TOEFL iBT® · Listening · 2026
TOEFL Listen to an Academic Talk: how the task works
Listen to an Academic Talk is one of the Listening task types in the 2026 TOEFL iBT® test. You hear a short lecture-style talk and answer questions about it. Here's the format, an original worked example, and tips — then try it in a free full-length mock.
Listening is the second section of the test, after Reading. It has 47 items in total, is two-stage adaptive and takes about 29 minutes. Speakers use accents from three regions — North America, the United Kingdom and Australia — and every item is machine-scored multiple choice.
What the task is
Listen to an Academic Talk plays a short academic talk of about 100–250 words, given lecture-style by an educator. You then answer four questions about it — so across the items you will hear about two to four talks. Background knowledge is not required: everything you need is in the talk.
The talks range across the curriculum — the natural sciences, the social sciences, history, business and economics, and the arts — but always so that no prior study of the topic is assumed.
A worked example
This is our own illustration of the format (not an official test item).
You hear (an educator giving a short talk):
"Today I want to look at how honeybees share information. When a foraging bee finds a good source of nectar, it returns to the hive and performs what researchers call a waggle dance. The bee moves in a figure-eight pattern, and the straight run in the middle points toward the food. Here's the clever part: the angle of that run, measured against vertical, tells the other bees the direction relative to the sun. The length of the waggle signals distance — a longer waggle means the food is farther away. So in just a few seconds, one bee can pass on both direction and distance, without making a single sound. Next, we'll look at how scientists first decoded this dance."
1. What is the talk mainly about?
- A. Why honeybees make honey.
- B. How honeybees communicate where food is. ✓ correct
- C. How bees defend the hive.
- D. Why bees are attracted to certain flowers.
2. What does the length of the waggle indicate?
- A. The type of nectar found.
- B. How far away the food is. ✓ correct
- C. How many bees should go.
- D. The time of day.
3. What does the angle of the straight run tell the other bees?
- A. The direction of the food relative to the sun. ✓ correct
- B. The size of the food source.
- C. How quickly to fly.
- D. Which bee found the food.
4. What will the speaker most likely do next?
- A. Compare bees with other insects.
- B. End the lecture.
- C. Explain how scientists decoded the dance. ✓ correct
- D. Describe how honey is harvested.
Questions 1–2 target the main idea and a supporting detail; question 3 checks a further detail; question 4 uses an organizational cue ("Next, we'll look at…") to predict what comes next. Each talk carries four questions like these.
How many items, and how it's scored
- 8–16 items — four questions for each of about two to four talks.
- Machine-scored multiple choice.
- CEFR A2–C2 — the widest level range of the Listening task types.
- Part of the 47-item, two-stage-adaptive Listening section, which takes about 29 minutes.
What the questions ask you to do
Across the talks, the questions require you to:
- catch the main and supporting ideas;
- cope with a range of grammar;
- make inferences;
- notice how the talk is organised — how it moves from one point to the next; and
- handle vocabulary that may be unfamiliar, informal or figurative.
How to prepare
- Get the main point first. A talk usually announces its topic early — hold that thread as details accumulate.
- Follow the structure, not just the facts. Signposts like "here's the clever part" or "next, we'll look at" tell you how the talk is organized and often set up a question.
- Separate the main idea from its support — examples and figures back up a claim rather than being the point themselves.
- Don't be thrown by an unfamiliar topic. No background knowledge is needed; the answer is always in what you hear.
- Build academic vocabulary across history, science, art, business and social science, since talks span all of these fields.
- Practise sustained listening. A free full-length mock includes Listen to an Academic Talk in the 2026 format.
Practise Listen to an Academic Talk free
Take a full-length practice mock built to the 2026 TOEFL iBT® format — including the Listening section — and get a predicted 1–6 band. No card required.
Avermond Test Prep is an independent preparation service. TOEFL® is a registered trademark of ETS. This product is not endorsed or approved by ETS. Task descriptions and item counts reflect ETS's published January-2026 TOEFL iBT test specifications and may be subject to minor revision before launch.