The Listening Paper (9280/L)

British & IGCSE › Oxford International GCSE English as a Second Language

The Listening paper (9280/L) is the shortest paper in the Oxford International GCSE ESL exam, but it is worth 20% of your final grade. Many students lose easy marks here, not because their English is weak, but because they do not know how the paper works: how long they have to read, what to do on the first and second listening, how answers are marked and where the traps are. This page explains all of that, step by step. When you finish it, go to the next page (Listening: task by task) and practise each of the five tasks with full answers.

1. The Listening paper at a glance

The recordings are on the same three themes as the rest of the course: Identity and culture, Local, national, international and global areas of interest, and Current and future study and employment. So the vocabulary you learn for speaking and writing (family, technology, free time, your town, healthy living, the environment, travel, school, jobs) is also your listening vocabulary.

2. The five tasks

Learn this table. If you know what each task looks like before you walk into the exam, you will not waste any of the reading time trying to understand the instructions.

A segment is one short piece of the recording that matches one question (or one group of questions). The recording is divided into segments, and each segment is usually followed by its questions in the same order. This is very helpful: the answers come in order.

3. What the examiners are testing (L1-L4)

4. How your answers are marked

The Listening paper is point-based. Each correct piece of information gets a mark. This is very different from Writing, where your language is marked. In Listening, you are marked on understanding.

• Spelling: small spelling mistakes do not lose marks if the meaning is still clear and the word would sound right if read aloud. For example, *restorant* for *restaurant* or *vegtables* for *vegetables* is accepted. But if the spelling makes a different word (*fourteen* when the answer is *forty*, *dessert* when the answer is *desert*), the meaning has changed and you lose the mark.
• Grammar: a wrong tense or a missing article does not lose the mark if your meaning is clear. *He go to gym every day* still shows understanding.
• But if your sentence is so broken that it does not make sense, or it says something different from the recording, it gets no mark.
• Number of answers: if a question asks for two things and gives you two numbered lines, write one answer on each line. Extra answers do not earn extra marks, and a wrong extra answer can cost you a mark.
• Space: write your final answer on the lines given. Anything squeezed in under the lines or in the margins may not be marked. If you need more room, use the extra pages at the end of the booklet and write the question number.
• Changing your mind: cross out the old answer with one clean line and write the new one clearly. Never leave two answers for the examiner to choose from.

5. Using the 5 minutes' reading time

Before the recording starts, you get 5 minutes to read the whole question paper. You may write notes on the paper. There is also a short pause before each task to read its questions again. Use the 5 minutes like this:

1. Minute 1: Look at all five tasks quickly. Read each task's introduction line (for example: *Two friends are talking about a school trip*). This tells you the topic, the speakers and the type of recording.
2. Minutes 2-3: Underline the key word in every question. The key word is the question word (*when, why, how many, which*) plus the main noun or verb (*cost, problem, advice, feel*). If you underline *least popular*, you will not choose the most popular one by mistake.
3. Minute 4: Predict the answer type. Next to each question, write a tiny note: N (a number), D (a day or date), P (a place), V (a verb), Adj (a feeling word), R (a reason). For gap-fills, read the words before and after the gap and decide what kind of word fits.
4. Minute 5: Read the multiple-choice options and spot the differences. If the three options are *by bus with friends / by bus alone / on foot alone*, the differences are how and with whom. That is exactly what you must listen for.
5. Last seconds: Go back to Task 1. Have your pen ready and your eyes on question 1.

6. First listening vs second listening

You hear every task twice. Good students use the two listenings for two different jobs.

7. Writing short answers that get the mark

• Answer the exact question. If the question asks *why*, give a reason (*because… / to…*). If it asks *what does she do*, give a verb (*walks the dog*). Some answers need a verb form: a noun alone may not be enough.
• Keep the key detail. *A bike* and *a new bike* may be different answers if the speaker said the old bike was stolen. Keep words that change the meaning: *not, never, only, more, less, before, after*.
• Use the speaker's words or your own: both are fine for detail questions. But in Task 5, when you are asked to explain a phrase *in your own words*, you must not repeat the phrase.
• Numbers: write them as digits (*15*, *£40*, *7:45*). It is quicker and clearer than words.
• One idea per line. In list questions, do not put two ideas on one line and leave the next line empty.

8. Multiple choice: writing letters in boxes

Since November 2021, multiple-choice questions on this paper ask you to write the letter (A, B or C) in a box, instead of ticking. The number of letters you write must match the marks for the question. Write capital letters clearly: a lazy A can look like an H, and an unclear B can look like a D.

Worked example. Read this short transcript (it is original and only for practice) and answer the question.

9. Distractors: how the recording tries to trick you

A distractor is a wrong option that you will actually hear in the recording. The examiners do this on purpose to check that you really understand. In almost every multiple-choice question, you will hear more than one of the options. Here are the most common tricks:

10. Numbers, dates, times and names

Numbers are one of the hardest parts of any listening exam. Practise these pairs until you can hear the difference instantly.

1. Practice 1. You hear: "Last year the club had thirty members. This year we have fourteen more." How many members does the club have this year?

   Show answer

   44. 30 + 14 = 44. The trap is to write 30 or 14, or to confuse *fourteen* with *forty*.

2. Practice 2. You hear: "The coach was supposed to leave at a quarter to nine, but it was twenty minutes late." What time did the coach leave?

   Show answer

   9:05. A quarter to nine is 8:45; twenty minutes later is 9:05. 8:45 is the planned time: a distractor.

3. Practice 3. You hear: "I wanted the blue trainers, but they only had them in white, so I ended up buying black ones from another shop." What colour trainers did the speaker buy? A Blue · B White · C Black

   Show answer

   C (Black). Blue was wanted, white was available in the first shop, but *ended up buying* tells you the final action: black.

4. Practice 4. You hear: "People think I'm a morning person, but actually I study best late at night, when the house is quiet." When does the speaker study best?

   Show answer

   Late at night (when the house is quiet). *Actually* corrects the idea of the morning.

5. Practice 5. You hear: "Entry to the museum is free for children under twelve. Teenagers pay five pounds, and adults pay eight fifty." How much does a fifteen-year-old pay?

   Show answer

   £5. A fifteen-year-old is a teenager. £8.50 is the adult price, and *free* is for under-twelves.

6. Practice 6. You hear: "The festival used to be in July, but because of the heat it has moved to the first weekend of October." When is the festival now?

   Show answer

   The first weekend of October. *Used to be in July* is the old date.

11. Common mistakes and how to avoid them

12. A weekly listening practice plan

Listening improves with regular practice: 20 to 30 minutes a day is better than three hours once a week. The secret is active listening: listen with a question in your mind, pause, note what you heard, then check. Use audio-only sources such as BBC Learning English (its audio programmes and podcasts) and podcasts on BBC Sounds. Choose recordings on the course themes: young people, technology, sport, the environment, travel, school and careers.

13. Exam-day checklist

• Black pen (and a spare). No dictionary.
• Use all 5 minutes of reading time: underline key words, predict answer types, compare the options.
• First listening: quick short notes. Second listening: check, complete, correct.
• Watch for signal words: *but, actually, in the end, used to, not … but*.
• Numbers as digits. Check *-teen* and *-ty*.
• One answer per line, and exactly the number asked for.
• Letters in boxes: clear capitals.
• Task 5: explain phrases in your own words; think about the speaker's feelings and purpose.
• No empty answers at the end.