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Friday, November 8, 2013

IELTS - let's clear any misunderstandings

A lot of people approach me for IELTS lessons saying, "Helen, I need to pass IELTS, can you help me?"  The answer to this is a little tricky.  First of all, there is no such thing as a "pass" in IELTS.  IELTS is not a certificate in the way that Cambridge Proficiency or Michigan ECCE is.  That is, you don't learn a particular level of English in order to get a certificate.  Instead, what IELTS does is it certifies your current level of English.  So if you if your level of English is, for example, intermediate, this will most likely be reflected in your IELTS score.  No teacher can teach you to "pass" IELTS if your English is not at a level that it needs to be. 

For postgraduate studies in English-speaking universities, the IELTS scores required vary.  Typically, most universities want at least a 6.5.   Some will require an overall score of 7 with at least 6 in each area or some will specify 7 in all areas.  Check with the universities you are interested in to be sure. 

So what is a 6.5 or 7?  the IELTS website provides this guideline .  For those of you who are familiar with Cambridge ESOL exams, a B2 is a First Certificate and a C1 is an Advanced.  Could you pass these tests with at least a 60%?  If so, you are well on your way to getting a 6.5 or 7.  If not, then what you and your teacher need to do is improve your English to get it to this level.  This will take some time and effort and is also one of the reasons I advise most people not to self-prepare. 

If you are unsure of your English level, there are some English placement tests available on the Internet.   Or, contact me for some. 

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The fruits of my brainstorming - you can say it, but can you support it?

In my last post, I talked about brainstorming. The topic I looked at was: Successful sports professionals can earn a great deal more money than people in other important professions. Some people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.


 Here are some of the ideas I came up with :

fair & justified:
-sports figures who earn $$$$ are the minority of all professional athletes
-there is a lot of money in sports - huge industry
-entertainment

unfair:
-many professionals dedicate years, money and their lives to studying and pursuing a career just to earn a small percentage of what sports stars make
-different professionals make a great impact on our lives and make much less money

So, these are my main ideas.  I may use all of them or only some of them.  What happens next is supporting your main ideas.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to support your ideas.  You simply cannot assume that your reader knows what you mean unless you say it clearly.  Take a look at this main idea:  different professionals make a great impact on our lives and make much less
money.  If I read that in an essay and it was not supported by examples or an explanation, I may think
anything from street cleaners to government officials, but that is not the point.  What I want to know is what the writer is thinking, so tell me who you have in mind:  Doctors, teachers and scientists.
You need to do this for ALL of your main ideas.  Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.  Your essay should have about four main ideas so you need to think of supporting ideas for each of them.  So, why don't you think about how we can support these main ideas.  You can even post some in the comments  I'll do the same & we'll meet back here in my next post.  :)

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Ideas, anyone? Let's brainstorm!

One complaint I hear both in IELTS and ECPE prep is regarding lack of ideas.  I know that it can be overwhelming to write an academic essay on an issue you more than likely do not really care about, especially in a foreign language.  Especially when you only have about 40 minutes (30 in the ECPE). Well, I am here to simplify this task.   The first thing  I want to remind you of is that the IELTS is developed for people exactly like you:  English Language Learners who seek employment or education at the university level.  So, you don't need any specialist knowledge about a particular topic.   Let's assume that your vocabulary is good and you have a good grasp of grammar.  What you then need is ideas. 

Take a look at this task borrowed from our friends at www.ielts-exams.net

Successful sports professionals can earn a great deal more money than people in other important professions. Some people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.


The key words here are sports professionals,  important professions, more money, justified and unfair.  Jot them down on some paper.  You are now about to do the most underrated but important task of writing:  brainstorming.  I know, I know, you think it's a waste of time. After all, you only have 40 minutes, so why use it writing down little notes that you may not use in the end? 

Allow me to speak from personal experience that if you spend 5 minutes jotting down notes you will thank me.  Many, many (many, many) years ago when I was a university student, I took a class where there was a mandatory 3-5 page writing assignment every week.  In the beginning of the semester, I would begin my assignment with a few ideas in my head and just start writing.  While I was writing, invariably other ideas would come to my head & I remember thinking to myself, "okay, I will write that idea when I get to my next paragraph."  Can you imagine what happened when I got to my next paragraph?  I forgot my idea.  What a waste of a good idea!  I finally learned my lesson and starting brainstorming for these writing assignments and spending a little time writing down my ideas before getting down to the business of writing.

So, back to our sports professionals:  I am sure that you have some opinions about this issue.  Think about them.  Is it fair for a basketball or football star to earn millions of dollars for playing a game when people who save lives, like nurses or doctors for example, earn a lot less?  Should sports stars make so much money?  Are there any reasons why this is justified?  You'll have to answer both these questions because the task has asked you to discuss both views.   What you then have to do is write down some key words or a sentence to answer these questions.  You should try to come up with at least 2-3 points for each question.  In my next post, we'll work on turning our ideas into paragraphs. 

Ideas, anyone? Let's brainstorm!

One complaint I hear both in IELTS and ECPE prep is regarding lack of ideas.  I know that it can be overwhelming to write an academic essay on an issue you more than likely do not really care about, especially in a foreign language.  Especially when you only have about 40 minutes (30 in the ECPE). Well, I am here to simplify this task.   The first thing  I want to remind you of is that the IELTS is developed for people exactly like you:  English Language Learners who seek employment or education at the university level.  So, you don't need any specialist knowledge about a particular topic.   Let's assume that your vocabulary is good and you have a good grasp of grammar.  What you then need is ideas. 

Take a look at this task borrowed from our friends at www.ielts-exams.net

Successful sports professionals can earn a great deal more money than people in other important professions. Some people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.


The key words here are sports professionals,  important professions, more money, justified and unfair.  Jot them down on some paper.  You are now about to do the most underrated but important task of writing:  brainstorming.  I know, I know, you think it's a waste of time. After all, you only have 40 minutes, so why use it writing down little notes that you may not use in the end? 

Allow me to speak from personal experience that if you spend 5 minutes jotting down notes you will thank me.  Many, many (many, many) years ago when I was a university student, I took a class where there was a mandatory 3-5 page writing assignment every week.  In the beginning of the semester, I would begin my assignment with a few ideas in my head and just start writing.  While I was writing, invariably other ideas would come to my head & I remember thinking to myself, "okay, I will write that idea when I get to my next paragraph."  Can you imagine what happened when I got to my next paragraph?  I forgot my idea.  What a waste of a good idea!  I finally learned my lesson and starting brainstorming for these writing assignments and spending a little time writing down my ideas before getting down to the business of writing.

So, back to our sports professionals:  I am sure that you have some opinions about this issue.  Think about them.  Is it fair for a basketball or football star to earn millions of dollars for playing a game when people who save lives, like nurses or doctors for example, earn a lot less?  Should sports stars make so much money?  Are there any reasons why this is justified?  You'll have to answer both these questions because the task has asked you to discuss both views.   What you then have to do is write down some key words or a sentence to answer these questions.  You should try to come up with at least 2-3 points for each question.  In my next post, we'll work on turning our ideas into paragraphs. 

Sunday, September 29, 2013

IELTS Writing Task 1 - Continued

 If you have your introduction done and a sentence or two which more or less highlights the most important trend of the diagram, what comes next is an analysis of the details.  Let's refer back to our population pie charts.

source:  www.ielts-exams.net


We mentioned Asia already, but we may want to give a little additional information here.

In 2000, Asia accounted for 54% of the world population.  This is a 6% decrease from the 1900 figure.

The next obvious area to cover is Europe.

 The second largest percentage of the world population was recorded in Europe, at 14% in 2000.  However, this is 11% less than the percentage recorded in 1900.  

Another useful tip in IELTS task 1 is knowing how to group information.  You can't and shouldn't write a sentence for every single piece of data so try to group similar features together.

While the population percentages of areas, like North America, remained the same in 2000 and 1900, other areas, like Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean,  more than doubled their figures.

Some data cannot be grouped anywhere,  but it may be important for other reasons.

The year 2000 found the Middle East and North Africa with 6% of the world population, whereas no data is available in the pie chart for this region in 1900.  

We've covered it all, so round out your answer with a conclusion. It's optional, really, provided you have summarized the key trend or feature in your second sentence, but it does round off the answer nicely. A summary of the most important data will do.  

Between 1900 and 2000 the world population increased by 4.4 billion.  The areas of Asia and Europe saw their percentages decrease while the remaining major areas either increased or remained constant.  

178 words


IELTS Writing Task 1 - Continued

 If you have your introduction done and a sentence or two which more or less highlights the most important trend of the diagram, what comes next is an analysis of the details.  Let's refer back to our population pie charts.

source:  www.ielts-exams.net


We mentioned Asia already, but we may want to give a little additional information here.

In 2000, Asia accounted for 54% of the world population.  This is a 6% decrease from the 1900 figure.

The next obvious area to cover is Europe.

 The second largest percentage of the world population was recorded in Europe, at 14% in 2000.  However, this is 11% less than the percentage recorded in 1900.  

Another useful tip in IELTS task 1 is knowing how to group information.  You can't and shouldn't write a sentence for every single piece of data so try to group similar features together.

While the population percentages of areas, like North America, remained the same in 2000 and 1900, other areas, like Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean,  more than doubled their figures.

Some data cannot be grouped anywhere,  but it may be important for other reasons.

The year 2000 found the Middle East and North Africa with 6% of the world population, whereas no data is available in the pie chart for this region in 1900.  

We've covered it all,so round out your answer with a conclusion. It's optional, really, provided you have summarized the key trend or feature in your second sentence, but it does round off the answer nicely. A summary of the most important data will do.  

Between 1900 and 2000 the world population increased by 4.4 billion.  The areas of Asia and Europe saw their percentages decrease while the remaining major areas either increased or remained constant.  

178 words


Sunday, September 22, 2013

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - How do I start?

In my IELTS lessons, I always start with Writing Task 1.  The reason behind that is that is unlike anything any English student has ever written before.  Also, it’s short, at 150-200 words and very formulaic.  So, if you know how to tackle it from early on, when you get to practice tests it will be smooth sailing. 

Task 1 typically features one or two diagrams.  The diagrams can be tables, bar charts, pie charts, line graphs or a combination of two.  If there are two diagrams there will be some relation between them. 

Most students have no idea where to start.  Where to start is simply an issue of paraphrasing.  That is, you explain what the diagram shows in your own words. 

The pie charts below give information about world population in 1900 and 2000.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
 Source:  www.ielts-exam.net

The first sentence, or introduction is just a restatement of what the diagrams show.

Information is provided regarding the the change in the world population by region in the years 1900 and 2000.  

What I’ve done is I have mentioned 1. world population 2. by region 3. the years in question.  What you don’t want to do is copy the prompt word for word. 

 The next sentence describes the most obvious feature or the biggest trend.  For me, two things really stick out in these diagrams:  1. that the population went from 1.6 to 6 billion in 100 years and 2. the greatest percentage was found in Asia for both years.   So, how should we write this in one to two sentences?

 While the world population nearly quadrupled between 1900 and 2000, Asia consistently accounted for over 50% of the world population. 


If you can get these two sentences done, the rest of task one just becomes analyzing the details more specifically.  That is where editing comes in.  As I like to say, in task one what you DON’T write is almost as important as what you DO write.  You can’t and shouldn’t describe EVERY single detail of the diagram.  I’ll discuss more of that in my next post.  

Saturday, September 21, 2013

I found this on Pinterest & thought I would share it here -

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

So, now what?


You’ve made your decision:  You’ll take the IELTS.  So, now what?  There are many different ways you can prepare.  The first decision you have to make is:  teacher or self-study.   Self-study may be an option for some people whose language level is such that they need limited guidance from a teacher. Still, someone will need to correct their essays and prepare them for speaking.  Most people will decide to prepare with a teacher.  The next option is:  class or one-to-one.  Some people prefer the class environment because there is a sense of camaraderie, you can learn from other’s mistakes, etc. Many people prefer one-to-one lessons because the lessons are tailor-made for them, they go as quickly or slowly as the student needs and they can be arranged to fit the student’s schedule.  Nowadays, there is an additional option available for students preparing for the IELTS:  in person or online.    If you live somewhere with access to teachers who are well-trained, who may be native speakers, who know the exam and how to prepare you for it, then you are in luck.  Even then, though, you may not find a teacher available to fit your schedule.  More and more teachers are taking their skills online and offering lessons via Skype and other platforms.  A simple Google search for "IELTS Skype" will show you just how wide the choices are.  So, before you begin preparing for IELTS, open your favorite browser and begin exploring because the possibilities are endless………….

Monday, September 16, 2013

Back to school... decisions, decisions

September means that everyone is getting back to real life.  For lots of people, that means contacting an English tutor to schedule lessons.  I meet many students who are preparing to study abroad at an English-speaking university and the first thing everyone asks is:

TOEFL or IELTS

The answer depends on a number of factors.  The first factor is:  which test does the school you are applying to accept?   When I worked in Higher Education in the US, I remember some schools accepted only TOEFL.  Perhaps that has changed now.   University websites always have a section where they write which tests of English they accept.  Look at the schools you want before you make your decision.

The second factor is:  what kind of tests do you like?  The vast majority of test centers now offer the Internet-based TOEFL (ibT).  For the computer-savvy, this is great.  However, it is a timed test so if your typing skills in English are not as fast as you need them to be, you may find yourself a little anxious.  The same is true for speaking.  You will be speaking into a computer that switches questions when your time is up and some people find this really stressful.  On the plus side, some people find speaking to a computer, not a person, less stressful.  It's a matter of personal preference.

The IELTS is a paper-based test and the day of the speaking test you will speak with a trained examiner.  The test is recorded.  Of course, the IELTS is also a timed test.  However, some people may find that sitting before a smiling examiner may ease their nerves a little.

Another factor is:  what kind of test questions do you like?  TOEFL is multiple choice, which is great for some people but stressful for others.  On the other hand, IELTS features different types of questions in Listening and Reading, so you will not be limited only to multiple choice.

Another thing to keep in mind is the material covered.  IELTS consists of a reading, listening, writing and speaking section.  It doesn't directly test grammar or vocabulary anywhere.  That is not to say, of course, that good grammar and vocabulary are not necessary.  You will need to have a solid foundation in both to do well in all parts of the test.  TOEFL, on the other hand, has questions that directly test your knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.  For some people that may mean they need to study more in order to feel confident for the test.

The conclusion is:  take the test that fits your needs better.  The IELTS is a more traditional paper-based test while the TOEFL ibt is a more modern test that may fit some people better than others.

Check out these sites for more information
www.ielts.org
www.ets.org

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Welcome!

I am very excited to be starting this blog!  I hope it provides lots of helpful information to anyone studying English as a foreign language.  As I get used to the whole blogging concept, I hope these posts will get better (and longer!!!) so please stay tuned!!!!