Part 2: Sentence completion

Part 2: Sentence completion

Key task information

• The task consists of 10 sentences with gaps. Candidates have to fill in the gaps with words from the recording. • The questions follow the order of the information in the recording. • Answers can be up to three words in length. The word, number or phrase required will be heard on the recording and does not need to be changed in any way. • This part tests the candidates’ ability to listen for specific information and opinions in a single long recording and produce written answers by completing gapped sentences. Recordings may be broadcasts, talks or classroom presentations.

• Students sometimes assume they will hear the sentence spoken exactly as it is written in the question. However, the information is usually paraphrased, so preparation for this part should include lots of practice with gap-fill listening exercises to help students get used to this.

• Before listening, students should predict what type of word might go in the gap. The teacher can prompt with questions such as Do you think it’s a noun, a verb ...? This will help build the habit of reading the text in front of the gap and the text which follows the gap. • Another way to support students the first time they do this type of task is to give them the first and/ or the last letters of the word/s that go in the gaps.

• After listening, put students in pairs to compare answers and think about what the answers might be. For example, did they miss important grammatical information like an indefinite article (a/an) which indicated a singular noun?