Thoughts on 'Vocabulary'

Many students ask me if their cause is helped by using ‘difficult’ words and knowing a lot of them. To them I say that it doesn’t really matter if you know 500, 1500 or even 15000 words. It is a matter of how you use them. And by the way, what is the aim of communication, whether written or oral? You must agree that it is to make your readers/listeners understand your exact message, right? In IELTS you will not be writing for an academic audience. You are not expected to write like that wonderful writer, James Joyce? Have you even attempted to read Ulysses? Read it. And then go through Ernest Hemingway, or Paulo Coelho, or maybe Richard Bach. You will understand what I mean.

Can we even hope to use language the way these great men did or regularly do? Of course not. So what’s the way out? The following may help you. At least, my students regularly benefit from practicing them in their writing tasks:

1. Be simple. The simpler-sounding you are, the higher you’ll score. But it is very difficult. Simplicity begets elegance and grace. Have you ever ‘opined’ in your ‘epistle’? Christ! Don’t even think of dreaming to do this.
2. Be relevant. Answer the question/s or opinion asked. Be to the point. You have never been interested in someone else’s long-winded responses, have you? Then why should you be surprised if they return the favour?
3. Avoid repetitions, use loose synonyms. I know you love your job, but the job here is not as good as the job you will be able to get if you apply for a job abroad, isn’t it? And do you know, yesterday I saw a saw that couldn’t saw….What do you think of it? :)

These, among a few others, are the most important features of any high-scoring writing. Try it and let me know.

Hidden significance of IELTS

The primary importance of IELTS - as it is perceived these days - has been mentioned by many on various forums. So I won’t refer to them in my post. However, a significance usually ignored by the general public is the fact that it is a wonderful way to develop your own English proficiency for purposes other than going abroad, either for higher studies or to settle down.

A majority of my students learn IELTS to take the test. Still, the number of those who pursue it to simply develop their overall English skills is on the rise. Most of us know English and can understand what is being said. But suffer from ‘hesitation’, especially when faced by people who converse in the language fluently. Spoken English is woefully inadequate to address this deficiency which, in turn, engenders a deep-seated lack of confidence. In the long term, this can become a debilitating handicap, preventing you from achieving your fullest potential.

Learning IELTS - practicing on all 4 aspects of a language - make for a person’s holistic development. If you listen well, it contributes to your speaking and vice versa. When we attempt Reading, new sentence structures and words/phrases become familiar and then flow from our pen. Finally, when you write well - always relevant and comprehensive, avoiding repetitions, and aiming for precision and clarity - your study projects, office reports and presentations are bound to stand out from the crowd. Confidence develops; personality flowers; you come into your own.

And then, who knows what wonderful things may happen? So yes, it is good to learn IELTS for 2 reasons - the obvious and the less apparent

"Why did I get a 6.5 only in the IELTS Writing module?"

First, understand it is not necessary that you should get a 7 in writing just because you did so well in the other three modules. Writing is a different kettle of fish and you have to follow the basic principles of good writing to secure your required band in this module.

1. Did you identify and complete all the required tasks? In both the Writing Tasks?

2. Did you elaborate the points sufficiently? Did every paragraph lovingly dwell on each point mentioned therein before proceeding to the next one?

3. Were you always relevant? Or did you write something which may safely be removed without making any difference to your answer?

4. Did you repeat anywhere? Repetition of words, phrases, points, sentence structures, even sounds maybe?

5. Were basic grammar rules followed? Did you writing exhibit a fairly wide range of sentence structures - mix of complex, compound and simple sentences?

6. Were the paragraphs balanced? - all of them roughly of the same length?

7. Was your response well-presented? Did you give your answer in the introduction with reasons; then elaborate those reasons in the body; and finally restate your answer in the conclusion as given in the introduction?

8. Was handwriting so bad as to be illegible? If not, it’s not a factor.

If you did all these things, then you should have got a 7. And you should give it for revaluation. Makes no difference - never did - if it is IDP or British Council. If not, time to go back to the drawing board.

How to prepare for IELTS during the Coronavirus pandemic

You prepare for IELTS during this time the way you would have gone about doing so if nothing had happened. The only thing you cannot do right now is approach an institute and get offline coaching for IELTS preparation. Well, sometimes it helps not to learn from there. Here's what I think you should do instead. If this helps you somewhat, do drop me a line and let me know here. Will make me feel good :)

1. Familiarize yourself - God lies in the details. Quickly go through the IDP/British Council websites for the necessary information regarding the test format: number of modules, the various parts into which they are divided, and the time provided to complete them. The more you engage with this exam at every level, the better prepared you will be.

2. Collect good IELTS materials - especially the Cambridge IELTS series of books (5–14 is ideal). For Academic IELTS, it should provide 40 test. For General Training, you will get 28 tests. These books, along with the Cambridge Official Guide, should be more than enough for the next 5 weeks of preparation.

3. Take a non-timed Reading/Listening test - use up only one of those 40 tests. Now sit with it and analyze your response, trying to find out why you gave that answer and why it is wrong. I tell this to my students all the time: analysis of your response/s will help you improve your score dramatically. It is imperative you know why you messed up.

4. Draw up a schedule - 13/14 questions of Reading & 20 questions of Listening. Everyday. This is to be followed from the day after you have taken the initial non-timed test mentioned in 3. The homework is to be renewed every week or so. Download sample Answer Sheets from the internet. Work on them. Familiarity will relax you and provide you that slight - but invaluable - advantage in the exam hall.

5. Speaking is to be done daily - 20 minutes/day should be more than enough. At the back of every test, you will have a page of Speaking. 40 tests = 40 pages of Speaking questions; Cambridge Official Guide provides 8 more pages of Speaking questions. Apart from this, go to IELTS Preparation: Free Tips, Lessons & English and look up the Speaking section and find the practice questions arranged by section. Avoid ‘learning’ how to speak. Speak like the way we do: concise yet comprehensive; relevant though not abrupt; entertaining while not rambling and going off-track.

6. Start writing after the first week - this is the most difficult module and preparation time will depend on your current level of proficiency with the language. Go through the sample writings at the back of the Cambridge papers to understand how you should approach them. Write a task 1 piece - take the topic from the writing part of the test you have done - and compare it with the model response provided. Analyze and improve. Also, try to get your writing attempts checked by people who are good in written English (it is slightly different from fluent speakers of the language). Browse the internet for IELTS Writing groups. Joining a couple may help you somewhat.

7. 12-day schedule - this is to be followed only for the last few days before the exam. These will be the timed LRW tests on a daily basis: 40 minutes for Listening (including 10-min. for transferring the answers to your answer sheet), 1 hour for Reading, and 1 hour for Writing (both the tasks).

I hope this is detailed enough. This much you can - and should - do on your own. Practice every day. Remember, a little a day goes a long, long way. Excellence is after all a Habit. Live it.

Sample IELTS General Writing Task 1: Formal Letter

Write a letter to the editor of a prominent newspaper requesting his help to locate a person you read about in a newspaper article. In your letter mention:

a. Why do you need the information?

b. What information do you need?

c. In what other ways can the editor help you?

Write minimum 150 words.

Dear Sir/Madam

I wish to draw your attention to an article - published on October 25, 2018 - in your esteemed newspaper,  and request you to provide all the information at your disposal, so that I may be able to find a particular person whom I am searching for. 

The article in question made mention of a boy who went missing from his house in Delhi's posh Jor Bagh area after leaving for his tuition at 3 pm on that fateful day. He never returned. Well, that boy is my friend's nephew. While trying to help my buddy, I have been running from pillar to post for some leads which might help us to locate the child's whereabouts. His distraught family fervently hopes that your help will be able to show the light at the end of this dark tunnel

The family members are unable to provide any information which may help me in any constructive way. So, if you could set up a meeting between me and the reporter of that article concerned - in your presence, of course - then it would be of immense help to me. A face-to-face meeting with the journalist can provide me with more information about where he gathered all his information from. And it is quite possible that I might finally get to talk with the person or persons who saw or interacted with him last.

All this of course would be of immense help to me. However, you may assist us in several other ways too. You could help me set up a one-on-one meeting with the Minister of State for Law and Order. I am sure that after your intervention, he will take a concerned view of the incident and urge the police to do a thorough job of finding the child. Considerable awareness will be spread among Delhites about the matter if you front-page the article, and also tweet it using your personal handle. And this may help to bring about a closure to this matter.

On behalf of the grieving family, I look forward to a favourable response from you.

Yours faithfully

Samit Sengupta

www.english-academy.in

Sample IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: Tabulated data

The given diagram comprises a couple of tables providing us information regarding sales of coffee and bananas, which are Fairtrade-labelled. The data pertains to two years namely, 1999 and 2004, shown in the middle and extreme right columns respectively. The study/survey was conducted in 5 developed European nations: Switzerland, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark.

It is quite clear from the first table that coffee sales in Switzerland doubled 2004 when compared with 1999. Sales in Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden also increased over the period, though only marginally. The UK was simply unbelievable, leapfrogging from a mere 1.5 to a staggering 20 million euros  over the period.

In the sale of bananas, however, Switzerland and the UK have swapped places with the former showing a more than 300% jump to as much as 47 million euros in 2004. Sure, the percentage increase is more in the case of the UK, but its total sales figure in 2004 at 5.5 million euros is lesser than Switzerland's by over 9 times.

Thus, it becomes quite evident that in both the coffee as well as banana markets, Switzerland and the UK have shown significant increase in their toplines over the given period. Denmark, Belgium and Sweden are, it seems, content to slug it out for the third spot.

IELTS Speaking

Decidedly different from PTE Speaking because - among other things - you are assessed by a human being and this fact alone changes pretty much everything. To be a “Good User” of English - which is what Band 7 in Speaking is - you need to display:

1. Good Oral Fluency

What is it? Oral fluency is our ability to speak fluently - never mind the odd grammatical errors - in the language under consideration. Oral fluency doesn't mean speaking fast. It means uttering parts of a sentence and pausing at the right places for the right length of time. It is the natural sense of rhythm, which we are all accustomed to. If you speak without pausing where you should, it may actually be defeating your purpose. Oral fluency is very important if you wish to achieve a high score. Grammatical accuracy at the cost of linguistic fluency will never fetch you high bands in speaking.

2. Pronunciation

Yes, inability to pronounce correctly will negatively affect your score. Just speak naturally and ensure that your pronunciation is free of Mother-tongue Influence (MTI). When the test is being taken in India, the benchmark for speaking will remain the average Indian speaking in English. As long as you are audible and intelligible, pronunciation should not bother you much. And by the way, they accept the British as well as the American pronunciations. Just don't indulge in slangs/colloquialisms.

4. Ability to use Synonyms

And to do so quite easily. Thus avoiding repetition of the same words, phrases and even sentence structures. IELTS - and this is true of the test as a whole - does not ask you to memorise 'difficult' words & phrases. You are not expected to digest a long list of tongue-twisting, gut-wrenching and teeth-rattling words. On the contrary, the need of the hour is a regular use of 'uncommon' words. Rather than 'great', awesome' or even 'wonderful, maybe 'pleasant' experience is a better way of putting it. Along with all this, you need to be relevant as well. Finally, your answers should be neither too short/abrupt-sounding nor rambling/meandering/too lengthy.

5. Relevance

A general ability to address the question/s asked. Don't beat about the bush. Come straight to the point and always elaborate after you have given your answer in the first lines. The length of your answers will differ in accordance with the complexity of the questions asked. Generally speaking, Part 1 questions are simpler than those you will be asked in Section 3. The more focused and crisply-explained your answers,  the higher you score in the Speaking section. Also, questions which are specific require a different answer than those that demand a general reaction from the candidate. 'Do you like shopping?' is qualitatively different from 'Do you think shopping as an experience during your parents' time is different from what it is now?' Your response should acknowledge this difference.

 Now, I'm sure all this sounds rather daunting. Happily such is not the case. Don't bite more than you can chew: break the entire Speaking module into a number of small sessions. And regular practice - just a little (15 minutes) every day for a month or so - should do you a world of good. Excellence, after all, is nothing more than a Habit.