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Hi

As you probably know (and may have experienced), the most difficult part of the IELTS listening test is section 4: a four to five minute talk on an academic topic.

What I want to point out is that there’s a feature of this section that can help you follow what the speaker is talking about.

This feature is called ‘signposting‘ and this is how it works.

Signposting is when the speaker signals what he or she is going to talk about next; it’s like an arrow showing you the direction of his/her talk.

If you’ve listened to the talk I recommended in my post ‘Have you been following the news on the Icelandic volcano‘, you may have noticed that the speaker asked questions and then answered them.

The questions are examples of signposting.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the talk at the link above and listen to how the speaker asks (and then answers) the following questions.

• How many people actually know what volcanoes are?
• How are volcanoes actually formed?

I’ve had a look at a couple of published IELTS listening tests, and in both cases the speaker in section 4 uses this kind of signposting.

Have a good weekend,

Pete

Related Posts:

1. Listening to lectures: a useful resource
2. Have you been following the news on the Icelandic volcano?
3. Listening to British, American, Australian and other accents
4. An example of IELTS-type speaking

Tags: IELTS listening