IELTS Speaking: When to be an Actor on Stage.

A random post on Facebook inspired me this morning.  Maybe I can pass on that inspiration to you as well.

 It started off with a very self-aware, but somewhat self-conscious plea for help. 

3 Discuss Both Sides Essays: Exams as Assessment, Teaching Children, Career Success

Are exams the best way to assess students question:

Issues: Repeating yourself

Tips and Essay Corrections: Discuss Both Views and Give Your Own Opinion

This lesson? …presentation?... extended feedback report? I’m not sure what to call it, will be coming to you in two parts. The first half contains tips on what to think about when writing a Task 2 essay of the “discuss both views and give your own opinion” variety.

The second part is actually three parts, correcting the essays of three students who I found on the Facebook page “IELTS Tips and Tricks”.

Honestly, both halves were created in part just to test out new methods of using media and my computer in hopes of creating IELTS materials that are

The Self-Correction Technique of Guided Feedback

One major advantage that classroom teachers have over online teachers is the ability to interact with students directly, and help them correct their own mistakes on writing tasks. Immediately. Directly. Face-to-face.  Try to get the students to understand what they are doing wrong for themselves. One way to do this is through the self-correction technique. This is what I usually do in class.

When I return writing tasks (IELTS or general English) to my students, they come with little letters above the words or phrases, codes to tell them what type of mistake that there making. Is it a missing word?(mw) Is it a lexical, a word choice, error?(wc) Is it a grammar error?(gr) Spelling?(sp) Then, I insist that the students don't just look at it and put it away, that they do their best to correct their own mistakes, and then ask me,  "Hey teacher, is this right now?" or, "I'm sorry teacher, I don't understand what I did wrong here. Please help."

Speaking Test Simulator

One day about a month ago, I had some free time, and started thinking about how the Temple could help people with their IELTS Speaking. I had an idea, and posted this on the Facebook Tips and Tricks group:

Super-Secret, Triple-Effective Tips to Guarantee a Band 9 IELTS Score!

These are absolutely proven tips and tricks!

Reading:

•  For fill in the blank type questions, if you can't find a word that fits, use a word that rhymes with the previous answer. They might give you credit for being poetic.
•  For T/F/NG and Y/N/NG type questions, don't be boring and just answer "true" or "false". Show off your vocabulary by using qualifiers, synonyms and idiomatic expressions.

Task 1 Feedback - Forested Area Table (Band 6 for TA)

If you're looking for an introduction to how to write a Task 1 report, I would highly recommend that you watch the three part series "How to Write the Best Overview" which I've linked here.

Just as misunderstanding the question is the bugaboo of many IELTS candidates in Task 2, going for "low hanging fruit" when selecting information for your overview is a problem in Task 1.

Truths, Falsehoods, and Not Given's - Some IELTS Basics

If you were looking for advice on how to approach the common T/F/NG question type from the reading test, I'm sorry. Maybe in the future, I'll write such a thing.  In this blog, I just want to share some IELTS truths, falsehoods, and information that is simply not given. 

The IELTS is just for those who want to study abroad. 

– FALSE

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is the fastest growing English proficiency test in the world. Over 3 million tests were given last year globally.

Writing Task 1: How to Craft the Best Overview

A three part series on crafting the best overview.  Part 1 and 3 are in a lecture format, recorded at a seminar hosted by my school.  Part 2 is from my computer, discussing the parts that get left out.

What is the main feature of this Pizza? 

 



My friend, Band 8, noted to me the other day that the Task One writing paper is the ukulele of the IELTS world. Like the uke, it's thought of as easy and cute,  and it certainly doesn't get enough respect in the IELTS instruction community compared to it's brother the Task 2 guitar. 

I'm here to stand up for Task One just like I do for my beloved ukulele!  Honestly, I find some task one's fascinatingly complex. They're multi-layered puzzles which often hide information

Writing Task 2 - Random Question Picker

There's only one "real" authentic source for actual examples of past test questions on the IELTS test: The Official Cambridge Test Papers, Books 1 to 13.

It is rumored  that Question Types exist in the archives of the Oldest Books, Testaments 1-5, which are no longer being used,  and using them wouldn't be very effective practice. That leaves 7 tomes with four Task 2 questions to practice.

What to do when you've run out? Use blasphemous un-official materials? Oh so often their questions sound like the word of IELTS, but are missing a key word here or there in the wording of the T in TR, thus tainting it.