Contents

INTRODUCTION 2
LANGUAGE PREPARATION 3
EXAM SKILLS 7
READING 12
Question Type 1 – Multiple choice 14
Question Type 2 – Identifying information (True/False/Not given) 14
Question Type 3 – Identifying writer’s views/claims (Yes/No/Not given) 15
Question Type 4 – Matching information 15
Question Type 5 – Matching headings 16
Question Type 6 – Matching features 16
Question Type 7 – Matching sentence endings 17
Question Type 8 – Sentence completion (gap fill) 17
Question Type 9 – Summary/note/table/flow chart completion 18
Question Type 10 – Diagram label completion 19
Question Type 11 – Short-answer questions 19
WRITING 20
Academic writing – Task 1 21
Academic writing – Task 2 22
LISTENING 23
Question Type 1 – Multiple choice 24
Question Type 2 – Matching 25
Question Type 3 – Plan/map/diagram labelling 26
Question Type 4 – Form/note/table/flow chart/summary completion 27
Question Type 5 – Sentence completion 28
Question Type 6 – Short-answer questions 29
SPEAKING 30
Part 1 – Introduction and interview 30
Part 2 – Long turn 31
Part 3 – Discussion 32
IELTS TEST PRACTICE 41

TEACHER SUPPORT 47

Page 1 of 40
INTRODUCTION
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is a standardized test of English
language proficiency for higher education and global migration. It is recognized by
educational institutions, employers, governments and professional bodies worldwide.
The exam assesses listening, reading, writing and speaking skills.

Depending on the purpose of taking the test, candidates can choose the Academic
module or the General Training module. For both modules, there are four papers: the
Speaking and Listening papers are the same for both modules, and the Reading and
Writing tests are different. The Academic module is for people who wish to study or to
obtain professional registration. The General Training module is for applying for
migration to an English-speaking country, including to study or train at below degree
level.

The Listening paper contains 40 questions and lasts approximately 30 minutes. The
Reading paper contains 40 questions and lasts 60 minutes. The Writing paper is made
up of two tasks and lasts 60 minutes. The Speaking paper has three parts and takes
between 11 and 14 minutes.

Voices prepares students undertaking the IELTS exam by developing their language
proficiency, the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking; equipping them with
exam strategies and developing the specific skills they need for each of the question
types they will encounter in the exam.

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LANGUAGE PREPARATION
Each level of the series focuses on the most
useful vocabulary and grammar at a
particular CEFR level. The vocabulary and
grammar are generally ‘high-frequency’, or
‘commonly used’, meaning that students will
learn words that are very likely to appear in
the reading and listening sections of IELTS.
They will learn grammar structures that they
are likely to see and hear in these sections of
the tests, too.

Students will also learn the words and

structures that they are most likely to need
to use in the writing and speaking sections
of those tests.
For example, these exercises from Voices
Intermediate Plus cover useful words related
to education. This is a common topic that
might appear in the reading or listening Figure 2: example taken from: page 17, unit 1,
sections of IELTS as well as in the writing and Intermediate Plus Student’s Book
speaking sections of the assessment.

Figure 3: example taken from: page 8, unit 1,

Intermediate Plus Workbook

Figure 4: example taken from: page 16, unit 1,

Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Figure 1: example taken from: page 17, unit 1,

Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Page 3 of 40
And the words in this exercise, which come from Voices Intermediate Plus, are related
to jobs. Students may be asked to write or talk about this topic in the writing and
speaking sections of IELTS.

Figure 5: example taken from: page 105, unit 8, Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Figure 6: example taken from: page 73, unit 8, Intermediate Plus Workbook

Page 4 of 40
And this exercise from Voices Upper Intermediate helps students to learn and use
collocations related to work. Using collocations will help students sound more natural,
which may raise their writing and speaking exam scores.

Figure 7: example taken from: page 29, unit 2, Intermediate Student’s Book

In terms of grammar, this focus on narrative tenses, which comes from Voices Upper
Intermediate, is useful for describing past events and experiences. Students will often
have to do this in the writing and speaking sections of IELTS.

Page 5 of 40
Figure 8: examples taken from: page 39, unit 3, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

This information about discourse markers may help students sound more natural and
organized when they are delivering responses in the speaking sections of IELTS.

This is addressed in Voices as both a receptive subskill, so that students notice it when
listening to others, as well as a language feature for them to produce independently.

Figure 9: example taken from: page 28, unit 2, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 10: example taken from: page 50, unit 4, Advanced Student’s Book

Page 6 of 40
EXAM SKILLS
Voices has many features that help students to learn how to learn and to develop skills
that will enhance their exam performance.

This information, from the Voices Intermediate Plus workbook, gives useful advice for
listening, specifically related to listening in test situations.

Figure 11: example taken from: page 8, unit 1, Intermediate Plus Workbook

Page 7 of 40
These listening and reading skills tips from Voices Pre-intermediate and Advanced
levels give useful advice to help students recognize the meaning of unfamiliar
vocabulary from the context in which it is used. This is a very useful skill for IELTS, which
often includes vocabulary that students may not have encountered before.

Figure 12: example taken from: page 28, unit 2, Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 13: example taken from: page 84, unit 7, Advanced Student’s Book

Page 8 of 40
And in the Voices Workbook, the Learning to Learn feature coaches students in
strategies to deal with new vocabulary so that they are able to apply them
independently in exam settings.

Figure 14: example taken from: page 53, unit 6, Advanced Workbook

This information about expressing numbers in an approximate way comes from Voices
Upper Intermediate. This is a valuable skill for the writing section of IELTS academic and
may also be useful in the speaking section of IELTS.

Figure 15: example taken from: page 129, unit 10, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 9 of 40
The ability to think critically is also very important for students taking IELTS. Every level
of Voices has ideas and strategies related to critical thinking that will help students
build the skills they need to raise their exam scores.

Figure 16: example taken from: page 108, unit 9, Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Figure 17: example taken from: page 24, unit 2, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 10 of 40
Figure 18: example taken from: page 120, unit 10, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 19: examples taken from: page 12, unit 1, Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 20: examples taken from: page 60, unit 5, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 11 of 40
READING
The IELTS exam requires students to engage with texts from a range of sources such as
books, newspapers and magazines, across a range of topics, written in different styles,
for example, narrative, descriptive or discursive/argumentative.

Every unit of Voices has a dedicated reading lesson which presents a rich range of text
types, including articles, opinion pieces and extracts from literary texts. The lessons
develop students reading sub-skills and critical thinking. They raise awareness of the
features and conventions of different text types and equip them with strategies to
make sense of the text, extract key information and identify writers’ opinions.

Students are also encouraged to reflect on their own thought processes, encouraging
them to think more analytically and become more effective learners leading to
improved exam performance.

The IELTS Academic reading paper may also contain diagrams, graphs or illustrations.
Voices reading texts provide students with ample opportunities to engage with and
interpret information presented in different ways, such as infographics, graphs, charts
and illustrations.

Figure 21: example taken from: page 25, unit 2, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 12 of 40
 Figure 22: example taken from: page 85, unit 7, Figure 23: example taken from: page 77, unit 9,
Intermediate Plus Student’s Book Intermediate Workbook

The Voices resources provide students with opportunities to develop the skills they will
need to tackle the different question types they will encounter in the Reading paper of
the IELTS Academic exam.

Page 13 of 40
Question Type 1 – Multiple choice
This type of question tests many different reading skills including: detailed
understanding of specific points or general understanding of the main points of the
text.

Figure 24: example taken from: page 22, unit 3, Intermediate Plus Workbook

Question Type 2 – Identifying information (True/False/Not given)

This type of question tests your ability to recognise specific information given in the
text.

Figure 25: example taken from: page 48, unit 4, Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 14 of 40
Question Type 3 – Identifying writer’s views/claims (Yes/No/Not
given)
This type of question tests your ability to recognise opinions or ideas.

Figure 26: example taken from: page 96, unit 8, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Question Type 4 – Matching information

This type of question assesses your ability to scan a text in order to find specific
information. Unlike Task Type 5 (Matching headings), it focuses on specific information
rather than the main idea. You may have to find: specific details, an example, reason,
description, comparison, summary or explanation.

Figure 27: example taken from: page 108, unit 9, Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Page 15 of 40
Question Type 5 – Matching headings
This type of question tests your ability to identify the general topic of a paragraph (or
section) and to recognise the difference between the main idea and a supporting idea.

Figure 28: example taken from: page 12, unit 1, Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Question Type 6 – Matching features

This type of question tests your ability to recognise relationships and connections
between facts in the text and your ability to recognise opinions and theories. You need
to be able to skim and scan the text to find the information quickly so that you can then
read that part more carefully for detail.

Figure 29: example taken from: page 84, unit 7, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 16 of 40
Question Type 7 – Matching sentence endings
This type of question tests your ability to understand the main ideas in the text.

Figure 30: example taken from: page 60, unit 5, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Question Type 8 – Sentence completion (gap fill)

This type of question tests your ability to find detail/specific information in a text.

Figure 31: example taken from: page 12, unit 1, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 17 of 40
Question Type 9 – Summary/note/table/flow chart completion
This type of question tests your ability to understand details and/or the main ideas of a
part of the text. When completing this type of question, you will need to think about
the type of word(s) that will fit into a gap (for example, whether a noun is needed, or a
verb, etc.).

Figure 32: example taken from: page 40, unit 5, Advanced Workbook

Page 18 of 40
Question Type 10 – Diagram label completion
This type of question tests your ability to understand a detailed description in the text,
and then relate that description to information given in a diagram.

Figure 33: example taken from: page 12, unit 2, Advanced Workbook

Question Type 11 – Short-answer questions

This type of question tests your ability to find and understand specific information in
the text.

Figure 34: example taken from: page 36, unit 3, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 19 of 40
WRITING
There are two writing tasks in IELTS Academic. One requires candidates to describe
visual information, such as a chart, a table, a graph or a diagram in their own words. In
the second task students are asked to discuss a point of view, an argument, or a
problem using evidence and examples from their own experience.

They are evaluated on how accurately and appropriately the respond to the task
requirements, how fluently they write and how well they organise their ideas, as well as
the range and accurate use of vocabulary and grammar they demonstrate in their
responses.

The Voices resources provide students with opportunities to develop the skills they will
need to tackle the different question types they will encounter in the Writing paper of
the IELTS Academic exam.

Page 20 of 40
Academic writing – Task 1
This task tests if you can give a well-organised
overview of the visual information using
language that is appropriate in its register
and style.

Depending on the task type, you will be

assessed on your ability to:
● organise, present and possibly
compare data (see figure 35 below)
● describe stages of a process or
procedure (see figures 36 and 37
below)
● describe an object, event or
sequence of events (see figures 38 and
39 below) Figure 37: example taken from: page 47, unit 5,
Advanced Workbook
● explain how something works.

Figure 35: example taken from: page 129, unit 10, Upper
Figure 38: example taken from: page 129, unit 10, Pre-
Intermediate Student’s Book
Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 39: example taken from: page 105, unit 8,

Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 36: example taken from: page 45, unit 3, Pre-

Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 21 of 40
Academic writing – Task 2
This task tests if you can write a clear, relevant, well-organised argument, giving
evidence or examples to support your ideas, and use language accurately.

Depending on the task type, you will be assessed on your ability to:

● present a solution to a problem (see figure 40 below)

● present and justify an opinion (see figure 41 below)

● compare and contrast evidence, opinions and implications (see figure 42 below)

● evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence or an argument (see figure 43 below).

Figure 40: example taken from: page 105, unit 5, Advanced Student’s Book

Figure 41: example taken from: page 69, unit 4, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 42: example taken from: page 93, unit 7, Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 43: example taken from: page 69, unit 5, Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Page 22 of 40
LISTENING
The IELTS Academic Listening paper is divided into four parts. The first two parts deal
with everyday social situations, while parts 3 and 4 are based on educational and
training scenarios. Candidates are exposed to a variety of L1 accents including British
English, North American English and Australian English. Candidates have to copy out
their answers and can lose marks for spelling or grammar mistakes.

The topical approach to language development in Voices, paired with the focus on
interpersonal and intercultural interaction provide plentiful opportunities for students
to encounter a rich variety of communicative scenarios in a range of settings, social,
professional and academic. A dedicated listening skills syllabus develops transferable
listening skills such as listening for gist, listening for specific information, inferring
meaning and understanding connected speech.

The extensive audio and video resources provided as part of the Voices program
expose students to a wide variety of L1 and L2 English speaker accents. The receptive
strand of its innovative pronunciation syllabus helps them to become adept at
decoding different accents.

Page 23 of 40
Question Type 1 – Multiple choice
This type of question tests many listening skills, e.g. a detailed understanding of
specific points, or general understanding of the main points of the recording.

Figure 44: example taken from: page 64, unit 5, Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 24 of 40
Question Type 2 – Matching
This type of question tests your ability to:

● listen for detailed information. For example, whether you can understand
information about the type of hotel or guest house accommodation in an
everyday conversation

● follow a conversation between two people

● recognise how facts in the recording are connected to each other.

Figure 45: example taken from: page 76, unit 6, Intermediate Student’s Book

Figure 46: example taken from: page 76, unit 6, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 25 of 40
Question Type 3 – Plan/map/diagram labelling
This type of question tests your ability to understand, for example, a description of a
place, and how this description relates to the visual. It may also test your ability to
understand explanations of where things are and follow directions (e.g. straight
on/through the far door).

Figure 47: example taken from: page 88, unit 7, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 26 of 40
Question Type 4 – Form/note/table/flow chart/summary
completion
This type of question focuses on the main points the person listening would naturally
write down.

Figure 48: example taken from: page 16, unit 1, Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 27 of 40
Question Type 5 – Sentence completion
This type of question focuses on your ability to identify the important information in a
recording. You may also need to understand relationships between ideas/facts/events,
such as cause and effect.

Figure 49: example taken from: page 28, unit 2, Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 28 of 40
Question Type 6 – Short-answer questions
This type of question focuses on your ability to listen for facts, such as places, prices or
times, heard in the recording.

Figure 50: example taken from: page 40, unit 3, Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book

Page 29 of 40
SPEAKING
In the IELTS Academic speaking assessment, candidates are evaluated according to
four criteria: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy
and pronunciation.

The Voices resources provide ample and frequent opportunities for students to speak
in a spontaneous, conversational manner about their own direct experiences. There are
also more extended tasks that require students to speak in a more structured and
purposeful manner and to use cohesive devices like signposting to make what they are
saying easier to follow.

The Voices resources provide students with opportunities to develop the skills they will
need to tackle the different question types they will encounter in the Speaking section
of the IELTS Academic exam.

Part 1 – Introduction and interview

What skills are tested? This part tests your ability to give opinions and information on
everyday topics and common experiences or situations by answering a range of
questions.

Figure 51: example taken from: page 12, unit 1, Advanced Student’s Book

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Part 2 – Long turn
What skills are tested? This part tests your ability to speak at length on a given topic,
using appropriate language and organising your ideas logically. You will need to think
about your own experiences to complete the long turn.

Figure 52: example taken from: page 19, unit 1, Upper Intermediate Student’s Book

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Part 3 – Discussion
What skills are tested? This part tests your ability to explain your opinions and to
analyse, discuss and speculate about issues.

Figure 53: example taken from: page 91, unit 7, Intermediate Plus Student’s Book

Page 32 of 40
IELTS TEST PRACTICE
Course-based Assessment
Voices Assessment Suite is the course-based assessment solution for the Voices
program. It includes:

§ Unit tests for every unit of the series

§ Mid-year tests
§ End of year tests

IELTS-style tasks are integrated in the Assessment Suite content for Intermediate,
Intermediate Plus, Upper Intermediate and Advanced levels of the series. IELTs task
types are reflected most frequently in the Reading, Listening and Speaking sections
(along with Cambridge style tasks).

The examples below are taken from the Upper intermediate level of the paper-based
Assessment Suite content available on the Voices Companion site. They demonstrate
IELT-style task types across a range of skills and question types. The same tasks will be
reflected in the customisable test content available digitally in the Voices Assessment
suite which is hosted on the Online Practice Platform.

Listening

Unit 1, sentence completion

Page 33 of 40
Unit 7, Short answer

Unit 3, map labelling

Unit 10, Table completion

Page 34 of 40
Reading

Unit 2, matching features

Unit 2, identifying information

Page 35 of 40
Unit 3, note completion

Mid-course, matching sentence endings

Mid-course, Summary completion

Page 36 of 40
Speaking

Unit 2, Individual long run

Page 37 of 40
IELTS Mock Tests
In addition to the support provided in the course-based test materials, available on the
Voices Companion site are dedicated IELTs style tests for the IELTS academic exam. A
full mock IELTS test is provided for each of the following levels of Voices.

§ Intermediate

§ Intermediate Plus

§ Upper Intermediate

§ Advanced

Each level will include a full Listening paper, Reading paper, Writing paper and
Speaking paper representative of all the task types students will encounter in the IELT
exam.

Page 38 of 40
TEACHER SUPPORT
The Voices Professional Development Video Collection, hosted by the Voices author
team, includes a video series dedicated to Exam preparation. There is a video
presented by Christien Lee, Voices co-author and former IELTs examination centre
director, on how Voices helps prepares students for the IELTs exam. He also provides
some practical tips on how to develop these skills in class.

Voices Professional Development Video Collection: Christien Lee presenting an exam

preparation video on IELTs and TOEFL

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