IELTS Practice Lesson: Listening to and Spelling Names

Today we practice listening to someone (me!) spelling names and writing the correct answers. Visit ielts.allearsenglish.com for more simple and effective IELTS strategies. I was surprised recently when a high-level student of mine said that this listening question type was difficult for him. I thought, “It’s just the alphabet! Don’t you know the alphabet in English?” Then I remembered that after studying Spanish for many years, I actually didn’t know the alphabet in that language either! Some simple skills get lost as you advance in a language. Plus, an additional difficulty is that native speakers of different accents pronounce letters differently. The answers for today’s lesson: America: Harrison Eugene Australia: Johnson Melbourne Canada: Siksiwa (name of an indigenous tribe) Saskatchewan Britain: Buchanan (common Scottish name) Swansea (in Wales) To get used to different accents, I recommend the No Such Thing as a Fish podcast for British English, and the TV show Flight of the Conchords for the Australian/New Zealand accent. Leave us a comment if you like this lesson, and I’ll make more short but sweet IELTS lessons for you! In our online IELTS course, 3 Keys IELTS, we give you all the strategies you need to score highly on all parts of the IELTS Exam. Check out our online course now, the only one with a guaranteed score increase.