Tag Archives: ielts
IELTS Problem-Solution Essay Helpsheet
I produced one of these for my students. Sharing it here in case yours would like it too. Click on the image to download it. In case you’re interested, the sample essay here was written by ChatGPT. (By the way, what text book do you use for IELTS? We use National Geographic’s Complete Guide to […]
Paraphrasing activities & resources
Practising paraphrasing is so important for our students: it requires them to know vocabulary and to manipulate structures successfully. Doing it in pairs or groups means they have to be explicit about the process, further advancing their confidence and control. If you can name it, you can tame it! It is of course a skill […]
Exam Wrapper for Listening exams
Have you tried exam wrappers? I recently learnt the term ‘exam wrapper’ through some EduTwitter posts. In case you haven’t come across it yet, it’s a short form (or ‘metacognition worksheet’) that students fill in before a test, designed to help them evaluate their learning and think about what they can do to prepare for […]
Formal or Informal?
Cut-ups and Kaboom! Students often struggle to distinguish between formal and informal language, and also to produce appropriately formal language when appropriate. Given that academic language is generally formal, and that my students need to be able to write texts of varying registers for their IGCSE E2L, it’s worth some time focusing on the features […]
Developing answers
Do you find your students sometimes struggle to develop their responses to prompts for Speaking exams? I used the “My Place In The World” idea to help students to broaden their thinking. (This could also be used to develop ideas for essays.) First I asked them to consider this question: Why is education important? and […]
Text type analysis
This activity could work for any course where students need to be able to identify and write a variety of text types. This year the IGCSE E2L got a bit more challenging: students had to be prepared to write two of the following text types: informal email/letter, formal letter, article, report, review, with the report […]
Am I a subject teacher or a support teacher?
The role of an EAL teacher in independent schools can be confusing for both the teacher themselves and their colleagues throughout the school. Although it seems obvious now, it took me quite a while to figure out that actually my fellow EAL teachers and I have 3 distinct roles. a support teacher, helping those learning […]
Speaking challenge: focus on accuracy
My IGCSE students have been preparing for their mock Speaking exams recently – and the real thing is just after the holidays. We’ve spend time focusing on developing answers, on using a range of structures and on using vocabulary to show “shades of meaning” but the students needed to work on their grammatical accuracy. This […]
A Hive of Activities 