• What are 'signpost words'?
• How do they help us to understand?

Good public speakers and lecturers illustrate the stages of their talk through the use of 'signpost words'. Being able to identify and follow the signpost words will help you to understand formal spoken English.

As with writing, speakers make use of special words to help introduce ideas and to provide a framework for what they are saying, especially in formal speech, such as a lecture or a talk. We can think of these words as 'signpost words' because they direct our listening; in other words, they warn us that more information is coming and suggest what kind of information this may be: e.g. additional, positive, negative, similar, different. They may also introduce examples of a main point made earlier.

Here are some possible 'directions' that the signpost words can take you in.

a   -   Leading towards a comparison

b   -   Leading towards a contrast or opposite

с   -   Introducing an example of what was said earlier

d   -   Suggesting cause and effect or result

e   -   Providing additional information

f   -   Setting out the stages of a talk

(1)  Incoming governments often make promises which they cannot keep. For instance ...

(2)  Every Roman town had at its centre a forum, where people came together to conduct their official and religious affairs. In addition, the forum ...

(3)  The meteorological office predicted rain for the two weeks of the Olympic Games, In consequence, ...

(4)  Learning a foreign language can be difficult and at times frustrating. However, ...

(5)  Not only did the Second World War result in the displacement of millions of innocent civilians, it ...

(6)  Despite the efforts of the government to reduce the incidence of smoking among teenagers and young adults, I regret to say that smoking ...

(7)  This is how to approach writing an essay. First, you should read the question carefully. Then ...

(8)  No matter how hard you try to justify the sport of fox hunting, the fact remains that ...

(9)  Firstly I would like to talk about the early life of F. Kennedy. Secondly ... and thirdly ...

(10)  On the one hand, it may be advisable to study hard the night before an exam; on the other hand, ...

IELTS Section 3 Listening takes the form of a conversation between two or more people discussing an academic topic. Unlike the dialogues in Section 1, where the speakers are discussing everyday topics, Section 3 will require more careful attention to the conversation or argument being expressed. In the following example, you will hear an extract from a university tutorial with four speakers taking part. First look at the questions below and make sure you understand exactly what you have to label on the diagram.

ROVER ROBOT

The robot does the work of a (1) ................................. . It looks like a (2) ............................ on wheels. It weighs 16.5kg and travels quite (3) ........................... .

The cover cannot be steered in real time because of the (8) .............................

Scientists decide on a (9) .............................. for the rover.

Mars is similar to Earth because it may have (10) ...............................