listening - speaking

Listening is not worrisome for most of those with average level of English. Mostly, people watch holly-wood movies, which imparts a sense of language, but the accent used is not a standard one, which is actually, what we hear in a listening test.
I learned, and want to share, that listening 'good English'* helps a lot in improving not only listening score but speaking, as well.
the benefits I feel are as follows:-

in listening

helps understanding accent well...

makes easy to catch words...

in speaking

helps developing ideas..

helps developing accent...

helps improving style... intonations etc.

*good English:- 

I suggest listening to BBC, as much as one can. The BBC radio telecasts, Podcasts, and many more available at the BBC website( www.bbc.co.uk, or www.bbc.com). There is a section dedicated to the purpose, "BBC learning English" which is very much helpful in assisting the language development, daily usage of English terms etc.

So, here also, I think one should allow enough time for a sound foundation of language development.

The approach at the beginning, shall be, to listen to each of the listening task again and again to get all the answers, rather than moving to next test. This will ensure all answers to be correct and improve the score as well as timing.

 In addition, for speaking one should have a partner, to practice with. Finding someone on SKYPE is also followed by many, and is a good thing to do. 

that was all from my experience with the IELTS .. hope it may, somehow, help to understand IELTS better :)

THANK YOU for reading :)  cheers :)