MAPS IN IELTS LISTENING: AN OVERVIEW
First of all, why do you need to fill in a map for IELTS listening? Well, this deals with a specific kind of language that is quite important when you are learning and using English. Being able to follow instructions, pick out important information, and keep track of a conversation are all utterly essential when it comes to using English. As such, they will be tested in IELTS.
Let’s look at this example from an IELTS listening test:
There are no tricks here and this is not intended to fool you. You are required to simply follow a spoken description and then point out the right places. This sort of ability will help you a lot when you move to an English-speaking country one day!
This type of question could occur at any point in your IELTS listening test but it is more common in section two than other sections.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
This sort of task is often referred to as “map labelling.” That is because you will listen to someone talking about an area and then you will fill in certain blanks with a list of potential places, like this:
You can see from the two examples we have already seen that there are at least two variations of this question. In one case, you have places on a map that are marked by letters. You need to connect them to a list of place names. In the other, you have a map with blank spaces and you need to choose the best answer from a short list of names. Both versions are very common.
This is how you should answer IELTS map labelling questions:
- Read the instructions carefully.
- Look at the map to get an idea of what you will hear.
- Listen and note down the answers as you hear them.
- Take a guess for any answers that you did not hear.
Remember that there will be plenty of words you do not need to pay attention to, so try not to feel overwhelmed by the audio recording. If you miss an answer, just move on to the next part.
IELTS LISTENING MAP VOCABULARY
We are going to do some practice today but first I would like to introduce you to some IELTS listening map vocabulary. This is because the language here is very important. It is what we call functional language and it is quite essential for daily living in English-speaking places.
Of course, the most important vocabulary to know for map labelling is location vocabulary. This includes a lot of prepositions but you also need to know adjectives and verbs and other parts of speech. To be honest, it is better to learn these ideas as phrases rather than individual words.