hi there it's asiya and today i want to talk to you about different ways to improve your ielts
listening skills and later in this video you can win something that can help you too
okay let's get started
i grew up and learned english in a small country called kyrgyzstan maybe you've never heard about
it but we all spoke russian and all my teachers spoke english with the russian accent and we
could easily understand each other but one day i realized that understanding native speakers is so
much harder but it is possible the very first time i took my ielts exam my english wasn't fluent back
then but i still managed to get annoying in ielts listening and today i want to share with you some
things you can do to improve your listening skills the very first thing to do is to get used to
different accents you know when you start watching a movie or when you meet a person at the beginning
it may be difficult for you to understand them but then with time it becomes easier
that's because we can adapt to accents but it takes time and then if you know different accents
understanding ielts listening will be easier for you i think you should concentrate on two main
accents british and american it will help you to understand canadian and australian accents too
and to be honest i've never heard any original accent in ielts listening for example scottish
or irish which are quite specific so don't worry about those the first step is just to become aware
what version of english you are listening to if you watch a movie check if it's in america or in
britain if you watch a blogger check which country he or she is from for me personally it was really
useful to learn how to pronounce different sounds in british and american english it helped me a lot
here is a simple example to pass or to pass it's the same word to pass is british to pets
is american or there is is british there is as american or water is british water is american
yes my american accent is not very good you know it reminded me of a funny story uh when i went to
new york uh at a restaurant i wanted to get some hot water and the waitress couldn't understand me
i had to repeat several times and then eventually she said ah you want some hard water
like yes that's it you see she couldn't understand simple words in english just because i pronounced
them with an accent she wasn't used to and you will be able to understand ielts listening much
more easily if you're used to different accents you know people speak english very differently
depending on the situation and you should get used to it even in ielts listening you will have
a dialogue between students which is more casual a lecture which is more formal
and you will have a face-to-face interview with an examiner in ielts speaking of course the examiner
will be assessing your speaking skills but you still need to understand them right if you watch
some english learning videos in english that's great but you've probably noticed that
english teachers speak in a certain way they pronounce all words and all sounds very clearly
and that's not enough you also need to watch content that is not adapted for english learners
and there are different layers of this content the easiest to understand
in my view is more formal english different official speeches ted talks
and any online lectures then you should also watch tv in english for example news tv presenters speak
perfectly they articulate really well but in news they speak very fast and in other tv programs
they speak much more casually so it's more difficult to understand them
and the top layer which is the most difficult is when normal people speak in casual situations
for example youtube bloggers when i first arrived in the uk i really struggled to speak on the
phone and if someone happened to call me when i was on the street with all the noise around
me i would really struggle to understand them and ask to repeat every second phrase
and that's because they speak casually but also i couldn't see them and i couldn't read their lips
so sometimes you need to listen to english without the video talking about listening skills in ielts
speaking ideally your ielts speaking shouldn't be the first time you talk to a native speaker
don't take me wrong you can still pass it if it's your first time
but you'll feel more confident if you practice in advance right now you can
win 60 minutes of english practice with a teacher from the uk canada or another country
you choose the sponsor of this giveaway is cambly an online platform where you can practice your
english skills with a native speaker at any time of the day or night you can select a
teacher you like or book lessons with different teachers and get used to a variety of accents
you can suggest your own topic for the lesson or take their ielts speaking lessons or even a mock
speaking test lessons start from just 15 minutes a day twice a week in this giveaway i choose one
winner but i have a special discount code that is available to everyone it's fastrack and you
save the most if you opt for 3-month or 12-month plans and if you change your mind you can still
cancel at any moment and get a refund all the information is in the video description box below
now how can you win those 60 minutes with a native speaker there are two conditions number one
leave me a comment describing your main difficulty in ielts preparation i know the whole exam is
tough but don't just say everything give me detail number two you need to fill in this short form
it's going to be linked in the video description box below and i will choose one winner among the
people who complete both these things in one week so please keep an eye on your emails for results
let's continue if you know english words why is it more difficult to understand them in sentences
and that's because of something called connected speech basically if you join words together in
a sentence they affect each other and some sounds disappear and others appear and if you know about
these features you'll be able to understand people more easily for example in sentences we link
words together particularly if one word ends with a consonant and the next begins with a vowel i'll
show you in a second we link them together so that it's impossible to say where one word ends and the
next one begins for instance an orange umbrella it sounds like one word or this is it sometimes
it's not convenient to pronounce two words together and native speakers add a new sound for
example you she asked it sounds like there is here between those two words she asked or he answered
sometimes a w is added do it or go away then it's easier to link words together sometimes r is added
and you may know that in american english are at the end the words is pronounced her
car but in british english it's not it's just her car but when you have another word starting with
the vowel you pronounce it you say herrepo with the r sound or this car is mine car is mine again
you pronounce it while some sounds appear others disappear if you have two similar sounds together
quite often the weaker sound at the end of the word disappears let me show you a few examples
must be becomes must be next door next door bad boy bad boy hand bag handbag
you and me you and me tell him tell him shouldn't have shouldn't have sometimes two sounds merge
together to form a new sound for example you may know that in british english we pronounce tuesday
yeah tuesday but in american english they say tuesday and a similar thing happens in other words
too and ye are merged into for instance don't you becomes don't you meet you becomes me too
and d and ye merged into did you becomes did you would you becomes would you luckily
listening is a passive skill it means you can improve it without actively working on it
it would never happen with speaking or writing these are active skills and you have to actively
work on them but if you simply watch tv in english your listening skills will improve and if you put
yourself if you surround yourself with english with tv programs in english with youtube and
english your listening skills will improve but i'm against watching tv or youtube with subtitles on
because instead of listening you start reading so you need to find something that you can
understand already mostly and then if you didn't get something you can go back switch on subtitles
rewatch this bit and then switch them off again and the key is to choose a tv program or series
where you can understand most of it but not everything if you watch something that is too
difficult you can't understand anything you're not improving your listening skills you're
just watching something you can't understand so choose the program where you can understand about
70 or 80 percent and i have a separate video where i recommended movies and tv programs
for people with various levels of english skills of course you can do some exercises to actively
work on your listening skills and improve them even more quickly i talked about my favorite
three in this video and don't forget that right now you can win a 60-minute practice with a native
speaker from cambly all the information is in the video description box below
thank you for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye