A Presentation By 2 Students Giving A Seminar To A Group At Their University - IELTS Listening Sample

IELTS Listening section examines a candidate’s listening skills through four sections. IELTS listening section one contains a presentation by 2 students giving a seminar to a group at their university. This section contains a total of ten questions and one question type:

• Table completion
• Notes completion

IELTS listening practice papers are helpful preparation materials for candidates.

Audio Transcript

You will hear 2 students giving a presentation to a seminar group at their university.

First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26.

Dr. Reece: Good morning all. Glad to see you’re all on time today. This morning we’re going to hear Jamie and Rebecca give their presentation on some aspects of demographics. They’ve talked to me about it a bit before while researching it but I don’t want to give the game away so I’ll hand it straight over to them.

Jamie: Hi everyone. As Dr. Reece said Rebecca and I are going to give our demographics presentation. Both Rebecca and I also study languages so we decided to look at the world’s different languages and the ones that are the most important, both now and in the future. Rebecca’s going to start off.

Rebecca: OK everyone. Who knows what the world’s most spoken language is?

Phil: I thought it was English. Isn’t it?

Rebecca: Well, it’s an ambiguous question. If you just look at how many individual speakers there are around the world then the answer is Mandarin Chinese with 836 million speakers. English was second until a few years ago but it has since been overtaken by Hindi with 333 million speakers and Spanish with 332 million speakers. Now English is after Spanish with 32million speakers.

Phil: Oh yes, South America. I didn’t think of that.

Jamie Yes, it’s easy to forget. You can look at Rebecca’s question though in a different way if you look at the number of countries that use English. English is a massive 115, ahead french, Arabic and Spanish with 35, 24 and 20 countries respectively.

Rebecca: English has different statuses around the world. Core countries are where English has a full official status like England, the US, and Australia. In outer core countries, English has one official status as in India and then there are fringe countries such as Japan and the UAE where it’s used a lot in business and tourism.

Jamie: A more important list is the world’s most influential languages. This was compiled by weighing 6 factors which were the number of primary speakers, the number of secondary speakers, the number and population of the countries where the languages are used, the number of major fields using the language internationally, the economic power of countries using the languages and socio-literary prestige.

Rebecca: And the list shows the following in order of most influential: English, French, Spanish Russian, Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Hindi.

Dr. Reece: How up-to-date are these guys?

Jamie: Fairly. They came out just last year. But the picture is changing very rapidly in terms of influential languages. There are certain large countries that are about to emerge on the world stage and their economies are starting to influence the world balance of power.4

Rebecca: The largest countries that for various reasons are beginning to shift world economic power are China, Russia, India, and Brazil. The sizes of the populations along with the cheap labor and raw material prices that are available in these countries are causing this shift. As a result, every year the demand for people knowing the languages of these countries is growing enormously.

Jamie: In addition the demand for teachers and English language training is also enormously increasing. Western teachers are going to the countries and their nationals are coming over here. As well as business, the education sector is getting a huge boost from the opening up of these economies.

Dr. Reece: So, will China be the major powerhouse as everyone says?

Rebecca: Definitely but maybe not the biggest. Many experts predict that India’s population soon surpass China’s. Bangladesh’s population could too. It all points to world economic power being held in Asia though.

Jamie: English will probably remain important though. Chinese is difficult to learn and English also has some official status in India. English is easy to learn and has the advantage, for better or worse, of being the language that everyone wants to learn. That won’t change in a hurry.

Dr. Reece: How many people learn English then?

Rebecca: number of spoken languages nowadays is estimated between 2500 and 7000. Out of all these languages, the number of those actually studied by nonnative speakers is tiny. There are no official records of numbers studying English worldwide but today you can safely say that there are not many countries with a structured program of education where English is not taught. It will take a long time for this habit to be broken. At the moment it’s getting stronger.

Questions 21-26

Complete the three tables below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

World’s Most Spoken Languages by Number of Individual Speakers

World’s Most Spoken Languages by Number of User Countries

World’s Most Influential Languages – 6 weighing factors

Number of primary speakers

The number of 25_______________

Number and population of countries where languages are used

Number of major fields using the language internationally

26_________________of countries using the language

Socio-literary prestige of the language

Question 21.

Answer: Hindi

Explanation: Rebecca tells Phil that English was second until a few years ago but it has since been overtaken by Hindi with 333 million speakers

Also, check:

Question 22.

Answer: 32 million

Explanation: Now English is after Spanish with 32 million speakers.

Question 23.

Answer: Arabic

Explanation: Arabic is spoken by 24 countries

Question 24.

Answer: 20

Explanation: Spanish is at 4th rank and is soken by 20 countries.

Question 25.

Answer: Secondary speakers

Explanation: Jamie shares a list with the class of the number of primary speakers, the number of secondary speakers.

Question 26.

Answer: economic power

Explanation: Rebecca explains to the class about the list and the number of major fields using the language internationally, the economic power of countries using the languages.

Questions 27-30

Complete the notes below of the second half of Jamie and Rebecca’s presentation.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Jamie and Rebeccas Presentation

Large countries currently shifting world economic balance of power:

China Russia India (27) _______________

Reasons for shift size of the populations cheap labour prices of (28) _______________

* Big growing demand for people knowing languages of above countries + for teachers and English language training

* China could be less important than possibly India or (29) _______________ due to their population increase. English will probably remain important though

* Number of spoken languages between approx. (30) _______________. Hardly any of these studied by non native speakers

* English taught in most countries with structured education programs. This trend is getting stronger.

Question 27.

Answer: Brazil

Explanation: In Rebecca and Jamie’s presentation it is mentioned that Brazil is one of the largest countries that is a reason beginning to shift world economic power

Question 28.

Answer: Raw materials

Explanation: the reason provided by Rebecca and Jamie about the shift is the sizes of the populations along with the cheap labor and raw material prices that are available in these countries.

Question 29.

Answer: Bangladesh

Explanation: It is predicted by many experts predict that soon Bangladesh can surpass China’s population.

Question 30.

Answer: 2500 and 7000

Explanation: The estimated number of languages spoken nowadays is 2500 and 7000.