Here's a List of 100 Common Dictation Words for IELTS Exam

What Happens in IELTS Listening Section?

The IELTS listening section is of 30 minutes. This section has 4 tasks. Each task needs you to listen to a recording. Each recording is either a speech, a conversation, or a monologue. After listening to every recording you will have to answer a few questions. This is the first section of the IELTS syllabus. Also, the listening section tests your ability to understand verbal English. It includes your comfort with various accents. Thus, it is better to practice dictations, as a slight mistake can affect your score.

The dictation words for IELTS are verbally spoken English words by the speaker during the test. Often, candidates hear them wrong due to differences in accents or speed. It leads them to noting the words with spelling mistakes. This silly mistake not only makes the right answer wrong, but it also reduces your IELTS score. Thus, it is vital to practice learning these dictation words, which also increases your lexical resources. The next section will discuss how dictation words can benefit you for the IELTS exam.

Importance of Dictation Words for IELTS exam

As mentioned before, mastering Dictation words for IELTS can be very helpful for both academic and general IELTS exams. Thus, this blog has a list of all such advantages below:

• Overall Understanding Increases
• Boost Confidence While Speaking
• Improved Written Skills

Let’s understand these benefits in detail:

Overall Understanding Increases

Firstly, learning dictation words for IETLS can increase overall understanding. It works for both written and spoken English. It automatically increases your vocabulary, enabling you to understand the meaning of more complex words.

Boost Confidence While Speaking

Secondly, it makes you confident and aware of what you want to say. You are less doubtful while keeping your opinions forward. Thus, your overall persona and content improve and boldens. Moreover, you are also able to express yourself more and better.

Improved Written Skills

Furthermore, your way of conveying yourself improves. Whether you are writing or speaking, you get better words to express your thoughts and opinions. This increases your chances of scoring well in the writing section of the IELTS exam. The two tasks you get in this section include describing a graph or an image. Dictating words for IELTS listening can help you better explain what you see.

These are the various benefits of dictation words. Now, let's discuss the struggles of Indian Students with IELTS.

Struggles of Indian Students with IELTS Listening Section

Indian students face many struggles while taking IELTS. In addition, it is tougher for those taking the exam for the first time. The list of those struggles is below:

1) Strong Vocabulary

2) Fast and Fluent Speech

3) Various Accents

Strong Vocabulary

Firstly, the words used in the audio have a high vocabulary. The problem is that the students often don't understand the terms spoken in the audio, let alone the meaning and spelling of those words. 

Fast and Fluent Speech

Another significant challenge is the speed of speech in the four audios. The speakers, being fluent in English, tend to speak faster than non-English speakers. This can be particularly challenging for students from non-English speaking countries, who often find it difficult to keep up with the pace of the audio.

Various Accents

Lastly, the listening section of the IELTS exam presents a unique challenge with its four audios, all featuring a dominant British accent. This can be confusing for students not accustomed to this accent, potentially requiring them to listen to the audio again, which is not feasible in the exam setting.

These are the various issues a non-English-speaking candidate would face. This is because they usually have fewer interactions in English and more in their native language. The next section will give you a few lists of IELTS transcription words. You can refer to them to improve your IELTS score.

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List of Commonly Used Dictation Words in IELTS

Below are the lists of classified words that you would hear in the listening section of the IELTS exam:

Dictation Words for IELTS related to 'SUBJECTS'

Dictation Words for IELTS related to 'SPORTS'

Dictation Words for IELTS related to 'EDUCATION'

Dictation Words for IELTS related to 'BUSINESS' 

Dictation Words for IELTS related to 'PROFESSIONS'

These are some of the most used dictation words for IELTS. Next, you will learn about the mistakes in perceiving dictation words.

Mistakes in Dictation Words for IELTS Listening

Students often encounter many hurdles while taking the IELTS exam. One common mistake they make is writing wrong spellings. This section will help you correct and memorize the correct version of a few spellings. It has two parts: one for misspelt words and the other for those with silent letters. These dictation words for IELTS will assist you in building your lexical resources.

Words With Silent Letters

Firstly, there are several words with silent letters in the English language. We pronounce these words differently from how they are spelled. However, without those letters, the spelling would become completely wrong. Thus, this section has the list of words and their correct version below:

Words Often Misspelled

Secondly, some words sound similar, but their spelling is slightly different. However, their meaning can completely change. For example, the word 'career' is often spelt and called 'carrier'. This mistake can change the entire meaning of the word and the phrase. Take a look at the list below to learn more of these dictation words for IELTS listening:

These are the mistakes commonly made by students in dictation for IELTS listening. Now, let us talk about the ways you can improve your IELTS listening skills.

Also Read: Prepare for IELTS at Home!

How Can You Improve IELTS Listening Skills?

These are the various methods that you can use to level up your listening skills in IELTS. You can find some accurate ways to improve IELTS listening skills:

1. Listen to English Actively
2. Learn to Take Notes
3. Focus on the Main Idea of the Content
4. Start Slow but Be Consistent
5. Improve Vocabulary
6. Learn Synonyms
7. Get Accustomed to Pronunciation

The above pointers are in detail below. Check out the examples for better understanding.

Listen to English Actively

Firstly, you must listen to English regularly. This means that you must listen to English outside of IELTS practice. For example, you can listen to podcasts or watch English shows. You can hear British English speakers on your favorite topics to catch up with their accents. Moreover, the best technique of all is to listen to the audios carefully and as actively as you can. The listening vocabulary for IELTS from the above sections can help you understand the content better.

Also read: Score Well in IELTS with These New Guidelines!

Learn to Take Notes

Secondly, you must know what to take note of. While listening to an audio during practice, try to take note of what is important to know. It would be wise to do that as the audios are generally long and need you to focus on every detail. Thus, writing the details will help you focus on the present rather than stressing over memory. It also helps you while answering the questions in the listening section.

Focus on the Main Idea of the Content

Thirdly, you must know and understand the context of the content. The main agenda of all the conversations and monologues you hear is really crucial as that is how you would know what is being talked about. Thus, it would be better to not start cramming up whatever you hear and take notes. The dictation for IELTS listening can work as keywords that you can use while taking notes. Also, this is where active listening comes into play. You listen and understand what the audio is trying to convey. In addition, you also reduce your spelling errors when you know the context.

For example, you will not perceive 'knight' as 'night' if you are well aware of the context.

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Start Slow but Be Consistent

Fourthly, the most repeated and most efficient advice is that you have to be consistent with a language you are new to. It is because firstly, you are not speaking it as frequently as other languages. Secondly, you are speaking other languages very often which hinders your progress. It is because your brain takes more time to learn a new language when it is using another to think and convey to others since beginning. Moreover, you can learn the most common words in IELTS listening to have an idea of what is to come.

Thus, be consistent even if the progress you see seems slow and insignificant.

Improve Vocabulary

Fifthly, you have to increase your lexical resources. You don't have to learn too many words but the most frequently used ones. Thus, you should start by learning at least 2-3 such words daily. In addition, you can refer to the dictation for IELTS listening from the tables above. Also, try to memorize their meaning and read their examples to get familiar with their usage.

Learn Synonyms

Sixthly, You must know better alternatives of some words that could convey your thoughts better. For example, the word 'ample' can replace the word 'many'. It is because many can come an ample amount of times in a single piece of writing. In addition to improving listening vocabulary for IELTS, practice regular words. The better approach is not to focus on too many fancy words but ones that you can use quite regularly.

Get Accustomed to Pronunciation

Lastly, this is the best way to cope with the various accents of English-speaking countries. Especially, the one you are going to study in. Did you know that the British, American, and the Australian accent are way different? The IELTS exam usually has the British one. Thus, it is better to practice listening to English more in the British accent. For instance, you can hear more British speakers and politicians, watch British shows, etc.

This section's best part is its examples and accurate strategies. You can use them from the very first time you start practicing. However, your overall performance will improve after consistent efforts from your side.

To conclude, the IELTS exam fee is 17,000 INR. A student must prepare well before appearing for the exam or even deciding to take the exam. This blog presented a few dictation words for IELTS. You can refer to them and improve your IELTS band score. It would be better to take a customized IELTS coaching if you are going to start from scratch!

The best bit is that no matter which level of learning you are. Gradding.com has a special module for every level. You can have customized courses and learn from offline and online IELTS coaching. Moreover, you can visit the website and take a free pre-IELTS test anytime! This test aims to assess your present IELTS score to suggest you the best suiting module. In addition, based on these test results, you will get an IELTS guide, class module, study material, etc.

FAQs

Q1. How Can I Score Good in IELTS Speaking?

Remember this: "Speak English Frequently, until you speak English Fluently". Consistency and regular learning are the two key ways to improve your spoken English. In addition to this, also try to learn new words every day and develop active listening skills.

Q2. What are Some Powerful Words in IELTS Listening?

Following are the powerful dictation words for IELTS listening words and phrases:

• In my opinion,...
• I believe...
• As it has been noted before...
• I beg to differ from the idea...
• I see it as...
• I must admit...

Q3. What are the Common Words in IELTS Listening?

Below are the most common words in IELTS listening, which you will usually hear:

1. Philosophy
2. Anthropology
3. Environment
4. Political Science
5. Pupils
6. Research
7. Supervisor
8. Chancellor
9. Vice Chancellor
10. Greenhouse Gases
11. Pediatrician
12. Vendor
13. Barista
14. Chief Executive Officer

These are a few of the dictation words for IELTS. You can find a comprehensive list in the blog above.