A SENSE OF ENGLISH

General IELTS Preparation

We’ve been looking at the IELTS exam, but it’s important to remember that developing general English skills is an essential foundation for IELTS preparation.

I’d like to offer some further tips here for that preparation. It’s very important not to limit your study to just IELTS material.

Students wishing to take the exam should not, for example, read only IELTS reading texts. The articles that comprise the IELTS reading exam are difficult and can be about anything.

Until you have a certain level, reading them will only result in your feeling discouraged. You have to build yourself up to being ready for it.

There are some excellent ‘shortened’ English storybooks that provide a very useful way to build up confidence with reading.

Find one that is about 100 pages long and set yourself the target of reading it within a particular time period that is realistic for you. I would suggest about a week, which means doing about 14 pages a day.

Only look up the key words the first time you read it, so that you get used to picking up the gist of what the text is about without paying attention to unnecessary detail.

The following week read another book, and the week after that go back and re-read the first one, but this time looking up some of the other words that you didn’t the first time.

This way you are both revising old vocab and learning new words. And not only words, but also sentences structures as well.

You can apply this same technique of reading and then re-reading to a range of material. Magazines, newspapers and the Internet provide you with an endless supply of articles and range of subject matter.

Choosing articles about subjects in which you have an interest is perhaps a good starting point. If you like football, read the match reports of the big games.

I’ve mentioned reading here because it also helps with speaking and writing. However, don’t think that reading English for two hours a day is all you need to do.

There is a personal anecdote that I recount to all my students within the first few lessons that I have with them:

In 1995 I moved to Spain and stayed there for nearly three years. Although I had studied Spanish at school in England, when I got there I found it very difficult to understand the spoken Spanish around me.

Many readers here have had – and probably have – exactly the same problem in England. You will know the frustration that I experienced.

There are no short cuts to learning a language. I had to spend time, time and more time with Spanish people, speaking to them as best I could and listening to them.

Our brain has to go through a process of hearing the new language and relating sounds to meaning. This does not happen overnight. In fact it is a very long process.

Reading is no substitute for spending time with native speakers. I had the advantage in Spain of living and working with Spanish people from day one. Although that was extremely tough, it provided me with the right environment to learn quickly.

The point is that your ability to communicate in English will ultimately relate directly to how much time you can spend interacting with native English speakers.
So, the absolute best way to prepare for IELTS, and to learn English in general is……make English friends!