Tutors: Lenda & Lessili Student Number: 4768814

Tutors: Lenda & Lessili Student number: 4768814

An investigation into the techniques and strategies which can help EILTS candidates to gain 5.5 or higher

1.0 Introduction

Currently, IELTS test has become very popular and common all over the world. English language is a global language and used all over the world. A large number of people are interested to study and work abroad especially in English speaking countries such as the United

States of America, the Untied Kingdom and Australia and so on. Universities and companies usually require particular scores. Take the UK universities as the most illuminating example of this. In general, UK universities require 6 – 7 band score. It is clear that IELTS test can be the perfect medium to evaluate the lingual competent benchmark of applicant. In addition, IELTS test is internationally accepted. In spite of its difficulties, many applicants take this test so that they get more educational and job opportunities. IELTS test is abbreviation of International

English Language Testing System (British Council n. d.). In fact, this test can evaluate the language skills of person concerning listening, reading, writing and speaking skills for studying and working. This project will attempt to look at IELTS test and outline techniques and strategies to gain 5.5 band score or higher. It would seem that watching English programs and living in

English medium environment can enhance language proficiency.

1.1 Aims

The aims of this project to find out strategies and techniques which can be used in IELTS test to increase scores band.

1.2 Objectives

1 Tutors: Lenda & Lessili Student number: 4768814

To assist non – English speaking background (NESB) international IELTS candidates to

achieve their required levels for who apply to for jobs and universities in English speaking

countries.

2.0 Overview

First of all, what does IELTS test means? It stands for International English Language Testing

System (British Council n. d.). This test can evaluate language skills of person in term of listening, reading, writing and speaking ones. Generally, there are two types of test: academic and general training test. The test version relies on what do you want to do. For example, people who intend to study in universities at undergraduate and postgraduate study or work in proficient organisations, they need to academic test, whereas the people who emigrate to English speaking countries, study lower than degree level and work in English speaking countries, they need to take IELTS general training (British Council n. d.). It subdivides into four subtests: listening, reading, writing and speaking tests. IELTS candidates take consequently all subtests on the same day. Furthermore, the four subtests are taken in order. No one fails in this exam, it just demonstrate the candidate level for a particular purpose.

3.0 Findings from secondary research:

3.1 Developing listening skills

It is obvious that there are some techniques if they are followed, the result will be higher in

IELTS test. According to McDONOUGH and Shaw (2003), listener is the processor of language who process sound and meaning. They also added that the proficient listener should divide sound

2 Tutors: Lenda & Lessili Student number: 4768814 current and recognise the words limits. It appears that this is complex process in English language because speech one sound is related to next sound. For instance, ‘I like it’ pronounce as

/ ai ˈlaikit/ , ‘ my name is Ann’ pronounces as / maineimzᴂ/. So, listeners should separate sound flow to understand meaning. Furthermore, One have to learn the contracted forms and recognise them during speech such as ‘ I ‘d have gone to London if I’d known about it. It differs from full printed form. Listeners need to have a lot of vocabulary to understand speech and to specify the borders of sentences and clauses. In addition, recognising rhythm and the stress patterns is important, where the main information – carrying words (lexical, adjectives, nouns and adverbs) usually are stressed while auxiliaries, articles, conjunctions and pronouns are unstressed. It is crucial that listeners anticipate the next speech that speaker will say through language data identify the speech limits. For instance, speaker can give a signpost to indicate to a new point as explicit markers such ‘Next’, ‘My next point’ and alter a topic or in direction can be pointed out by pauses or intonation. As well as, the effective listener can recognise the redundant information, that is, speaker usually repeats some points by using the other different structures and vocabulary. It is evident that efficient listeners can exploit these opportunities to get additional processing time to prepare to next information. One should anticipate what speaker will say in the next point by utilising language information. For example, a teacher who says ‘So much for the benefits’ is clearly will speak about drawbacks. Or Speaker can change intonation to indicate to functional shift in a talk. It is crucial that listener to concentrate on content, not delivery. For instance, listeners count the number of times speaker his/ her throat, consequently, they do not focus on content (University of Minnesota Duluth 2007). Avoiding distractions is important as well. IELTS candidates should focus and do on let his/ her mind wander or be distracted by person near him/ her doing something. If classroom is so hot or so cold, it is

3 Tutors: Lenda & Lessili Student number: 4768814 important to treat that situation if it is possible. An answer could be to wear more properly to the temperature of test room. It is also useful to ask speakers questions in daily live and ask them repeatedly until you get every single word (BBC 2010).

3.2 Enhancing reading skills

It is obvious that every skill in IELTS test has specific techniques that can increase the level of candidates. In accordance with McDONOUGH and Shaw (2003), to promote the level of readers, they have to use the right reading styles which are scanning and skimming, so that they match reading skill to reading goals. In terms of scanning, it can be defined as the reading technique to find specific information in a text. A skimming is another reading technique that is used to get general data in a passage. Thus, skimming and scanning are so beneficial strategies for readers. In fact, the efficient readers probably utilise these techniques in their reading. Skilled readers can question all materials by predicting ‘clues’ in titles, subtitles and within texts.

Competent readers may dialogue with a writer and predict what will say and questions will be answered. Effective readers also are familiar with a large number of vocabulary and in the beginning read questions before a passage because pre-reading questions may concentrate readers’ attention on data that will be answered. Furthermore, underlining the key words and important phrases is essential to develop skills of readers (Leicester University ‘n. d.’). In general, host families can improve candidate level not just reading but also listening, writing and speaking.

3.3 Promoting Writing skills

It would seem that any piece of writing should deal with many areas which are: Grammar,

Syntax, organisation, mechanics, word options, content, the operation of writing and so on

(McDONOUGH & Shaw 2003). It is clear that even skilled writer sometimes can confuse to choose the suitable word for a sentence in a text. This is owing to that English language has many words that have the same pronunciations but different meaning and spelling. The most illuminating examples of this are to, too, two, where each one of them has the same sound but the different meanings and spelling (Bristol University 2012). According to Raimes (1983), syntax deals with the structure of sentence, stylistic options and sentences boundaries. Content is associated concerning clarity, relevance, logics. First step usually must start processing writing, where writer get ideas, get started, write an essay and then make revision. Moreover, a perfect writing probably should vary vocabulary and use idioms. Another aspect is that any piece of writing should be clear, relevant and logical. As regards to mechanics, it deals with dictation, handwriting and punctuation. So, competent writer needs to learn how to punctuate, spell words correctly and write well in order to avoid losing marks. In fact, the efficient writer can use the correct articles and pronouns, along with using the right form of verbs. In addition, reading is another technique leads to improve writing skills. When writers read many books, they possibly will effectively engage with a language. Consequently, this usually enable writer to get a large number of vocabulary, many patterns of sentences, organisation flow, idioms and so on. For instance, more writers read, they become more familiar with lingual information because they interact with a text which someone else has written. It is possible that speaking and listening leads to the development of writing skills.

3.4 Improving speaking skills

Obviously, communications skills are slightly different from other subtests skills. Competent communicators should have plenty of language information in the conversation to speak effectively and fluently. As McDONOUGH and Shaw (2003) claim that speakers should learn how to pronounce words correctly to become efficient ones. They also added that some particular languages communicators need focus highly on some individual sounds which they find the particular sounds are difficult to be articulated. For example, Arabic people do not have the sound /p/ in their language, so they often cannot pronounce it and they replaced with /b/ and

Japanese speakers have to concentrate on L. In addition, speakers need to learn how to put stress on words due to English language usually stress important words such as nouns, adjective, adverb and lexical. Furthermore, it is important to put the stress and rhythm of sentence as the message of speech stretch relies on both marked and regular stress of patterns. They claim that intonation is crucial in conversation because it express intention and mood. It is clear that when intonation is changed, they give different meanings. For instance, when a person says ‘that is interesting’, it can be understood bored, surprised, interested, ironic or interested. Practise is very necessary to enhance speaking skills as well (Warwick University 2012). Additionally, speaking with native speakers in English speaking countries is so useful. So, speakers must create opportunities as much as they can to speak so that to increase their levels. Another aspect is that test takers need to learn some phrases, idioms and vocabulary to articulate appropriately. Finally, candidates should to use the grammar of talk in order to improve their spoken language skills.

For example, use heads, ellipses, discourse markers, vague language, express, deixis and so on

(Department of education 2007).

4.0 Conclusion and recommendation

In conclusion, this project has provided the illustration of IELTS test which encompasses four subtests: listening, reading, writing and speaking, outlined techniques and strategies which may help IELTS candidates to reach 5.5 band or higher. It is clear that improving listening skills requires processing meaning and sound, recognising contractions, learning a lot of vocabulary, knowing stressed forms, avoiding distractions and so. In terms of enhancing reading skills, it would appear that it is associated with opting the suitable reading style skimming or scanning, pre-reading questions, underling the keywords and knowing lots of vocabulary. Thirdly, writing skills involve the knowledge of the structure of essay, grammar, syntax, vocabulary, mechanics, word options, content, and the operation of writing and so on. Finally, the improvement of speaking skills relies on pronunciation, language data, the stress of words and intonation. It is worth that IELTS candidates to follow the right techniques and strategies in order to gain higher band scores to meet their requirements.

Word count: 1891

References

 BBC (2010) Developing listening skills [online] available from

s/100216_aae_listening_skills.pdf> [4 December 2012]

 Bristol University (2012) Improve your writing [online] available from

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 British Council (n. d.) What is IELTS? [online] Available from

[2 December 2012]

 Department of education (2007) Improving speaking and listening skills [online]

available from

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 Elder, C. , O’Loughin, K. (2001) The investigating the Relationship between

Intensive English Study and Band Score Gain in IELTS [online] available from

[1 December 2012]

 Leicester University (n. d.) Improving your reading skills [online] available from

[5 December 2012]

 McDOUNOUGH, J. , SHAW, C. (2003) Materials and Methods in ELT. 2nd edn

Blackwell: Oxford

 Raimes, A. (1983) Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford: Oxford University

 University of Minnesota Duluth (2007) Listening Skills [online] available from

December 2012]

 University of Warwick (2012) Spoken communication skills [online] available

g/skills/> [2 December 2012]