In order to be ready for the IELTS examination, you need to prepare equally for IELTS reading, writing, speaking, and listening tests. Numerous studies have shown that when we communicate, we spend 9% of our time writing, 16% reading, 30% speaking, and between 40-50% listening. While speaking, reading, and writing are generally fine, listening could still create problems. There are several different dialects and accents of English depending on where a person is coming from or where they were raised. If you have a busy life, you can still improve your listening skills. How? Through audiobooks!

What are audiobooks?

If you find that reading takes too much time, you can try listening to an audiobook while driving, walking, eating, and doing anything at home. Audiobooks would help your English pronunciation and listening skills. Using audiobooks as part of your IELTS preparation will help you improve speaking, oratory, and comprehension skills.

How audiobook can improve your English

In the IELTS listening test, the examiner checks whether you understand the questions and are able to answer the questions. In the IELTS speaking test, in addition to understanding the question, you are also expected to answer the questions concisely using your expression and vocabulary. Listening to audiobooks can help improve your listening and speaking skills. Here’s how:

1. It helps you improve pronunciation.
2. It helps you learn English by introducing you to different types of sentence structures.
3. You learn how to appropriately use vocabulary in the right context. 
4. When listening to an audiobook, you rely mainly on your hearing. This makes your listening skills sharper and trains you to listen to cues. 
5. You also get used to the pace and accent of native English speakers.
6. Listing to an audiobook ‘forces’ you to maintain your pace in learning English even when you are busy with other things in your life.

Where to find audiobooks in English?

There are various resources where you can get free audiobooks in English, such as Loyal Books, Open Culture, Overdrive, Scribl, Amazon Kindle, Lit2Go, Librivox, Project Gutenberg, Storynory, SYNC, and Spotify.

Why should you practice learning English using audiobooks?

1. You can repeat any part of the book as many times as you want.
2. You can listen to audiobooks any time of the day on your way to work or school, during breaks, or just before going to bed.
3. You can listen to the audiobooks at your own pace. You can complete an entire book in a few hours or listen as slow or fast you want.
4. English audiobooks have so many different kinds of voices and English accents to choose from.

Listen and Learn

Now when you know how audiobooks can improve your English, you should make a list of good audiobooks to listen to. When you learn a few new words, phrases, pronunciations, and more from the audiobooks, use them in your everyday life. Use your new vocabulary words in conversations. Talk about what you just read with a friend using the same tone. You’ll be surprised at how much you learned from just listening to an audiobook.

Once you’re ready for your IELTS exam, book your IELTS test at IELTS AOLCC. We have IELTS Test Centres in Mississauga, Brampton, London, and Kingston. All IELTS Test Centres offer both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training tests. Our test centres provide wireless headphones to test takers so they get to enjoy high-quality audio for a smooth IELTS listening test experience. Check the available test dates and book your IELTS Test at our Mississauga, Brampton, London, and Kingston test centers. Book ahead anytime!