Phones and Work Lead to Health Problems & Climate Change

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Okay, I'm being sarcastic, a bit, but in that statement we cover: 

• modern technology 
• work
• health
• the environment

Those seem to be the "Big Four" when it comes to the general topics that you'll find most often on IELTS Writing Task 2 questions. Of course, there are lots of others, but those are the four, or permutations thereof, that seem to crop up quite frequently. I'd guess maybe half the Task 2 questions that I've come across include at least one of those elements.

Consequently, having a full toolbox of topic-related vocabulary on those four would be an excellent thing for a test candidate to have.  I'm sure you've got
lots, but just as a public service let me throw some lexical items at you that you may not know. Learning them might help you with Task 2 someday.

Modern Technology

• BAND WIDTH - How much data an internet signal can carry at one time, "With the advent of 4G, band width increased dramatically"
• NOMOPHOBIA - A mental condition defined as having an intense fear of being without your phone or without a signal to your phone.
  "One disadvantage to our reliance on mobile phones has been the development of nomophobia in some people. 
• CLOUD BASED - The Cloud is a  generic name for places on the internet (Google Drive,  MS OneDrive) used for data storage as opposed to hard drives on individual computers. "Many workplaces are moving to cloud-based technology to improve data sharing."

Work

• Work-life balance - the ability to manage your private and working life effectively without one controlling the other. 
  "Many of these problems could be helped with better understanding of work-life balance"
• Empower - When an employer gives decision making choices to lower-level employees. "When empowered to make front-line decisions, workers tend to feel more connected to their employers"
• Climbing a career ladder - The path a person takes within a single company to rise in position. "Many people are not thinking about climbing a career ladder when they don't have job security"

Health

• Body Mass Index (BMI) - a number based on how tall you are compared to your weight. "When a BMI reaches 20 or more, serious health implications occur"
•  Health and Wellness - Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. "Many employers reward workers for attending to health and wellness."
• Glycemic index - a measure of the amount of sugar and carbs in a particular food that affect your body's handling of it. "More foods today have a high glycemic indes which if eaten regularly, can cause health issues."

The environment

• Smog - A word derived from "smoke" and "fog", it is air pollution that tends to hang over a city for a long period of time.  "Surprising, some of the highest levels of smog in the world are found in Thailand."
• Habitat loss - A habitat is where an animal lives and wanders regularly. "Deforestation not only worsens smog, it is the main cause of habitat loss for many species."
• Snowball effect (of global warming) - As warmer temperatures melt more snowcover, more of the land is darker and heats up even more, causing temperatures to rise even more quickly

So there we have it, folks. My first vocabulary lesson from the Temple.

In the rest of this sermon, I'm presenting two essay-video-corrections, both from the SAME person! It's rare that that happens, but the first one had some sharing problems, so it didn't get published initially, and after Eclat Tutor assured me that they had made changes in their approach to the second essay to seem more natural, I agreed to do both.

Here's the first, which of course, includes elements of modern technology. At the end, well,  you'll hear what I say about the band score.



Oh my. To be honest, I will never give up my expectation that English teachers  (even non-native ones) should be good writers. The above essay showed me that what I've learned in real life is true on this level as well. We give scholarships to local Myanmar English teachers at my company, and so Ive tested hundreds of them. I'm sure Eclat Tutor would do great on a multiple choice test of English, and he isn't as bad at being formulaic (writing to a template), synonymaniacal (my term, I made it up for overdoing it in paraphrasing) or overgeneralizing as many of his (or is it hers?; I'm still not sure) peers. 

This discovery of Using PowerPoint to make videos seemed like a boon at first, but in reality, it crashes so much and has unforeseen glitches, like at 0:43 to 1:17 when we have no narration there at all.. bear with it.

Then there's BP1, the text of which does not appear on the video at all. That's my fault. A little mistake. I'll explain it later. Listen carefully and refer to this: 

Fair dinkum on ya mate!