 min) Teach the direction language. Show the table below and explain the key idea: the answer almost always comes right after one of these phrases, so they're the signal to write.
2. (2 min) Put up Worksheet 6 (the Rosewood map). Before any audio, students find the entrance first, then read the list of letters they have to place.
3. (4 min) Play the Worksheet 6 audio once. Students write a letter next to each label as they hear it.
4. (2 min) Mark it together and replay any label the class got split on.

Goal: teach the three “choose a letter” formats of Part 2 (single multiple choice, matching, and choose-THREE), which all rest on one skill: hearing the meaning, not the exact words.

You need: the board; Worksheet 11 (paraphrase warm-up); Worksheet 2 (multiple choice + choose-THREE); Worksheet 3 (matching).

(3 min) Warm up with Worksheet 11. Read each spoken phrase aloud; students write the plain meaning. This is the one skill all three formats depend on: hearing the meaning, not the words.

Part A · Single multiple choice · A / B / C (5 min)

1. Teach the rule in the box below, with the example: the audio says “well out of my price range,” the answer is the option that says “too expensive,” even though “expensive” was never spoken.
2. Teach “eliminate, don't select”: cross options off as the speaker rules them out, rather than hunting for the right one.
3. Shorten the options before the audio: cut each one to a keyword or number: “two years / three years / five years” becomes “2 / 3 / 5.” Less to read means you can listen instead of re-reading while the speaker talks.

Part B · Matching · a list of options, A–G (5 min)

1. Show the shape using Worksheet 3 (Rivenden Theatre): a bank of options A–G, and a list of items to label. The items come up in the order you hear them; the options do not, so you can't just work down the list.
2. Read every option first, before the audio. There are more options than items, so some are never used.
3. Cross an option off as you place it, and listen for the paraphrase: the same “meaning not words” skill as multiple choice.
4. Don't get stuck: if one item beats you, leave it blank and move on; freezing on it costs you the next answer too.

Part C · Choose THREE letters, A–G (5 min)

1. Show the shape using Worksheet 2, Q18–20: one question, seven options, and you pick the three correct ones. It counts as three answers.
2. Order doesn't matter: any three correct letters score full marks: they don't have to match the box order.
3. Listen to one stretch of talk: all three answers come from the same passage, close together, not spread across the whole section.
4. Watch the “mentioned then rejected” trap: the speaker often names an option only to rule it out (“we used to…,” “not this year”). Hearing the word is not enough: only what they actually do counts.
5. Write letters, not words. If unsure at the end, put a plausible letter in every blank; there's no penalty for a guess.

Goal: one full, uninterrupted multiple-choice Part 2 under real test conditions, applying the “paraphrase then eliminate” rule from Stage 6, then students mark it themselves and work out which trap caught them.

You need: Worksheet 2 (a full multiple-choice Part 2, with audio); the check sheet in Appendix B.

1. (1 min) Hand out Worksheet 2 (the Bicycles for the World multiple-choice task). Give 30 seconds to read the options and predict.
2. (4 min) Play the audio once, start to finish, no stops: treat it exactly like the real test.
3. (4 min) Students mark their own against the key (or swap and mark a partner's).
4. (4 min) Everyone fills in the check sheet (Appendix B): score per question, how sure they were, and the one trap that caught them.
5. (2 min) Round up: pick 2–3 students to name out loud the trap or word-limit slip they'll now watch for.

Spare: Worksheet 3 (matching · Rivenden Theatre) is a ready second Part 2 if a group finishes early or you want a matching rep.

Goal: pull the lesson together by getting the four takeaways from the students (ask them, don't tell them), then set homework that trains single-listen awareness.

You need: the board; the private sentence each student wrote in Stage 3.

1. (3 min) Recap by asking, not telling. Draw these four out of the class and write each on the board as a student says it:
   1. Read ahead and predict the word type before the audio starts.
   2. Let it go: a missed answer is one mark; freezing costs three.
   3. Watch for the change of mind: the answer is rarely the first thing said.
   4. Heard right still loses if it's over the limit or misspelled.
2. (1 min) Call back to Stage 3. Say: “Look again at the sentence you wrote at the start: the thing most likely to cost you marks. Is it still the one?” Ten seconds, silent, no need to share.
3. (1 min) Set the homework in the box below and check they know it's a single listen, no re-listening.