Lecture: The Loss of the World's Languages

IELTS Listening PracticePart 4hard

Recording

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You can replay the recording as many times as you like while practising. In the real exam you hear it once only.

Questions

Questions 1–3

The scale of the crisis

Complete the notes below. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

There are roughly ______ thousand languages spoken today.(max 1 word)

About ______ of these may disappear by the end of the century.(max 1 word)

More than half of all languages have fewer than ______ thousand speakers.(max 1 word)

Questions 4–6

Two ways a language can die

Complete the table below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

Sudden death: the language disappears abruptly because its ______ die.(max 1 word)

Gradual death: this type is more ______ than sudden death.(max 1 word)

Gradual death: it happens as ______ stop passing the language to their children.(max 1 word)

Questions 7–9

Why languages are given up and why they matter

Complete the sentences below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

The main reason parents drop a language is ______.(max 1 word)

Minority languages are often wrongly seen as lacking ______ compared with dominant ones.(max 1 word)

Losing a language can weaken a community's sense of ______.(max 1 word)

Question 10

Answer the question below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

Which language is given as the classic success story of revival?(max 2 words)

0 / 10 answered

About this Listening test

“Lecture: The Loss of the World's Languages” is an original IELTS Listening practice test in the style of Part 4 with 10 questions (Note Completion, Table Completion, Sentence Completion and Short Answer). Play the recording, answer as you listen, then submit to have every answer marked instantly and read the transcript.

Part 4 is a university-style lecture: one speaker, an academic subject, 10 questions — almost always note completion with a one-word limit — and, uniquely, no break in the middle. You succeed by using the printed notes as a map of the lecture and never losing your place.

How to approach it

Spend the whole preparation time on the notes: the headings tell you the lecture’s sections, and each gap’s surrounding words tell you the grammar and meaning of its answer.
Predict the word class for every gap — noun, adjective, number — and any obvious semantic field (a material, an animal, a place).
Common trap: Losing your position mid-lecture and missing a run of answers — the single biggest cause of Part 4 disasters.

Read the full Listening Part 4 strategy guide · How we write and check our tests

Build consistency with another Listening practice item.