Tips for Identifying Keywords and Key Phrases in IELTS Listening

You have been well prepared for the written exam, are confident about the speaking round, and are all set to take the listening test. With the dream of abroad education running in your mind, the nervousness about the steps you have to complete to get the student visa approval, you sat in the exam hall for a listening test. You are about to begin the exam.

But stop!

Take yourself back a minute and think that you are in an exam hall and about to start your listening test, and your mind is not calm and stable (which is the basic need during your listening test). And most of the people lack here.

If you want to avoid being the one, read this blog to get ideas of what you should focus on during your listening exam. If you want to be the best of all, take IELTS coaching in Ahmedabad. Indus Immigration provides the best directions and coaching to get your student visa. They also guide you on how to apply for a student visa application.

Coming back to the blog! Let's talk about the Tips for Identifying Keywords and Phrases in IELTS Listening, which will help you in your listening test.

Importance of Keywords and Key Phrases

In the ocean of information in the listening test, the keywords and key phrases are the anchors. They help you give a signal to focus on the crucial part of the audio. Follow the tips for a better understanding:

1. Try to Differentiate the Type of Words

To have an effective keyword mining strategy, you should be aware of the types of keywords that are there :

Content words : Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and adverbs provide the main focus of a sentence. Instead, content words are of the type scientist, experimented, tested, and hypothesis in a sentence like, for instance, Scientist performed a different kind experiment to test new.

Function Words : Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions are needed for grammatical structure (least likely source of questions). But they do suggest connections among ideas.

Signal Words : words like however, therefore, next, and finally indicate a change in the topic, contrast, and sequence signal words like a dissimilar way to identify these can help you keep a grip on the listening test.

2. Active Listening Practice

Active listening means listening with the goal of understanding and analyzing what is being said. If you want to practice listening, then listen to the conversation that comes up all around, which is spoken by native speakers while using listening material! As you listen, also try to pick out keywords and phrases. Ask yourself :

  • What are the main ideas?
  • Which words or phrases seem central to the conversation?
  • Are there any signal words indicating a topic shift?

3. Try to Predict Before Listening

So, one trick to identify keywords is to guess the ones that will come before you listen. Anticipate which words or phrases will be crucial, as reading the questions and liking icons. For example, if the question is, At what time does the train leave? So you know that time may involve keywords like depart, leave, or even a specific hour: o'clock, AM, PM.

Knowing these keywords will help filter out redundant code while building the application (because you won't have to learn how not to do it) and also during internal discussions and meetings involving other stakeholders.

4. Get the Habit of Making Notes

Making use of notes while in the listening section can be a great help by noting down key terms and keywords. Concentrate on writing the most crucial information in a few abbreviations and keywords instead of long sentences. Structure your notes, annotating them with bullet points or numbers so you can refer back to these when answering questions. Taking good notes will go a long way in keeping you organized and help when it comes time to remember key information.

5. Focus on Synonyms and Paraphrasing

Synonyms and paraphrasing in the IELTS listening test, the words you listen to in the audio track may not exactly seem like a written down form of questions. For instance, an answer to a question regarding the cost of living might use the term expenses, or perhaps instead, refer to something similar as being related in regards to minimal income.

To effectively identify keywords, be aware of these variations and listen for synonyms or rephrased forms of the words in the questions. Regular practice with IELTS listening exercises will help you recognize how ideas are expressed differently.

Keep in mind that the listening test is not just about listening to the audio. It's about how well you grab the information present on it. The focus behind it is you can understand the actual conversation, even if you miss the meaning of some words.

The points given in the blogs will help you understand the brief on tips for IELTS listening. Hope you find it informative, and for more information on it, visit Indus Immigration, which also provides IELTS coaching in Ahmedabad for your Student visa.