Videos for practising IELTS speaking

The UK has been enjoying spectacular spring weather for a while now. This must make it even harder for holidaymakers who went abroad and got stuck because of the volcano flight chaos to come to terms with their spoilt holidays. If only they had stayed here! Of course the travel insurance companies are now going to try and avoid paying people for the money they have lost through this. I read in the paper that lots of insurance companies are saying that they won’t pay because there is no mention of ‘volcanoes’ in the policy wording. If insurance isn’t for an unforseen disaster, then what’s it for?! The other thing dominating the news in the UK is the General Election which, for the first time in many years, has become genuinely exciting because no one knows who is going to win. It looks like we might have what is called a ‘hung parliament’ when no single political party is in overall control of parliament. This is very unusual in the UK and we are not sure how it will function if this happens.

I am continuing to look for IELTS resources on the Internet and here’s one today from Australia Network – Passport to English. There are some new tips about how to handle the speaking component of the IELTS test with some nice examples which show you the kind of thing you can expect when you go into the test. Improve your knowledge of the IELTS speaking test here.

IELTS Speaking

Quite a few of my students are taking IELTS again over the next few months as part of their preparations for taking a Master’s course. (I would have thought that graduating from a British university would be proof of a student’s English ability, but it seems that some universities want students to take another IELTS course as well!) A student came to me for some speaking practice saying “I can practice the other skills on my own but I can’t do speaking on my own.” I’d like to point students preparing for IELTS to the materials on UsingEnglish.com written by Alex Case. The materials here are excellent. If I was preparing for IELTS I would print out Alex’s IELTS part 2 speaking materials. I would paste them onto card and cut them up, so I had lots of different cards with different sets of questions on each card. Keep the cards in your pocket. Whenever you have a spare moment, pull out a card and answer the questions out loud (under your breath if you are in public!). Practice speaking with Alex Case’s materials on UsingEnglish.com.

IELTS

The misery for British sports fans continues. We had our best chance for years and years to have a British winner at a big tennis championship today, but it was not to be. One day!
Lots of students I know are taking IELTS. As you are probably aware, there are any number of resources to help you practice for the IELTS exam on the Internet. One site I’ve noticed a few times recently is Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog. What I like about this site is that Dominic has a good sense of humour! He knows that IELTS can drive you mad! The important thing about preparing for an exam like IELTS is to make sure that you do lots of general language practice, and then a bit of exam practice near the exam. You need to set up a routine in which you practise your general language skills as well as learning about the exam and thinking about techniques and strategies that you can employ to maximise your marks. If I was getting ready for this exam I would definitely be visiting Dominic’s blog regularly!