IELTS Listening Part 2: the monologue where candidates relax too early
One speaker, an everyday topic, and a change of direction you will miss if you are still writing. Why Part 2 catches people after an easy Part 1.
Question typesListeningUpdated 6 min read
Part 2 removes the redundancy Part 1 gave you. The transactional phone call has two speakers, so information tends to arrive twice: one says it, the other repeats it back or corrects it. Part 2 withdraws that. One speaker, an everyday social context — local facilities, a guided tour, an induction briefing — and nothing is said twice. The skill it tests is not hearing harder; it is knowing where you are in the talk. (Official materials now call these Parts rather than Sections, so a practice book saying Section 2 means the same thing.)
One voice changes the structure, not just the volume
A conversation is organised by exchange: question, answer, confirmation. A monologue is organised by signposting — a short phrase telling you the shape of the talk is about to change, and then it changes. Those phrases are your only navigation, and the testable content sits on them, because the question writer sets items on the points the speaker flagged as worth flagging.
The traps differ too. Instead of a second speaker's disagreement, you get self-correction inside one sentence ("the fourteenth of March — sorry, I should say the fourteenth, not the fourth"), exceptions bolted onto a rule, and lists ordered differently from your paper. Map and plan labelling often turns up in Part 2 as well, with its own rules about orientation and entry points; the signpost logic below applies there too.
An extract, with the answer-bearing lines marked
An original extract in the style of a local facilities talk. The marked lines are where a question would be set.
Good evening, and thanks for coming. I am the duty manager here, and I will take you through what has changed in the refurbishment.
Now, before I start — I know the leaflet said the pool reopens in February. In fact the pool reopens on the fourteenth of March. [Q11: self-correction. The wrong date is spoken first.]
Let me begin with upstairs, because that is where most of the money went. There are two new studios. The larger one takes the dance and aerobics programme, as it always did.
The smaller studio is for members only, except on Sunday mornings, when anyone can book it. [Q12: rule plus exception. Both halves are testable.]
Moving on to the outdoor side of things. The all-weather pitches are unchanged, but the floodlighting has been replaced.
That does mean evening sessions now run until ten rather than nine. [Q13: a change stated once, in a subordinate clause.]
One thing I should mention, and it is the question I get asked most: parking. The main car park is now permit-only after six, and permits come from reception, not from the machine. [Q14 and Q15: two answers in one sentence, with a negative correction.]
So that is the building. Finally, a word about the opening weekend.
Five marks in eight lines, every one of them turning on a signpost: before I start, except, that does mean, one thing I should mention, not. None is a difficult word, and all are easy to walk past while your hand is still writing.
The signpost table: what each phrase tells your pen to do
| Function | What it sounds like | What it means | What your pen does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change of direction | Now, turning to..., Moving on to..., So that is X; let me come to Y | A block has ended. The next answer belongs to the next question. | Slide your finger down to the next question now, even if the current one is blank. |
| Correction | In fact..., Sorry, I should say..., not X, but Y, That is to say... | The first version was wrong. The answer is the second version. | Strike through, do not erase. Write the new value beside it. |
| Exception | except, apart from, the one thing that has not changed, unless | A rule has just been qualified, and the qualification is usually the mark. | Add a slash and the exception: memb only / Sun anyone. |
| Sequence or list | First..., then..., after that..., There are three... | Items are coming in spoken order, which may not be the paper's order. | Number them 1, 2, 3 in the margin and match to the paper afterwards. |
| Flagged importance | One thing I should mention, the question I get asked most, do note that | The speaker is marking content as important, and so did the question writer. | Get ready to write before the content arrives. |
| Closing a block | So that is the pool, Anyway, Right | Last chance. Nothing from this block will be repeated. | Commit a guess, then move on. Never leave a blank. |
A procedure to practise it with
- In the pre-listening pause, read all the Part 2 questions and draw a line at the boundary between each pair. Those are the lines you will cross as the talk moves.
- Predict each gap's answer type: date, time, place, number, noun phrase. You are now listening for a shape, not for everything.
- Keep a fingertip on the current question and move it on every change-of-direction signpost, answer or no answer.
- On a correction or an exception phrase, write both versions. Decide at transfer time, not under the speaker's voice.
- If you lose your place, do not search backwards. Jump ahead to a question whose keyword you can hear coming, and lose one mark rather than four.
- Review by transcript, not by answer key: mark every signpost you missed and ask what it was doing. That is what makes a careful review worth more than another fresh test.