You can improve your listening skills by practising the signpost words commonly used in speech.

Note: signpost words are also called discourse words or discourse markers.

These are the parts of speech that tell the listener the order of what is being said. Signpost words can tell you when the speaker is going to make a list, change the topic, add an example or simply explain their point of view in another way.

This makes it easier to identify when the subject matter, direction or perspective of the conversation may change. When learning a new language it is important whether you're rehearsing conversation for an upcoming job interview in a foreign country or whether you're on WWW.PARTYPOKER.COM and want to speak to players from other countries.

By understanding and listening for these signpost markers, it becomes much easier to follow what is being said, and this can be invaluable when you are in a listening exam such as the IELTS test.

For example:

'...and so all holiday leave is cancelled. Now, I would like to talk about....'

In this example, the speaker says 'now' so we know that comes next is going to be a different topic.

Below is a table showing the different signpost words that are commonly used and what they mean.