Practice listening to numbers and letters

Different types of questions in IELTS listening require different skills. This lesson helps you the precise skill of knowing how to listen for numbers, names and addresses. This is a common question type in part 1 of the test. It should be easy but if youre unprepared its all too easy to make avoidable mistakes.

General problems in part 1 listening

What causes problems here? Think about these points

• its a completion exercise that means you need to write and listen at the same time
• spelling matters if you spell the word wrongly then you score zero
• you need to listen for precise words and also concentrate on general meaning to make sure you write down the correct words

Some general skills to focus on

Predict the type of answer

One way you can help yourself is learning to predict the type of answer youll need to write down. If you know the answer is going to be a number then you have a head start when you hear a number in the listening thats your cue to start writing

Look at this example from my practice listening below. You cant predict what the answer will be but you should see that 3 requires a date, 5 the spelling of a name, 6 the spelling of an address, 7 a telephone number and 10 a longer number for a credit card.

1. 1. Type of van required _____________
2. 2. Preferred make of van ______________
3. 3. Date of collection ________________
4. 4. Length of hire ________________
5. 5. Name: Justin ________________
6. 6. Address ________________ St, Toronto
7. 7. Telephone number: _________________
8. 8. Driving convictions: ________________
9. 9.Identification to be provided: _____________
10. 10. Card number: ______________________

Learn to write as you listen

This is where loads of people go wrong. They hear the answer but they dont write it down quickly enough. Key point Id make here is that you need to write down exactly what you hear. The answers are always words/numbers that are spoken.

Beware the trap

Just sometimes there is a trap in part 1. You may hear more than date/time/number and the one you need is not the first one you hear. To make it harder, sometimes the speaker gives one piece of information and then goes back and corrects it. In this case, make sure you write down the second correct version.

Dont just focus on writing down names and numbers. Remember to listen generally too.

Youll find an example of this in my practice listening below.

How to listen for addresses

You can help yourself here by knowing what to expect. Look at the question sheet before you listen

• identify the type of information you need. It helps to know that the answer is an address
• learn how addresses are commonly spoken
• learn how to spell certain key words eg types of road

House numbers

When you are listening for an address, you should expect a number and a street name. Typically, the number comes before the name of the street, for example

13, Fairfax Street

Types of different roads

If you have to write down the name of a road, the name will either be spelled out for you or be a common English word that you should be able to spell, eg

34, Bishop Street

or

48, Ormondroyd Street, thats O-R-M-O-N-D-R-O-Y-D

You should also make certain that you can spell the different words that we use for roads, these are:

• Road
• Lane
• Street
• Avenue

You should also be prepared to write down letters and numbers for the postcode (what Americans call ZIP code). In the British system, these come at the end of addresses and combine a series of letters and numbers, eg

14, Fairhill Road

York

YO1 7AH

How to listen for names

If you see you need to write out a name, you can expect that the family name will be spelled out letter by letter. This can sometimes cause problems for candidates (even high-level ones) who cannot automatically recognise the names of the letters in English perhaps because they missed out on learning English at the very elementary level and their sounds do not match their names. The ones which most frequently cause trouble are:

• a as in say
• e as in teeth
• i as in eye
• x as in ex-wife
• y as in why

How to listen for numbers and dates

Telephone numbers

There are one or two points to consider when you are listening to a telephone number in English.

• 0 is pronounced oh and you are most unlikely to hear zero
• if there is a double number, we say double 7
• we dont say the numbers one by one, rather we read them in groups of 2 or 3. So 13554684616 would be said 13-double 5 468-46-16

Dates

There are a number of different ways in which say and write down dates. The most common system is:

the 25th of October speaking

25 October/25th October writing

If you have to write down a date and there is a word limit of one word/two words, you should not write down the and of. It does not matter if you put the month before the date.

A practice listening

Look at the questions first

Read the transcript and see the answers

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