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.

Volcano chaos

If you aren’t in Europe you might not be aware of the chaos going on over here. There have been no flights into or out of the UK for five days because of the volcano erupting in Iceland! Some of my students are stuck in Spain. Another one of my students was lucky enough to get a lift in a car from Spain to England from the airport when there was no plane! The British navy is bringing Brits home from the continent on battle ships! I am glad that I have no plans to go anywhere until July! The other exciting news in the UK is that we are in the middle of a General Election campaign. Students of British culture and politics should note that this is suddenly an unusually exciting election because the third party in the country (The Liberal Democrats – who??) have suddenly become very popular because their leader did very well in a TV debate so Nick Clegg (who I’m sure you’ll never heard of!) is the man of the moment:

Unusually for a Briton he is multilingual, speaking lots of European languages. He ought to keep this quiet if he wants to get lots of votes because many British people will be highly suspicious of someone who is too European friendly!!

Anyway, back to some language practice! I’m sure you’ll be itching to practise your listening skills with another University of Plymouth video snapshot. Here’s Sophie talking about her graduation:

Hi, my name is Sophie, I have finished my degree in Geography and I graduate today. My ceremony starts at 10am so I’m off now to collect my robes and to meet my family on Plymouth Hoe.
I’ve really enjoyed my time at university and I’ve made the most of everything it has to offer. I’ve been the Social Secretary for the Geography Society, a Geography Course representative and a Student Ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society.
Just going to collect my robes now, just got my tickets so hopefully they’ll have them here.
Robing: Hello
Sophie: Hi, Sophie Neville. Thank you.
Graduation is an important occasion. It’s a culmination of all your hard work during your time at university. It’s a proud day for you, your family and your friends and a chance to celebrate all that you’ve achieved throughout your university career.
Dad: Hello Sophie.
Sophie: Hello.
Dad: I think it’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant, very proud of her. It’s just the culmination of all the years’ effort.
Grandfather: Wonderful
Grandmother: Wonderful, she’s worked hard so it’s nice to see her get her degree.
Ceremony speaker: Ladies & Gentlemen please be seated. It’s a privilege and a great pleasure to welcome you to this ceremony.
Ceremony speaker: David Meeks. (Applause) Sophie Neville. (Applause)
Ceremony speaker: Congratulations Sophie.
Sophie: Thank you.
Family: Cheers Sophie, well done Sophie. Brilliant.
Photographer: Say ‘Champagne’.
Sophie: Champagne.
Friend: We have to get a big bunch of us together and go and chuck our hats in the air.
(Hats thrown, shrieking)
Sophie: I was really nervous before the ceremony but it felt great when my name was called out and I went up to collect my degree.
Student: Really sort of got myself ready for the adult world of work, been really good, great memories.
Student: At first it’s quite, kind of a, bit of a culture shock when I got here. But then I can safely say hand on heart that I grew to love it here. So nice and chilled out and just really laid back.
Sophie: I’m a graduate now. It’ll be really sad to leave university life behind as it’s given me so much but at the same time it’s really exciting to see what the future holds for me.

Practise your English with English for University. Com

I am experimenting with online learning technology and I am looking for students to sign up for free online English lessons. If you are an English language learner and you have a good internet connection then contact me on englishforuniversity.com @ g mail.com (taking out the spaces!) and I will send you some details so you can log in to the English for University. Com learning environment. There will be forums, online discussions and lots of other things. I am also trying out an online classroom. I have scheduled a session on Monday evening which students are welcome to attend. The classroom is on a site called WizIQ. You have to register (it’s free, of course) but then you can be a student. In the first class on Monday evening (or morning, afternoon, or whenever wherever you are!) anyone who comes along can practise their spoken English and we’ll talk about anything interesting we can think of to talk about! You can follow the link to the scheduled class and sign up for a free account with WizIQ here. Hope to meet some of you there on Monday 8.00 PM GMT 12th April!

IELTS writing

I am always looking for different ways to make the same points to students. Regular readers will know that I quite like pointing out youtube clips and I’ve got another one today about how you can achieve COHESION and COHERENCE in a paragraph and an essay when you are writing for IELTS. Cohesion and coherence are important qualities in an essay and are difficult to define. I have talked about these qualities before (for example here) and I daresay I will again! But rather than me banging on about them let me turn you over to sangteamthan’s youtube channel:

Lastly, I am looking to start an online IELTS class for interested students. Read more about this here.